Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Was wondering if others do this? And also, if a person was going to purchase stamps from the approvals section, would this appeal to anyone, or is it just best to leave them on closely trimmed paper?
Thanks in advance for your opinions.
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Personally I would say keep them on their original paper and just closely trim them, obviously being careful to avoid any damage.
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To each his own, but to me having plastic on the back of a stamp is far worse than several layers of old hinges. Although Bestine works, it is a chemical which comes with the bad smell and the dangers inherent in working with chemicals. I use a product called Pure Citrus, which is marketed as an air freshener. It works amazingly well, it smells good and, best of all, it is all natural. Using a plastic putty knife or old gift card, I can easily remove all of the adhesive from the back of a SA stamp by laying it on a hard, flat surface and gently scrapping. I can probably do this in about the same time that it takes you to add the plastic and cut around it, with no danger of accidentally cutting into the perfs. I have probably done well over 1,000 stamps and can only remember slightly damaging 2 of them as a result of using this process. I generally damage more than that when I soak stamps.
Here is a link to an excellent pictorial step-by-step instructional thread on another forum on removing the adhesive with Pure Citrus. Moderators, if linking to another forum is not permitted, please remove this part of my post and accept my apologies.
https://stampbears.net/thread/4582/removal-self-adhesive-stamps-step
Please note, I couldn’t get the link function to work, but you should be able to cut and paste the address.
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Thank you both. I appreciate your responses. I will have to try the Pure Citrus.
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Any solvent (eg Pure Citrus) works by penetrating something to reach the adhesive layer.
When you are dealing with the original paper-adhesive-stamp, the first application of the solvent (regardless of which side you spray) will weaken the adhesive nicely, and let you separate the stamp & the paper, leaving you with some adhesive on the stamp and some adhesive on the paper.
If you then apply more solvent to the back of the stamp, and scrape carefully, you can have a nice, clean, GPU (Genuinely Postally Used) stamp ... provided, of course, that it has survived both treatments.
If, instead, you only use the solvent once, and mount that sticky stamp to any inert material (plastic), you create the problem that, some day, someone may want to 'free' that stamp.
This will require that they spray the stamp side (only), penetrating the stamp and, let's face it, weakening the stamp ... and, then, spraying a third time to remove any still-remaining adhesive from the back of the stamp.
Leaving the stamp on trimmed paper avoids the solvent shtick entirely, but it has an important risk: that the moisture from the air (even if there is no 'excess' humidity) will react with the non-archival paper - or with the adhesive itself - resulting in stains & heartbreak.
Removing the stamp from paper via the solvent shtick comes with risks, including the obvious (damage to the stamp) and the less-obvious (I've seen the ink from shpritzy cancellations run) and the unknowable (non-volatile residues from the solvent might react with the stamp over time).
Happily, most of the modern PSA (Pressure Sensitive Adhesive) stamps are inexpensive, so I suggest keeping:
- one stock book for stamps on trimmed paper, and
- one stock book for once-cleaned-now-mounted-on-plastic(*) stamps, and
- one stock book for twice-cleaned stamps.
(*) "plastic" in this case meaning any inert backing material
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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I do exactly the same thing - transfer from envelopes to clear plastic that I trim like you do. However I use simple rubbing alcohol, which has no smell and works well on US and UK stamps.
I have sold some of these stamps in the Auctions and Approvals sections but I have to say all of those were initially intended for my own collection.
If it is to sell the stamp, I would leave it on the original backing to save time and allow the collector who purchases it to do as they please on their own time.
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Air freshener contains chemicals, too. In the end, it's just another type of hydrocarbon-based solvent (limonene instead of hexane or heptane). What you don't want to use are aromatic hydrocarbons, those are usually the worst for your health.
As for alcohol, there are some printing inks that dissolve in it (including that of the gold 1st class Machins), and there are no warnings about it in the catalogs (as there are for water-sensitive or petroleum-sensitive inks). Something to keep in mind, too.
-jmh
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01:59:17pm
I have been saving self adhesive stamps that have been coming into my work place. I have been using bestine ( I think I spelled that correctly) to remove the stamps from the envelope paper. Rather than use more of the chemical to remove the adhesive from the stamp, I have put the stamp on clear plastic, then trimmed the plastic as carefully and closely around the stamp. I use he plastic from the "windows" from the copious amounts of junk mail I receive.
