General Discussion

Peter cotton

(380 posts)

11. Let's see just how well this would work in the real world:

Reply to arely staircase (Original post)

Thu Mar 28, 2013, 11:31 PM

Mar 2013

Forever stamps came out in 2007 for 41 cents apiece. Let's presume you bought 10 rolls of them. This would have cost you $410.00.

I just checked Ebay, and a typical lot of 10 rolls of forever stamps sells anywhere from $400 to $450. Let's assume you do better than average, and get $440; you've made $30, a profit of about 7%, right? But not so fast...

You have to ship the stamps to the winner; that will cost at least a couple of bucks. More importantly, Ebay and PayPal are going to get a cut. At roughly 12% of the selling price, this works out to $54.00. Add in the shipping cost, and you wind up with $384.00 in your pocket. You've taken a 6.5% loss.

You would have been better off hiding your money in a mattress.

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has anyone here ever invested in stamps? [View all] arely staircase Mar 2013 OP

That's generally not a good idea except for your own use because stamps are hard to resell. dimbear Mar 2013 #1

i figure postage will go up ahead of inflation arely staircase Mar 2013 #2

I inherited a bunch of old unused stamps. Mariana Mar 2013 #10

Yes. I invested 46 cents in one, and it got my letter all the way across the country in 2 days. Mika Mar 2013 #3

In my layman's opinion, you should REALLY stay away from stamps as an investment. Poll_Blind Mar 2013 #4

Spot on. I prefer gold and silver bullion for the more speculative portion of my portfolio. Peter cotton Mar 2013 #5

that isn't the kind of stamp collecting i mean arely staircase Mar 2013 #7

Man, I tell ya- if that's the case I'd advise even more against it. Poll_Blind Mar 2013 #9

All first-class (non-bump up) stamps are forever now. talkingmime Mar 2013 #6

Only in the sense of "bought a book, put it in a drawer and forgot about it... JHB Mar 2013 #8

Let's see just how well this would work in the real world: Peter cotton Mar 2013 #11