Mystic Stamp Company’s Story

After almost 100 years, taking care of collectors and spreading the joy of collecting is still what we’re all about…

Mystic Stamp Company is America’s Leading Stamp Dealer, with headquarters in the small town of Camden, New York.  Every day, our staff of 150 colleagues fulfills the stamp needs of thousands of collector-friends.

We serve the Mystic family of collectors with our easy-to-use MysticStamp.com website and popular 164-page U.S. stamp catalog.  Our big selection of stamp clubs and free at-home approval service provide even more opportunities for stamp lovers to choose exactly what and how they want to collect.

In order to fill the requests of our valued customers, we need many stamps.  Today Mystic is the largest buyer of stamps in the United States.  Because we think collectors are special and the world is better off with more, Mystic works closely with the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and the American Philatelic Society to grow our hobby of stamp collecting.  To nurture the next generation of collectors, we also donate free stamps and collecting supplies to school, scout, and church groups.

If you’d like to know more about us, check out the following timeline of important landmarks in the long history of Mystic Stamp Company.

Milestones of the 1920s:  

1923 – Mystic is founded – After years of selling stamps from a room behind his father’s business, young Lawrence Shaver founds Mystic in our little village of Camden, NY, population 2500.

– We get our name – During a visit with his friend, wholesale stamp dealer H.E. Harris, Larry Shaver takes Harris’ suggestion to name the growing business “Mystic”, after Boston’s Mystic River.

1926 – Mystic gives $5 to support the 1926 International Philatelic Exhibition in NYC – This begins Mystic’s long tradition of supporting our stamp hobby.

1929 – The Great Depression – Like most businesses, Mystic experiences tough times during the Great Depression.  Bank failures due to the economic crisis force Mystic to ask customers to pay by money order instead of checks which couldn’t be cashed.

Milestones of the 1930s: 

1932 – America elects stamp-collecting president Franklin D. Roosevelt  He says “I owe my life to my hobbies, especially stamp collecting.”  Millions more Americans start to collect.  Click here to read more about FDR and his love of stamp collecting.

   – Mystic prepares to go out of business after FDR declares a “bank holiday”, freezing the banks.  Mystic holds more than $2,000 in bank checks it’s unable to deposit.  But we weather the storm, stamp collecting booms, and Mystic grows to over 100 employees.

1935 – Don Sundman’s father, stamp pioneer Maynard Sundman, starts his mail order stamp business.  Mentored by H.E. Harris, stamp wholesaler and biggest name in the stamp world, Maynard is just 20 years old.  Forty years later, his 19-year-old son Donald would become general manager of Mystic.

Milestones of the 1940s: 

1945 – Maynard Sundman finishes his hitch in the U.S. Army, expands his business and his family.  This sets the stage for Mystic’s future president Don Sundman to learn the stamp business from the ground up.

1949 – Mystic moves to its home for the next 40 years – the former Presbyterian Church building at 96 Main Street, Camden.  50 employees move with it.

Milestones of the 1950s:

1954 – Don Sundman begins learning about stamp collecting at his father’s knee.  It’s the beginning of his lifelong love affair with stamps.  He learns so much more from his dad Maynard – good business practices, good ethics, and how to treat loyal customers.

Milestones of the 1970s:

1974 – Maynard Sundman of Littleton Stamp Company buys Mystic from his longtime friend-competitor and Mystic founder, Lawrence Shaver.  His son Don comes to Camden from Littleton’s New Hampshire home to manage Mystic.

1978 – Mystic acquires Ben-Art Stamp Company.   It becomes a wholesale division of Mystic, buying and selling used U.S. stamps.  Most of Mystic’s used U.S. stamp needs are met by Ben-Art, which purchases stamps soaked off envelopes and sent in by individuals, churches, and civic groups around the country.

Milestones of the 1980s:

Mid-1980s – Mystic creates its highly praised Mystic’s U.S. Stamp Catalog.  Distributing hundreds of thousands of catalogs each year introduces Mystic and stamp collecting to a wide audience of people.  The catalog integrates history and collector information with a price listing and illustration for virtually every U.S. postage stamp.  Click here to view Mystic’s U.S. Stamp Catalog online.

1985 – Mystic becomes America’s leading stamp dealer and largest buyer of stamps directly from collectors.  We begin purchasing millions of dollars’ worth of stamps every year in order to fulfill the dreams of our big family of stamp collectors.  Click here to see one of Mystic’s well-known buy ads.

1987 – Don Sundman breaks the story of CIA employees’ involvement with the rare $1 Candleholder Invert(#1610c).  This modern-day detective story captures the attention of the world press.  In one of the most thrilling highlights of Mystic’s history, Don files a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) investigative report.  He’s told it has to be cleared by the CIA!  The heavily censored report arrives and… Click here to discover the dramatic story of the CIA Candleholder Caper.