you know when charities ask you to collect used stamps - how do they make money from this?

Answer 1

My daughter used to collect stamps. The stamps end up in bin bags - the big black plastic ones - of stamps. The charity sells them to stamp dealers - they search through them for any valuable ones. The stamp dealers then sell the bags to stamp collectors - I cant remember how much they go for, but it isn't much and the money goes to charity - and the collectors search through them for any ones they need for their collections. When they've finished with the bag, they add any stamps they have surplus to requirements to the bag and donate it back to a charity shop or a stamp dealer - the bags can end up being sold countless times, each time raising money for various charities - OK, not its much each time, but it adds up.

Answer 2

Unfortunately the charities do not get to see much of the money from these stamps, by the time they are sold there are so many middle men who want their cut, charities have what`s left. The stamps (On paper only because they are classified as used) are put into bags and sold to collecters by weight usually called kiloware.

Answer 3

They sell them to wholesalers, who bulk bag them and sell thru dealer/collector meets, on-line, or however.

The amount of money made for the charity is quite small -it takes many, many stamps to make a few cents.

Some charities also collect labels from various food products (the most notable is the Campbells Soup labels for Education program). The soup label program can add up HUGE!

Answer 4

Sadly, sometimes the charities are being scammed. They are told they are saving these for potential collectors and deliver them to a middleman. Instead of going to collectors, however, the stamps are laundered to removed the cancelleation, resold at a fraction of their face value and reused illegally.

Answer 5

They sort them and sell them to collectors.