Our story (briefly)

Hello, and welcome! My name is Daniel, and I am the owner and manager of Sonora Stamp Shop. I am a longtime stamp collector and member of the American Philatelic Society. When I retired a few years back, I took a look around my home office, as well as in the backs of some closets, and realized that I had amassed a huge amount of collectible postage stamps and covers. That’s when I decided that being an online stamp dealer might be a fun retirement job.      

Where our name comes from 

I’m located in the Tucson, Arizona area, in the heart of the Sonoran Desert. The Sonoran Desert is very large – it covers a good part of Arizona, as well as portions of California and Mexico – has 350 different species of birds, including hummingbirds, and is very interesting culturally. It’s also a great place to store stamps, because there is very little humidity here.      

Doing business with us 

My main interest in selling stamps and covers – aside from making some room in my office! – is to ensure that every transaction is an enjoyable one for the customer. That means, among other things:  

  • Everything sold here is guaranteed to be genuine or your money back.
  • Everything sold here is accurately described.
  • Everything sold here gets shipped out promptly, usually in one or two business days.      

How soon will you get your order? 

This used to be a simpler question to answer, because the US mail service used to be quicker, but here goes: 

  • I only ship to addresses in the United States, including US Territories and APO/FPO destinations. 
  • I ship everything via USPS First Class mail. Roughly speaking, I’d say that you should have your order in about one week from the time it’s shipped out. It can take longer if you’re in Alaska, or Hawaii, or a US Territory, etc. It can also take longer during the December holiday season, and that was definitely the case last December. 
  • Orders of $10 or more are shipped with standard USPS tracking, which means you’ll be provided with a tracking number when your order ships out.
  • Orders under $10 are shipped with something called USPS Informed Visibility mail tracking - this is less expensive for us, and allows me to sell lower-priced items while still providing reasonably-priced shipping. The downside of USPS Informed Visibility mail tracking is that I can’t provide you with a tracking number. The upside is that it still allows me to know when your package was delivered. Over the years, I’ve found this system to work very well. 
  • I don’t offer any sort of priority shipping, because I’m really just a one-man operation and don’t have the capability to do so. (So please don't ask.) Which means, basically, that if you see something that you want to buy as a gift, you should buy it right away and leave plenty of time for it to arrive.