Return address stamp and supplies

The first time I ever used a return address stamp was in my dad’s home office.

I remember sitting at my dad’s desk years ago when I was a wee child and visualizing how all the little gadgets he had, to lessen his work load worked.  I say visualized because he wouldn’t allow me to touch any of them.  His excuse was that one, if I broke something then it would keep him from getting the project done on time that he had a deadline for and two, I just wasn’t old enough to use most of them yet.

But there was one little tool he would call me into his office to help him with that I came bounding with joy. The return address stamp was the only one I could help him use.  Hanging from the wooden holder among a couple two or three other inking stamps I carefully picked up the return address stamp, dabbed it on the inking pad and helped dear old dad include our home address onto the front of the white envelope.

Present day the return address stamp and other business rubber stamps have changed a little bit like the Todat self inking stamp or the Cosco address stamp that also is self inking among many others that are not even used for business. 

Rubber stamps have come a long way and many crafters and scrap bookers use them as a hobby.

However the return address stamp is a totally different animal.  With black being the traditional color you can pretty much customize your stamp with most any color like blue, red, green and most any type of print font like the standard times new roman type or script.  You can further customize your rubber stamps with the print far left, center or far right and there is even one company I know of that will supply you with a lifetime of ink with every purchase.

Naturally the larger the return address stamp the more lines of text you can fit on your stamp. The larger stamps can hold about 8 lines of text and about 30 characters per line. These larger stamps are about 1 ½" x 3" and could cost you upwards to $20-$30 depending on the company.

The smaller return address stamp is around $10-$13, can have up to 4 lines and 21 characters with a size of about 9/16" x 1 ½".

Make sure you do the proper research for many companies will give discount specials if ordering more than one.  Most departments in a business need a return address stamp for their department so they won’t have to keep running up to the front office if mailing a letter/package. It wouldn’t hurt to order more than one return address stamp or business rubber stamp of some kind and if you work out of your home maybe you could let your little buddy or sweetheart help you do some stamping.