If you send out a lot of physical mail, you probably won’t mind stumbling upon a way to shave 10 percent off your postal expenses. One labor-intensive yet effective method to trim your stamp expenses is to hook up with a stamp and coin collector shop and buy old postage at a discount.

The author of the Logos blog did just that. He says stamp shops buy old postage from collectors for pennies on the dollar and are usually willing to part with the postage for at least 10 percent below their value. It works because stamps don’t decline in value or expire.

From the post:

I went over to my local stamp and coin place and made a deal with them. They agreed to hand-apply the correct postage to my statement envelopes when they had down time if I agreed to buy my postage from them. Sounded like a no-brainer to me. They sold the postage to me for 10% off face value and applied it for free. Now I am saving 10% on all my postage and getting the labor for free in an expense category that I originally thought there wasn’t a penny to be saved in.

As a bonus, it seems like my invoices and statements are being opened more often. When my customers see the rare and often antique hand-applied postage stamps, they know a real person had to touch this envelope and not just a postage-meter or bulk mailer.

What tricks do you use to save money on stamps?

The Secret to Beating the Postage Increase [Logos]

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