Was wondering if others do this? And also, if a person was going to purchase stamps from the approvals section, would this appeal to anyone, or is it just best to leave them on closely trimmed paper?
Thanks in advance for your opinions.
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re: Collecting Modern Used U.S. Self Adhesive Stamps
Personally I would say keep them on their original paper and just closely trim them, obviously being careful to avoid any damage.
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this post
re: Collecting Modern Used U.S. Self Adhesive Stamps
To each his own, but to me having plastic on the back of a stamp is far worse than several layers of old hinges. Although Bestine works, it is a chemical which comes with the bad smell and the dangers inherent in working with chemicals. I use a product called Pure Citrus, which is marketed as an air freshener. It works amazingly well, it smells good and, best of all, it is all natural. Using a plastic putty knife or old gift card, I can easily remove all of the adhesive from the back of a SA stamp by laying it on a hard, flat surface and gently scrapping. I can probably do this in about the same time that it takes you to add the plastic and cut around it, with no danger of accidentally cutting into the perfs. I have probably done well over 1,000 stamps and can only remember slightly damaging 2 of them as a result of using this process. I generally damage more than that when I soak stamps.
Here is a link to an excellent pictorial step-by-step instructional thread on another forum on removing the adhesive with Pure Citrus. Moderators, if linking to another forum is not permitted, please remove this part of my post and accept my apologies.
https://stampbears.net/thread/4582/removal-self-adhesive-stamps-step
Please note, I couldn’t get the link function to work, but you should be able to cut and paste the address.
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06:22:48pm
re: Collecting Modern Used U.S. Self Adhesive Stamps
Thank you both. I appreciate your responses. I will have to try the Pure Citrus.
Login to Like
this post
re: Collecting Modern Used U.S. Self Adhesive Stamps
Any solvent (eg Pure Citrus) works by penetrating something to reach the adhesive layer.
When you are dealing with the original paper-adhesive-stamp, the first application of the solvent (regardless of which side you spray) will weaken the adhesive nicely, and let you separate the stamp & the paper, leaving you with some adhesive on the stamp and some adhesive on the paper.
If you then apply more solvent to the back of the stamp, and scrape carefully, you can have a nice, clean, GPU (Genuinely Postally Used) stamp ... provided, of course, that it has survived both treatments.
If, instead, you only use the solvent once, and mount that sticky stamp to any inert material (plastic), you create the problem that, some day, someone may want to 'free' that stamp.
This will require that they spray the stamp side (only), penetrating the stamp and, let's face it, weakening the stamp ... and, then, spraying a third time to remove any still-remaining adhesive from the back of the stamp.
Leaving the stamp on trimmed paper avoids the solvent shtick entirely, but it has an important risk: that the moisture from the air (even if there is no 'excess' humidity) will react with the non-archival paper - or with the adhesive itself - resulting in stains & heartbreak.
Removing the stamp from paper via the solvent shtick comes with risks, including the obvious (damage to the stamp) and the less-obvious (I've seen the ink from shpritzy cancellations run) and the unknowable (non-volatile residues from the solvent might react with the stamp over time).
Happily, most of the modern PSA (Pressure Sensitive Adhesive) stamps are inexpensive, so I suggest keeping:
- one stock book for stamps on trimmed paper, and
- one stock book for once-cleaned-now-mounted-on-plastic(*) stamps, and
- one stock book for twice-cleaned stamps.
(*) "plastic" in this case meaning any inert backing material
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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this post
Approvals
re: Collecting Modern Used U.S. Self Adhesive Stamps
I do exactly the same thing - transfer from envelopes to clear plastic that I trim like you do. However I use simple rubbing alcohol, which has no smell and works well on US and UK stamps.
I have sold some of these stamps in the Auctions and Approvals sections but I have to say all of those were initially intended for my own collection.
If it is to sell the stamp, I would leave it on the original backing to save time and allow the collector who purchases it to do as they please on their own time.
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re: Collecting Modern Used U.S. Self Adhesive Stamps
Air freshener contains chemicals, too. In the end, it's just another type of hydrocarbon-based solvent (limonene instead of hexane or heptane). What you don't want to use are aromatic hydrocarbons, those are usually the worst for your health.
As for alcohol, there are some printing inks that dissolve in it (including that of the gold 1st class Machins), and there are no warnings about it in the catalogs (as there are for water-sensitive or petroleum-sensitive inks). Something to keep in mind, too.
-jmh
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