Patent ID: 7085725

Claim:
A method of providing a value stamp over a communication network, comprising: receiving from a user via the communication network an identifier code of a medium to be used to purchase a value stamp, the medium being suitable for printing a value indicium thereon, the identifier code identifying the medium; accessing a database using the identifier code received from the user, the database including first and second identifier codes that are associated with first and second customer-relation-management (CRM) information, respectively; performing a specific action according to a result of the accessing step, wherein a first action associated with the first CRM information is performed if the identifier code received from the user corresponds to the first identifier code stored in the database and a second action associated with the second CRM information is performed if the identifier code received from the user corresponds to the second identifier code stored in the database, and determining whether or not the user has already used a maximum allotted free medium if the first CRM information indicates that the medium has been distributed as a free sample, causing the value indicium to be printed on the medium to generate a value stamp if the medium has been previously purchased or if the user has not yet used the maximum allotted free medium.