Mystic Stamp

I started buying from Mystic Stamp in May of 2105. They have a nice catalog which helps me when I’m selecting stamps for purchase. I have placed several orders and all my orders have been filled correctly and they are prompt with their delivery turnaround. I am happy with the quality of the stamps I have purchased. I am not a fan of their Stamps on Approval however, since I am very specific of what I want to purchase. Other than that, I will gladly continue to buy from Mystic Stamp.

The Mystic Stamp Company is one of the oldest, and by their own assessment, largest suppliers in the U.S., of postage stamps and paraphernalia for stamp collecting hobbyists. I’m unaware of whether or not they have an actual storefront anywhere where «philatelists» (stamp collectors) can go in and examine their materials «in store.» Their bread and butter is their printed and on-​line catalog of stamps and supplies by mail, and they have a very active advertising program to attract new customers and budding collectors, with special offers in selected magazines and mailers. They do have a huge range of materials for U.S., world, and topical stamp collectors; if you need it, for the right price they’ve probably got it, or can get it for you. HOWEVER… my personal experience with them relates to their «stamps-​on-​approval by mail» program. It’s not a new concept, sending small groupings of stamps to your home at intervals for your examination. Keep and pay for what you like, and send the rest back. This has been the stock-​in-​trade of many stamp companies for years. At your first order, you provide them information on what you are looking for. How often do you want to receive the offers? What do you collect? U.S. stamps? World stamps? Stamps on a particular topic, like trains, or the Olympics? The expectation is that somebody on the other end actually listens, and tailors their future shipments to you accordingly. Not Mystic! No, sir! I tell them to send me something to examine every two months, but they decide that several times a month would be better. I tell them United States stamps only, definitives and commemoratives before 1961, and they send recent U.S., they send world, they send airmail and special delivery, they send topical, and mint blocks, and coins (?), and a whole section of album pages of «all things New York,» like I should start whole new collections just because they send album pages for them. I’ve been inundated and «spammed» by their materials to the tune of $ 70 in a single month, mostly of things I don’t collect, force fed to my home mail box. The worst of it is that they didn’t even provide return mailers for the oversized and excessive shipments they’ve sent, so that it cost me out of pocket to send back what I didn’t want. But I had a moment of clarity about the situation this week. I took ALL the materials Mystic had sent me, carted them off to the neighborhood Mail Plus shipping center, and payed the $ 7.35 necessary to send them ALL back, along with a «cease and desist» note to the good folks at Mystic. They obviously just don’t get it… not the concept of how to run a responsive, respectful «on approval» service, and not my business, either!