Collecting stamps for charity

[hazyhazy]

When charities ask people to send in their old stamps to raise money how do they actually convert the stamps into cash?  Why would anyone want to buy old stamps (not rare ones) and how much do they pay for them?

[Clanad]

Many Philatelists collect various series of stamps for their own enjoyment.  The stamps may not be rare or neccessarily valuable, but they do "fill out" a collection.  One can buy a bag of stamps here in the U.S. for about $10, and hope for that one "rare" find...

[Buenchico]

My late father collected only 'modern' (i.e. Queen Elizabeth II) GB stamps. There are many thousands of differences which an expert eye can see which others don't notice. (e.g. slight colour variations, incorrect phosphor bands, inverted watermarks, wrongly perforated stamps, etc). He would buy big bags of used stamps (he had no interest in 'mint' stamps) either from stamp dealers or, more usually, from charity shops. (Stamps sold in this way are known as 'kiloware'). Prices vary but enough stamps, still attached to envelope corners, to completely fill one of the clear plastic 'floppies' that you put your A4 documents into, will probably fetch about �3 to �5.

Chris

[hazyhazy]

Thanks, I was expecting they were recycled but not something so sinple as that. Still don't understand stamp collecting though...