Mystic Stamp Company — Local services in Town of Camden

I inherited a large collection of stamps from my Grandmother. She had been collecting since she was a child and my great grandfather also collected since he worked for the post office. I Sent the stamps to Mystic to have them appraised to see them to sell them. I had done some research, but the offer I received was much smaller than the actual face value of all of the stamps I sent in. I called and asked for more info on why this was so small, and was told that they would look again. After 2 more weeks I called back to check in. I was given another offer of $100 more. Still no real reason why, or any break out the actual value of the stamps. At this point I live in an area where we do not have a lot of local stamp collectors. So no local help really. I wanted to work with Mystic because my grandmother had shopped with them for so many years, in fact many of her stamps were not even in the books, but still in the mystic packaging. But to get the stamp's back will cost me $40 per box in shipping. I feel a ripped off. The stamps I sent are worth MUCH more that the estimate I got. As I read more and more reviews it looks like this is sort of common practice with Mystic Stamps. Very sad. The people were very friendly, but the company is taking...

This review is about purchasing stamps from their website, not their stamps on approval service. This is a great company to buy new U.S. stamp issues which are priced at double face for about a year. After that the prices go up substantially. This is one of the few companies which stock all U.S. stamps so if you collect modern U.S. stamps it is a great way to get all of the recent stamps. The alternative is to buy them for face at the Post Office or USPS website but they don't sell individual stamps. I don't want to spend $10 at the post office for a pane of 20 to get 1 stamp that I need for my collection. Stamps are delivered promptly and each stamp is labeled which is important because many stamps have the same appearance but may have different perf sizes or printing company. No guesswork needed because every stamp is labeled. Any mistakes in the order are promptly corrected.

Keep in mind that if you purchase stamps that are over a year old from them the prices are much higher than at other companies or the internet. But for new issues they can't be beat for selection...

Mystic Stamp Company is an enigma. While they are almost certainly the largest stamp dealer (for collectors) in the United States, their prices are at the very top of the range for whatever they sell. Likewise, the quality cannot be counted on- I have seen stamps for sale at very high prices that are obviously damaged, however I assume they have customers for these kinds of stamps. I have bought from them- very minimally; items they had in stock that I was having difficulty finding elsewhere. But overall, I caution about buying from them unless you don't care about the prices or quality, or what your collection will be worth if/when the time comes to sell.

That's the downside of Mystic. The positive side of Mystic is they are big promoters of the stamp-collecting hobby and routinely recommend more new members to the American Philatelic Society annually than any other source. They also publish a full-color, free catalog of US Stamps that is a great resource for newer (and seasoned) collectors...