| Our Question |
Your Action |
| Are you a charity wanting to
raise funds but with the minimum effort ? |
Consider registering with us for
our Charity Stamps Direct scheme. First of all you have to give us your
charity's details, registration number, address for payments, website
address, etc. |
| Do you want to sell the stamps
you have collected to us ? |
Contact us first, before coming
in, or before sending the stamps to us. There is no need to register,
and, as we will buy from anybody, you do not have to prove that you are
a charity. |
| Do you need further advice
before you decide what direction you want to take ? |
Please read all the notes on
this page, and follow the links from the coloured table at the foot of
the page. These notes answer almost every enquiry we get. |
| Are you simply looking for a way
to donate a batch of stamps to charity ? |
Send your package to us at
"Charity Stamps Direct, 5 Inverleith Gardens, Edinburgh EH3 5PU". Your
pack will be added to the general fund, and the proceeds split pro rata with the various
registered charities. |
| Questions | Answers |
| Once I’ve collected an amount of stamps – what do I do with them?! Do I send them up to you or do you know of somewhere local to me (Bedfordshire) that would take them? | Yes,
you can send a batch to us
once you have a worthwhile quantity (but see later
question). We can't speak for other possible buyers. Obviously is should be better for you if you can find someone local, saving on postage/transport costs, but you would have to make your own arrangements to find a dealer and negotiate with them. There are lists of recognised UK stamp dealers available at the Philatelic Traders Society. |
| Do I need
to save all stamps or only special |
You
can decide whether to
collect everything, or to sort them out. Follow the advice at "sorting"
at www.stamp-shop.com/kiloware-advice.html |
| Is is still possible to register with you as a agency to handle any stamps collected in our charity's name? | You
only need to register with
us if you are wanting to take part in our "Charity Stamps Direct"
scheme. Otherwise you just bring or send the stuff to us and we tell
you the price we'd pay. |
| Would we have to post our used stamps up to you in Edinburgh or are there other collection points ? | No,
we don't have any other
collection points anywhere. The person/organisation collecting the
stamps needs to organise transport to us. We only ever consider
travelling to pick up kiloware when there is a large quantity (e.g.
perhaps a quarter tonne or more). |
| I live in the United States and would hope to find an organization here that I could help. | You
should be able to find
somebody - whichever country you live in - who collects stamps for
charity. You just need to check about. (See also www.asdaonline.com) |
| Wondered if you could recommend an address to which I could send used stamps to please? I used to send to an address in Scotland for Guide dogs for the Blind, but the last package was sent back to me, so I don't know what happened. I don't mind what charity can use them, just that someone can use them for the benefit to others. | Guide
Dogs stopped
collecting stamps at the end of 2007. As part of the phasing out of
this they may have closed some addresses. Regarding returned packages, please note that people sometimes send charity stamps to us but have underpaid the postage. We do not pay the fees and such packages are normally returned to the sender as long as their address is shown. |
| How many is a good amount to send at one time? | Any
amount that means that the
amount raised is significantly greater than the cost of postage. For
charities
bringing in material to our shop, we'd suggest a minimum of
perhaps £10 to £20-worth at one time (for example a 2kg bag
of UK plus a 500g bag of foreign). |
|
Could
you tell me if 1st and 2nd class stamps are acceptable as part of the mix ?
|
Yes,
all types of stamps are
welcome. However, a mix which is almost entirely the standard 1st and
2nd class stamps will get less per kilo than a mix that's brimming with
colourful special issue stamps, and stamps of non-letter rate
denominations. |
| Do you have a freepost address ? |
No.
The sender has to pay the postage. (If we paid the postage, the cost
would just have to come out of the proceeds somehow.) |
| (ditto) |
The best way of getting stamps to us is for nothing if you possibly can ! Some charities, even at a long distance, find that if they ask about they can find somebody who is in Edinburgh from time to time and who can deliver the stamps to us. Otherwise you have to use Royal Mail or a carrier, which can eat into the funds you are receiving. |
| Would it be better to send little and often or big amounts less often? | Certainly
better to send a large parcel very occasionally rather than a series of
small packages. Bear in mind that an average decent UK mix is getting
about £6 per kilo at present. If you send 120g of stamps you
would therefore get about 70p, but pay 92p for postage. You would be
able to send a 250g packet for the same postal cost. But a 20kg parcel
would probably raise about £120 yet only cost just under
£16 to post. If posting, it is very important to get your head
round the carriage costs. [FIGURES CORRECT AT JANUARY 2012] |
| We operate in several different ways, and can
help you in various manners. |
|
| If
you are a charity interested in collecting stamps (possibly also
coins,
banknotes, postcards) that you intend to sell to us, follow this link.
This involves you in the work of collection, tidying, and probably
sorting, before selling direct to us. |
If
you are a member of the public looking for a charity to which
you can
donate stamps, you can either look at our
list of charities that
welcome donations directly to them, or you can send them direct to us
through our
Charity Stamps Direct scheme. |
| If
you are a charity interested in taking part in our "Charity
Stamps
Direct" scheme, follow
this link. This means that you can do next to
nothing (apart from giving us your details) and probably get some
income, or you can do more work in encouraging your supporters to send
material directly to us, which will increase your income. |
|
| If
you are a charity that collects stamps to raise funds, and you
would
like to be included in our list of such charities, give us your details
so that you can be included. You can be listed whether or not you sell
your stamps to us. |
If
you are a collector or dealer interested in buying kiloware from
us,
please follow this
link to our general price list, or to information
about our "Charity Stamps Direct" boxes (available soon). |