Advice for Charities Selling Stamps to Raise Money (Part 2)


Yesterday we discussed some tips for charities raising funds through stamps. Here are some additional ways for charities to maximize their fund-raising efforts.

To sort or not to sort - that is the question.

Some charities sort the stamps they sell, while others do not. We'd guess that it depends on whether the charity has volunteers who are willing and able to sort stamps into different categories. Sorting stamps will always result in more money being paid for the stamps, because the stamp dealer who buys sorted stamps will be willing to pay more for a sorted bunch than for a general, unsorted box of stamps.

But whether or not they're sorted, the accumulated stamps should always be prepared for shipping: someone at the charity should remove any excess paper and also take the stamps out of any smaller envelopes, boxes and other containers they may be in before the stamps are shipped to the buyer.

Charities can sort stamps in several different ways to provide maximum return: an example of "basic sorting" is one box or bag for US stamps of all types and ages and another box or bag for foreign stamps of all types and ages. But sorting can be taken to an even higher level if the charity wants a high return for their stamps. Sorting stamps is best left to volunteers who have at least some basic knowledge about types of stamps, but for those who want to try it, here are a few tips for sorting stamps into their types:

1. Definitive or "regular" stamps (all denominations, including high values). A definitive stamp is a stamp that's on long-term general sale, not issued in honor of a specific event or person and only available for a few months. Most definitive stamps are the smaller size stamps that are used from the date they're issued until the next postal rate increase, but a few definitives are a larger size.

2. Commemorative stamps. A commemorative stamp is almost always a larger-size stamp that pictures an event, a person or group of people, specific scenery, etc. Generally they're the "pretty" stamps that are only sold at the post office for a few months each.

3. "Other" stamps, including Christmas, Love and airmail stamps. Christmas stamps may be religious or secular scenes as the US and many other countries produce both. This category basically includes all stamps other than definitive and commemorative stamps.

4. All off-paper stamps which have already been soaked from their backing paper should be separated from on-paper stamps. The off-paper stamps are much more fragile and can easily be damaged if they're mixed in with on-paper stamps.


There's no need to sort stamps by issue or their face value, and in fact that will reduce the price paid for the stamps as the stamp dealer-buyer will just need to re-mix them.

A couple of other no-no's: don't pick out what look to be the better or more uncommon stamps - leave them in the mixture along with all the others; and don't include stamps that are paper-clipped together (this can ruin them). We buy and sell hundreds of pounds of bulk stamps every year and we know what a typical unpicked charity mixture should look like. A mixture where the better stamps have been picked out and what's left has tons of duplication will always fetch a lower price than an unpicked charity mix. The better the quality of the mixture (more interesting and less duplication), the higher the price a stamp dealer will pay.

The Stamp People is always looking for new charity mix sources. If you're selling bulk stamps to raise money for a good cause, send us an email!