I notice that you can buy US Mail Postage Stamps at Costco for slightly less than the face value. I think you save about $0.25 on each spool of 100 or something.
Is this a case of Costco just using that as a loss leader, or is it actually possible to buy stamps in bulk for less than face value?
I don’t think you can buy stamps at a discount from the USPS.
You can buy stamps at a discount from face from some stamp dealers. The stamps
would usually not be in rolls and not of current denomination. The earlier source
comes from collectors or companies that end up with stamps they don’t want.
Not directly connected with the OP, but it is possible to mail at a rate lower than the official single-piece rate, by buying a bulk permit from the Post Office, and then delivering the mail sorted, in lots of 200 (3rd class) or 500 (1st class) or more. If first class bulk is used, all addressees where it is possible to determine it must have ZIP+4 coding. Sortation is fun, too.
Are these uncancelled stamps, though? AIUI, USPS stamps remain currency no matter how old they are, as long as they’re not cancelled. I can’t imagine selling money at a discount in a retail store.
US Postage Stamps are like US Currency.
They trade/exchange at face value. Cosco sales are loss leaders, but not by much.
You can also get a bulk discount even if you don’t presort yourself, as long as your company preprints the barcode on the letters (this is different to the ZIP). This will save the post office from having to run it by an OCR - it can go straight to the barcode sorting machines.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with stamps.
Yes, I’m talking about uncancelled stamps. I just googled “discount postage” and the first site clicked had $300 face value of assorted 10-32 cent stamps at about 10% discount. The very low or very high demoninations or special mailer stamps like for non-profits–if you can find them for discount sale–will usually have higher discounts, sometimes 20% or more. And you’re right, as long as they haven’t been used you can use any US stamp at face value for postage.
Paying 25 cents to get customer in the door is a very cost effective strategy.
A lot more than 25 cents because of the packaging, shipping, storage, display space, etc.