The price of a first-class stamp is 78 cents, up 5 cents as of July 1, 2025. But that’s only if you buy your stamps from the USPS. As I found out this month while looking for additional Halloween stamps (see screen capture), there are ways to buy stamps for less than the latest Forever rate.
Spooky Silhouettes has been one of my favorite USPS issues since it first came out in October 2019. At the time I bought two sheets at the then-current first-class rate of 55 cents per stamp. Later I bought a third sheet from the leftover supply available on the USPS web site. But even using them sparingly during Halloween season, I ran out this year.
A simple online search located a vendor on eBay who is selling the 20-stamp sheet for $13.99 plus $1.18 in shipping or about 75 cents per stamp. That’s below the current first-class rate but isn’t much of a discount so you would probably only buy them if you were a collector or wanted your Halloween mail to make an impact. However, there are other stamps on eBay to consider.
For example, the 2022 Love issue (Scott# 5661A) is available from one vendor for $12.75 for a sheet of 20 stamps with free shipping (about 64 cents each). Apparently that one is harder to sell.
Or take the 2020 Earth Day stamp, which seems collectible or at least would be a popular stamp to use during the run-up to Earth Day each April. Yet a vendor is selling a sheet of 20 for $11.50 with free economy shipping (about 58 cents per stamp). Not bad.
How can eBay vendors sell stamps at a discount? Remember that the first-class rate keeps going up. Just about every year there are increases from 2 to 5 cents. In 2015 (10 years ago) it cost 49 cents to mail a letter. Today the rate is 78 cents. You only have to hang on to stamps for a few years to make a profit even when selling them at a discount from the current first-class rate.
From the ads I read several common practices are observed by eBay vendors. You won’t find the stamps for less than their original Forever rate. Collectibility and popularity are taken into account in setting a price. Free or low cost shipping is the rule.
So if you search the eBay listings and aren’t overly concerned about what issue(s) you buy, you can mail in your bills, greeting cards, and letters (for those who still write them) for less than the going rate. It looks like Forever stamps are coming back to haunt the USPS.
Ironically, the day before I wrote this post, I got the latest USPS catalog in my mailbox with listings for stationery, collectibles, novelties, wall art, and stamps. There are some tempting items for sale. But it’s fun to shop on eBay too.
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