Flourish Forum
Sharing and Caring Exchanges => Exchanges - General Info & Questions (Start here.) => Topic started by: JaniceB on March 23, 2016, 10:09:15 AM
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I'm new to this forum so would like to tell everyone hello from South Arkansas! I'm also new to the exchanges and am looking forward to participating! Any tips on where you purchase your stamps. Of course I know your local post office but what about your older stamps that are a specific numerical value and older forever stamps? I've found places on Etsy and of course eBay but find the price can be well over the face value. I appreciate your thoughts!
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My favorite place to buy vintage stamps is from http://murphs-stamps.com/ - he is super cool. What I usually do is buy packets of $25 worth of stamps at a time and that lasts awhile. You only pay face value plus .49 cents for shipping (you pay by check after you've received the stamps in the mail). You can even tell him themes you want, like space, nature, etc, and stamp value ranges. I always get a great variety and am never disappointed :).
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Thanks Elaina! I will check that out!
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I second Elaina's suggestion! ;D
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Hello, Janice! A warm welcome to you here in the forum! :)
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Thanks Shiela! I enjoy the information I can find on here!
And thanks Elizabeth for seconding the tip!
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I second Murph's Stamps, but another resource you may find helpful if you are trying to track down a specific stamp or Scott # is ChampionStamp.com. To search their catalogue you do need to know the stamp's Scott #, which you can usually find by searching for the stamp on ebay as a lot of the listings have the scott number included.
Oh, and your local coin & stamps shop is an awesome resource too!! They usually have bins of random stamps that they sell at face value. It's a fun outing if you just want to find some random beauties. I was brave and brought by two boys (4yrs & 2yrs) with me to one shop :o ....but they were so good & happily watched some Thomas the Tank Engine on my phone so I could browse to my heart's content. The shop owner was really nice too and I think he appreciated how much excitement his stamps brought me. Letter lover for life!!
Chantelle
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My favorite place to buy vintage stamps is from http://murphs-stamps.com/ - he is super cool. What I usually do is buy packets of $25 worth of stamps at a time and that lasts awhile. You only pay face value plus .49 cents for shipping (you pay by check after you've received the stamps in the mail). You can even tell him themes you want, like space, nature, etc, and stamp value ranges. I always get a great variety and am never disappointed :).
Awesome! I'm looking for botanical / floral stamps! Thanks for the pro tip!
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Hi lovely people!
It has been awhile since I've posted...eek!
I was trying to find our pal Murph...but I noticed that his website is down. Is anyone still buying stamps from him?
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My favorite place to buy vintage stamps is from http://murphs-stamps.com/ - he is super cool. What I usually do is buy packets of $25 worth of stamps at a time and that lasts awhile. You only pay face value plus .49 cents for shipping (you pay by check after you've received the stamps in the mail). You can even tell him themes you want, like space, nature, etc, and stamp value ranges. I always get a great variety and am never disappointed :).
The link for murphsstamps.com doesn't work for me. I Googled it and find no other link. Perhaps they have closed? Suggestions most welcome. Thanks.
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@Elizabeth O. and @CraigRuhl
In case no one has an easy answer handy, the magic of The Internet has archived the following page, circa January 2, 2019. So, not too long ago. No phone number, but there's an email or snail mail option in case no other explanations are forthcoming. Please let us know if you get an answer!
https://web.archive.org/web/20190102200232/http://murphs-stamps.com/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20190102200232/http://murphs-stamps.com/)
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Thanks Kristin. I have sent a snail mail request and I will post what response I get.
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Murph retired and has been selling everything off. He most likely took his site down.
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There’s a guy on IG called edelweiss_post who sells US stamps. I think he’s got a link to his Etsy shop there too it’s called Edelweisspost.
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Hi friends!
I was able to get in touch with Murph using his same email address...I should have just emailed him in the first place!
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions! He's still selling stamps! :D
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Thanks for the update, @Elizabeth O. ! Nice to know!
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Good tip!
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Via eBay; up to 50% off - Forever Stamps.
@Lyric
@Erica McPhee
Do not buy forever stamps on eBay (or anywhere else) that are listed at anything close to 50% off--they are counterfeit. The Chinese and others have been flooding eBay with counterfeit stamps with increasing frequency of late. They look just like genuine US stamps but are on slightly different paper and, most tellingly, are not tagged. For 40+ years, the USPS has tagged it's stamps, which is an application of ink that can be read with low frequency UV light but is invisible in visible light, which is how the sorting machines know where the stamp is on the envelope (and not be confused by various stickers, etc.), to orient the envelope cancellation.
I know all this, as I recently bought a few sheets of the African daisy international postage stamp for a recent exchange (I had some from the PO but needed more), and tested them with my low frequency UV light, and revealed they had no tagging (different paper, also). I reported this to eBay, and they said they'd look into it, but probably didn't, as they make money on the thousands of counterfeit items--shoes, artwork, so much more--whether or not it's counterfeit. I also contacted the fraud division of the USPS and they were, naturally, quite interested, as this is a big problem for them. They sent me a package of forms and requested all the info I had on it, including the photos I took of the bogus stamps.
Now some stamps on eBay are legitimately sold at a discount--namely older, lower denominations which most people don't use and that are not rare. Discounts can range for 10-25% sometimes. Under US Stamps, search "postage" and you'll see what I mean.
Here is a photo (click to enlarge) of a real stamp (top) and one of the counterfeit ones (bottom). See the tagging around the center of the top one? And the difference in the paper? Even the shape is different--the real stamp has a wavy edge, the fake one is perfectly round.
Take care.
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Whoa. Thank you so much @AnasaziWrites ! I had no idea! This is a very informative and important post.
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Whoa. Thank you so much @AnasaziWrites ! I had no idea! This is a very informative and important post.
Update:
Good news. In reviewing my purchases on eBay, looking for the purchase of these stamps, I see the listing has been removed from my eBay account, and checking the sellers listings, all the stamp listings (she had about 15) have been removed by eBay in the past week or three. I guess the complaint to the USPS fraud division bore fruit. Good riddance.