| 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, and make an
appointment before coming in. There is no need to register,
as we will buy from anybody, and you do not have to prove
that you are a charity. PLEASE DO NOT SEND KILOWARE
TO US FOR SALE. (See below. *) |
| 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 get 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, 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
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
to get someone to bring the stamps in 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? | Please
note that we DO NOT ask charities to post things to us. We
stopped accepting postal sendings in 2015. We are happy to buy stamps from charities, but someone has to make an appointment and bring the material in to our shop in person. We would then deal with it there and then, and normally make payment at that time. A big carrier bag full is about the minimum to make this viable. |
|
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.
|
| (ditto) |
The
best
way of getting stamps to us is for nothing ! 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. |
| Would it be better to send little and often or big amounts less often? | Sorry,
this is one of the reasons we asked charities to stop
sending directly to us for sale. It wasn't unusual for us
to get a parcel where more had been spent on postage than
the contents were going to raise. |
|
Unfortunately, there are problems
with parcels being sent to us. {a} In some cases, the charity spends more on postage than it raises through the sale of the material. {b} Now and again, a charity will have material which is below normal standards (already picked over, or with too much excess paper, or with too much damaged material, or dirty) which we do not want to purchase. This is a problem and an embarrassment to the charity and ourselves. {c} On occasion people would send us parcels but have inadequate contact details, meaning that we have to store the parcel until they get in touch, then find a way of confirming that it is theirs. {d} On smaller lots, the staff time to carry out the administration can more than account for any profit we would make. {e} When a charity brings material in for sale we can point out good or bad parts of their offering, and can advise on how things can be improved and more money made. This is much more easy to do verbally with the stamps in front of us. |
| 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. |