If you happen to be as passionate about collecting and trading stamps as I am, you already know the excitement when your stamp trade finally arrives in the mail. You might also know the disappointment when a torn and mutilated envelope arrives with stamps literally falling out all over, and you are left with just shreds of what once was an envelope. When we trade stamps with one another, usually your trade has traveled a very long distance, has been handled by many different postal workers, and has passed through some postal sorting equipment. The tips below hopefully will be useful and help our trades arrive a bit more safely.

1. Patience, patience, patience! Expecting your trade to arrive within a few days or even a week is probably unrealistic, although sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. I generally allow an expected trade about 2 weeks to arrive and longer if trading around major holiday dates. After that point I start exchanging email messages with my trading partner to confirm sent dates and so on. After about 1 month you probably should report an 'unfair trading practice' to TradeOnlyStamps.Com

2. Answer your email messages promptly. A polite "No Thank You" is lot more positive than just ignoring a message. Sometimes a potential trader will spend a lot of time searching ads to find the trader he/she might be interested in. If you just ignore the message, this is a negative reflection of you, your ad, and maybe even TradeOnlyStamps.Com.

3. Secure your stamps inside your envelope. By just sending "loose" stamps sometimes can be the start of potential problems (lost and/or damaged material). Glassine envelopes are popular and inexpensive. For a larger trade, I sometimes will "tri-fold" a sheet of paper, place my stamps inside, and then "tape" all the edges shut.

4. Don't use the airmail "lightweight" type envelopes. These envelopes are designed for letters and not a good vehicle for (usually) bulk stamps. They become damaged too easily!

5. After my stamps are secure inside my envelope, I ALWAYS "tape" all of the envelope seams and edges. Due to the "bulk" size of a stamp trade, if you just moisten seams shut, they sometimes can reopen quite easily.

6. Technically (here in the US) stamps are considered "merchandise" and merchandise shipments require a customs form attached to the envelope. On this small, simple form, you declare the contents and value of your trade. The forms are free of charge from your post office. Without the form (again technically), your stamps may legally be seized by postal workers.

7. NEVER "glue" your postage stamps to your mailing envelope. Gluing stamps to envelopes renders them non-collectable and useless to a stamp collector. The stamps you use for postage might be wanted and needed for your trading partner's collection. I also like to use a variety of postage stamps for multiple trades with the same trading partner. For example, the first trade has 1-80 cent stamp for postage. The second trade (same partner) receives a different 80 cent stamp, next trade receives 1-50 cent and 1-30 cent stamp, and so on.

8. I look to establish long term relationships with trading partners, so I strive to trade nice, clean, undamaged, quality material. If you send "junk" stamps, don't expect better material in return and you will probably lose that particular trader forever! Nice, clean material does not necessarily need to be expensive. Especially for those first few trades with a new trader and not until a good relationship has been established, don't send a lot of valuable material. At first, just start slow by trading equal, less valuable stamps for a while. Over time the values of your trades will begin to increase, along with the size and value of each others collections. Everyone wins and you have probably made a lifetime friend!

I hope everyone finds these "tips" useful and it will help our trades arrive close to the way they were sent!
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