You can save 40 percent or more on postage by buying old 'collector' stamps on eBay

I bought $32 worth of these for $22.75

    For penny-pinchers, there’s an easy way to save 40 to 50 percent – and maybe more – on U.S. Postal Service postage. How? Just buy old, supposedly “collector” stamps on eBay.
    I found this fact the hard way when trying to sell some of my mother’s “treasures.” She had a bunch of sheets of postage that the Postal Service issues in sheets of 20 stamps. People buy these with the idea that some day their commemorative stamps of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, or Bugs Bunny might be worth something someday. Well, they aren’t. As a general rule, anything that is sold as a “collector’s item” on the front end is not worth collecting.
    It turns out that these old stamps are being offered in great quantities on eBay for 40 to 60 cents on the dollar. My guess is that it’s people trying to clear out estates. Since these stamps are older, their face value is usually much less than the 49 cents it takes to mail a letter today; so using them means affixing two or more stamps to an envelope. Many people don’t want to do this, but I don’t mind. I have seen “Forever” stamps offered on eBay at a big discount as well, but the biggest bargains comes from buying fixed-amount stamps.
    I was going through some of my old stuff recently and found about $50 worth of the 32-cent Civil War series of postage that was issued in the 1990s. I decided to see if any more was being offered on eBay and was able to buy $32 worth for $22. This is actually a slight premium over what most old postage goes for, but I thought it might be fun to trigger “snowflakes” by sticking a Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis stamp on their letter. Or for the Unreconstructed Southerner I might share William T. Sherman or Abraham Lincoln.

     Sometimes these old stamps have a time-warpish feel to them. I doubt the Postal Service would have the courage to issue Civil War commemorative stamps today. I purchased some sheets of 10-cent stamps to bring my 32-centers up to full value (slightly above, actually) and noticed that one sheet features a little girl holding a doll with the message, “Retarded Children Can be Helped.” Despite the good intentions, that’s something that you wouldn’t find on a stamp today.
    In any event, I’ve shared the secret to half or nearly half-priced postage. If interested, just make a visit to ebay.