Vintage Stamps

I receive inquires about where I find my vintage stamps from brides quite a bit and wanted to put all my thoughts, tips, and excitement in one place. As a calligrapher, I LOVE vintage stamps.

Personally, I have learned so much from these two blogs on the vintage stamp search. Much of what I’m going to share, I learned from them.

Here’s where I start in my search process for ideas: Etsy.com
Here’s where I end up because I need a large amount/budget requirements: Ebay.com

Where to start?

It's easy to get overwhelmed with all of the options. My starting suggestion is to find one stamp that you love and build around it. Your best bet is to stick to a theme.

Take a look at this color theme from Verde Studio on Etsy:

You can click on the picture to be linked to where these are sold.

Another option would be around a decade or personal theme. This could be "CA meets TX" or "birds and flowers." My bride below used "art deco."

This brings us to the main question I'm asked: Where do you get your vintage stamps? The best place I've found for vintage stamps (beyond thrift stores) is EBay.

How to navigate eBay and all its vintage stamp glory:

When searching on Ebay, you can just type “vintage stamps” in the search bar and things will come up. A better route is typing in “FV + 1 stamps” or “full value plus $1 stamps.” What this search populates for you is a list of full value stamps plus a dollar. This is by far the most economical route.

Visit this website for Scott Number: https://www.championstamp.com/
They list almost every stamp known to mankind. While they’re often priced a little higher than where I’d like, what you can find is the stamp code or “Scott number.” The Scott Number is a specific number for each stamp (kinda like the social security number of stamps.) If you find a stamp you love on this website, you can then search for the stamp with its Scott number on ebay.

Etsy: These will be marked up, but what you’re trading in search hours is a curated stamp collection to fit your theme. I’ve found the sellers are a wealth of knowledge as well and if you need more of one item, they can often help you out.

There are quite a few great retailers on Etsy (Oh so Beautiful Paper lists some of her favorites and I agree - they're good.)

Forever stamps will always be more economical. If you find yourself in this constraint, here are a few that I'm loving right now on the USPS website (in 2016):

Final tips:

Tip 1: Tell your calligrapher first thing if you’re going this route. We’ll need to make sure we leave room for all the pretties.

Tip 2: I try to find one “higher” cent stamp, such as a 36 cent stamp, to avoid covering the envelope in a mass of stamps and having to source a lot of stamps.

Tip 3: Weigh your assembled envelope before buying stamps to make sure you have the correct postage amount. Those little 5 or 3 cent stamps are gold at the end of the day.

Tip 4: If you FALL IN LOVE with a stamp, don’t rule it out. I’m a proponent of having one splurge stamp and then find less expensive stamps to get the price up on the envelope.

Tip 5: Most of the stamps will either be lick or non-stick. Purchase an envelope moistener to speed up the adhesion process (or source it out to your calligrapher! We offer assembly services!)