I work in the mailroom of a university. I operate a service window very much like a "post office" except that I am a university employee, not an employee of the US Postal Service.

Several times, I have seen people send or receive letters using old stamps—I'm guessing 1940s or 50s. I was curious, so I asked a student who was receiving letters from her father bearing old stamps. She explained that her father was a stamp collector, and had been collecting stamps since he was a kid, and had decided that he had too many stamps, and so was using them. She said these stamps weren't particularly valuable. (Obviously, these were uncanceled when he put them on the envelope.)

For me at least, old stamps are a real attention-getter, especially since you have to use several of them to make up the current rate of 42 cents. For that reason, many people might consider the money well spent even if the stamps are worth slightly more than their face value. I wonder if mail-marketers have thought of this?

I don't know about other states, but in Minnesota, used cars certainly are subject to sales tax, and the sales tax is based on the current selling price, regardless of whether it is higher or lower than the original price. But it depends on who sells them. Cars sold by a dealer are subject to sales tax; cars sold by a non-dealer are not. If you sell more than three cars a year, you're considered a dealer.

I'm not defending the law; I'm only explaining it (as well as I can; I'm not a lawyer).

If the bottle were sealed with superglue, it would hardly be in pristine condition, would it? To seal a bottle with superglue, I suppose you'd have to remove the cap and put the glue underneath it. While you're doing that, you might as well pour out the liquor and replace it with colored water.