Buy Stamps: 3 Tips for Buying Stamps Online with Ease (update in 2022)
Buy Stamps: 3 Tips for Buying Stamps Online with Ease (update in 2022)
If you want to send a letter to your friend whom you haven’t seen for a long time (COVID), ask yourself where you can buy stamps. If there’s a post office nearby, you can buy stamps there. If unfortunately there’s no post office, you don’t have to be frustrated. Thanks to technology, you no longer have to go to the post office to purchase stamps, you can simply buy them online from the comfort of your home.
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
You start typing the words “buy stamps online” into the search box.
Within a second, messages pop up en masse：
“Buy Stamps – Amazon.com Official Site”
“USPS Forever Stamp Store Online”
“Order your stamps online”
“Stamps-USPS.com”
…
What are the advantages of these channels for purchasing stamps?
How to choose the channel? And what is the difference between the various channels?
1.USPS.com You can always order stamps online from USPS.com through their online store, and they will be delivered to you by mail. It takes 3 to 5 business days for them to arrive. Since it is an official channel, you do not have to worry about buying fake stamps. Stamps ordered online are only available in sheets, and a sheet of 20 stamps costs about $12. But compared to other channels, such as Amazon, the store does not have many stamp options.
2. Retailer
There are many online stores such as Forever Stamp (foreverstampstore.com), Delivery Stamp (deliverystamp.com), and others. If you want to buy a unique stamp on a certain theme, you can visit the website and look around. Usually, you can find a variety of themes on the website, such as animals, vacations, landscapes, sports, and more. The price for 5 books of 20 is about $40.
Also, with the keyword “stamps”, you can find thousands of stamps on Amazon, you can pick up what you want. Stamps are sold at a much higher price than in USPS stores because they are usually collectables. A booklet of 20 stamps can cost anywhere from $14 to $200. To choose the best stamps, you can try each channel and see what you want.
How can you avoid buying counterfeit stamps online?
Now that we know what channels you can use, let us move on to the next step – how can you avoid buying fake stamps online?
The number of fake stamps sold online is increasing. It is hard to check whether they are genuine or not. As reported, Bigalke, who used to deliver mail in his native Wisconsin, says several U.S. flag stamps have been counterfeited over the years, as well as numerous commemorative stamps, including Love Skywriting (2017), Hot Wheels (2018), Cactus Flowers (2019) and Winter Scenes (2020).
In a Dec. 17 nationwide advisory, USPIS said the problem of counterfeits sold online has escalated. “To ensure your trusted communications arrive at their destination without delay, the Postal Inspection Service wants you to be aware of and avoid counterfeit mail,” it said.
There are videos on YouTube that explain the difference between a counterfeit stamp and a real one. Even though they may look similar at first glance, the background, hidden source code, and pattern details are completely different.
Therefore, it is of great importance for us to choose a trustworthy platform to buy stamps online.
Of course, the most reliable platform is USPS.com. But USPS really sells a limited amount of stamps online, what about other platforms? Are they reliable?
USPIS recommends buying stamps from approved postal vendors. Approved vendors may include reputable wholesalers or warehouses that offer discounts on stamps under resale agreements with the Postal Service. You can check to see if the store you are visiting is a USPS-authorized retailer and offers genuine stamps online.
5 Tips for Identifying Authentic and False Stamps
What to do if you have already bought stamps online and how to check if they are genuine or not? Here are some tips for you:
● Check the watermark.
The watermark is difficult to reproduce and should be differentiated depending on the country. So if you have a real stamp in your hand, you can compare the watermark on the stamp.
● Check the coils
Roll stamps are issued in a single line rolled into a roll. Compare the size of the perforation holes in the roll. There are “printing grooves” on genuine roll stamps. These are created by government printing presses. Margins that show the use of scissors, razors, or paper cutters also indicate that you have counterfeit roll stamps.
● Check the colors.
Counterfeit stamps often have unusual coloration, unusual luster, and inconsistentcolors
● Take a look at the quality. Most counterfeiters do not put enough effort into the details of high-quality stamps. By looking at the quality of a stamp, you can tell counterfeits from real ones. If the quality is too low, it is difficult to get a genuine stamp. Fake stamps may have uneven edges, rough or broken surfaces, etc. To compare the stamps bought online with real ones, you can take a photo of both stamps and enlarge it to full-screen size. Then you can see all the small details that help to distinguish a real stamp from a fake one.
● Check the authenticity of the website.
You can check the website where you bought the stamps. On an illegitimate website, some words may be missing or the name may be misspelt. For example, instead of “stamps online”, it says “romper”. Also, you can check the SSL certificate by clicking on a small padlock in front of the website address. If the message says that “the connection to this website is secure”, it means that there is a company that guarantees that the communication between you and the company responsible for the website cannot be intercepted or modified.
Buying stamps online has made it so easy that we do not have to travel long distances to the post office or bank to buy stamps. Just as a coin has two sides, many scammers use this convenience as a method to make money. We cannot change the scammers, but we need to be as informed as possible when buying stamps online and choose a trustworthy source.
Reference:
[1] The postal store -USPS.com
[3] Where to get stamps -USPS.com
[4] Counterfeit Stamps -USPIS.gov
[5]Beware Surge in Counterfeit Postage Stamps
[6]How To SPOT FAKE Postage STAMPS
[7]How To Identify Fake Stamps | 13 Tips To Spot Counterfeit Stamps
[8]Check out the 7 steps to tell if a website is secure
