Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-02-20
CANCELLED STAMPS.

4
Can Find Good Market for Them.
Has any one 1000, 900 stamps or 500, 900
or 100000? The man who has long been
wanted by people who have saved up
stamps and who have jealously guarded
them for years has been found. He ac-
tually buys cancelled stamps by the mill
ion or hundred thousand. This cheerful
news is given for the benefit of those
who have cried out for information from
time to time. But the man who buys
them does not expect to see them re-
deemed, nor is he trying to relieve the
sufferings of those who have carefully
boarded the "green 'uns," the three cent
stamp and the five cent stamp and the
stamp of all kinds.
But the seekers of wealth by stamp
selling are not likely to acquire great
fortunes in this way. II they have only
collected a few thousand, or even 100,-
600, they would better become discour-
aged and give it up, for the wholesale
market price of cancelled postage stamps
(unfess for some particular reason they
are extrinsically more valuable) is S100.
a million. And that is $40 a hundred
thousand.
"Why do buy postage stampsw said
G. B. Calman, of No. 229 Pearl street, to
Tribune reporter. "Why, to sell them,
of course"
"Who wants them?"
"If people did not want them I Ger.
tainly should not buy them"
"Give one instance Of reasonable de-
mand for them"
"Well, there is big cigarette company
which has cancelled stamp on picture
which is given away with every box of
cigarettes. The company uses millions
of them"
''Another.
"a certain publication gives a stamp
look for SO many coupons, the coupons
going with the paper"
"What kind Of stamps dc you buy2'
"All kinds"
"But who wants common green two
cent stamps? They are not rare"
swell, they are less common in West.
ern Bulgaria than in New York city.
buy stamps in all parts of Europe and
bring them to America, and / ship
American stamps to all parts of Europe" !"
"How many stamps do you buy a
year?''
81 bought over 50,0O0,0OO last year.
For fifteen years have averaged about
90, 0,000, ,00O."
"What becomes of them?"
Think of all the shops where stamps
are sold. A great many people make
collections and the stamps are all gath
cred for them in this way"
"What do you pay for stamps"
"One hundred dollars for 1,000,000 of
any kind. don't care what they are,
will take them. But pay great deal
more for rare ones, of course. Some
times people find old stamps which have
been lying around for years. Frequently
they are very valuable"
Suppose you were to get an order to-
day for $4,000. 900, could you fill it?"
"Yes."
would you buy as manyg'
"Yes."
"How do you handle themr"
"Those packing cases there are full Of
them. You see the stamps are assorted
and put up in envelopes and boxed for
shipment"
at would not pay, would it, to count
100000 two cent stamps; how do you
manage that?"
"We can estimate them almost pre.
cisely by weight"
$50 cancelled stamps really have a
market value?"
"If they did not, as I said before,
should not buy them. Bring round L.,
10000 or 2,0OO, 900 in boxes or bales,
and SEQ for yourself. There are few
things in these days that are allowed 70
go to waste" And he picked up pack
age of foreign stamps and gave them to
the reporter as a nest egg. New York
Tribune.