Where Do Stamp Supply Companies Such As Mystic Get Their Stamps From.

I have always gotten my stamps mainly as bulk used, from Robert Murray in Scotland or ebay and such. Also more expensively from Mystic. What are these stamps that Mystic sells? Are they a good example of precancelled stamps? Where do they get these perfect, clean and obviously unused but cancelled stamps Thanks for your help.. Geoff Heap

"Where do they get these perfect, clean and obviously unused but cancelled stamps "

Sounds like cancelled to order (CTO) stamps. Some postal administrations sell them that way.

To explain a CTO, the postal administration issues ton of colorful and topical stamps. Then they cancel each one neatly, using one postmark for four stamps (hence the small postmark in the corner) They then sell the sheets of cancelled stamps to dealers to sell to to the unsuspecting public as though they were genuine stamps intended for postal use. But since they are not eligible for postal use (being canceled), they can sell them to the dealers for a fraction of what they would otherwise cost, thus increasing sales, and still making nice money for selling paper. They can't sell them without cancelling them first, as the face value is too much to make them popular or widely purchased.

That's what used to happen. Increasingly, automation replaced humans and the stamps were ready-printed with the cancellation.

Mystic buys stamps wholesale in the aftermarket just like you and then sells them at retail. They just do it in larger quantities than you can do.

Precanceled stamps come in generally two flavors. CTO which is cancelled to order stamps sold by the issuing government agency which when purchased have no postal validity. Second is Precancel where the name of the city for use is printed on the stamp and sold. Those still have postal validity with some restrictions, they need to be used in the named town post office and the person or business using them needs to have a precanceled stamp use permit. When holding the Precancel Permit, you can use the precanceled stamp just like regular non-precanceled stamps.

As stated in a previous post, I have collected "in a vacuum" so to speak for the past 15 years or so and have accumulated Plenty of blind areas and so I have a few stupid questions. Many thanks....Geoff

There are no stupid questions. After many decades of collecting I continue to learn.

Robert Murray obviously got a lot of stamps from buying other collections. I was able to visit his shop and go to his live auctions a number of times. while he often could produce a stamp for you to look at. he also had stacks and stacks of boxes with album pages in for you to browse through. If they weren't busy I could ask f they had anything unusual for my dictionary of stamps collection, and staff would look and come up with all sorts of "gems". most dealers thought this vague question stupid or couldn't understand what I was wanting.
Helpfuld service and a willingness to answer my simple questions meant I really enjoyed going to the shop or his sales.

The above comment led me to look at this dealer's website. There I found this about Robert Murray in Scotland -- another depressing fact about a hobby that lately seems to encounter too many depressing facts. From their webite:

"The big news is that Robert Murray is working towards semi-retirement. The selling-off of stock is underway, as a mix between retail sales, wholesale sales, and auction sales. We have stopped doing our 'quick informative valuations', and we are not buying any material for stock. Neither are we currently accepting material for sale by auction . . . There will be another duo of auctions in due course, clearing more of our stock . . . The retail shop is not open at any regular hours, though customers can visit by appointment, or can get in touch to arrange to pick up items they would like to purchase."

I've never used this dealer, and now apparently I never will. Where will it end?

Noocassel. I'm guessing that you are from Newcastle. I'm from Brum living in the states. I don't know what a Dictionary of stamps is either. Would you illuminate?
Yes Robert Murray appears to be shutting down so I recently bought a very large batch of "World", "World (Superior grade)", "U.S.A.", "UK", "Scandinavia", "Channel Islands", "France", Germany", "Australia", and Hong Kong used stamps from him. I have bought from him before and I know the quality of his stamps so I was confident to put out Nearly $200 for this large order and I am pleased with what I received. International shipping and Insurance costs cranked up the price a lot but I'll never need to buy another used stamp. They will outlast me and become my wife's problem. Many thanks to you guys for answers to my questions. This is a great Website and bunch of people. Geoff Heap