This Las Vegas rubber stamp manufacturer has a cult following

LAS VEGAS -- The world’s largest rubber stamp manufacturer is located in the Las Vegas Strip’s backyard.

Viva Las VegaStamps, at 1008 E. Sahara Ave., has served as a stamp lover’s paradise since 1993. The company has generated a cult following of rubber stamp enthusiasts, or stampers, thanks to years of hard work, dedicated crafters and multiple waves of social media virality.

Inside the store, craft lovers and everyday browsers will find a collection of more than 20,000 stamps in its personal line, making them the world’s largest rubber stamp manufacturer in variety.

The storefront’s zany interior décor, including authentic neon signs and local Las Vegas memorabilia, lends itself to its even zanier stamp designs.

There’s a little bit of everything in the store.

A whole section is dedicated to chocolate and another to coffee or lollipops. There’s a section for each holiday, no matter the time of year, and every occasion, like baby showers and weddings. Even more niche, there’s a section dedicated solely to “The Wizard of Oz,” ruby red slippers and all, and even antique advertisements selling mercury or arsenic.Company founding

The company was founded in 1991 by a man named Wayne Gartley, also known as Stampo.

“First he started just running it out of his garage, just making stamps for himself and other companies because not every company made the ones he necessarily wanted,” said his nephew, Jeff Gartley.

Wayne Gartley opened his first storefront in 1993 on Decatur, between Sahara and Charleston. He moved to the current location in 2000.

Jeff Gartley joined his uncle in 2008 to help him with the business and now runs it full-time. Wayne Gartley died in 2024 at age 81.

How are stamps made?

The first step is design.

“The sayings my uncle came up with a lot of them himself,” said Jeff Gartley.

Some of the quips sold in the shop are a bit eccentric. For example, some read: “I would stop buying rubber stamps but I’m no quitter!” or “We’re all bozos on this bus!”

Those are typically designed in Photoshop by members of the team.

Another way the store gets designs is through partnerships with around 40 artists from around the globe. Viva Las VegaStamps will pay for their designs or commission them to design stamp requests, either from themselves or customers.

One of their most popular artists is Mary Vogel Lozinak, who creates whimsical character designs. Lozinak is actually paid in stamps so she can sell them herself directly.

Pictures can also be imposed on the stamps as well.

Now, onto the actual stamp making.

First, the designs are affixed to a magnesium board to make the negative. Each board is around 7-by-9 inches with about 10 stamp designs on it.

A sheet of rubber is then placed on top and pressed into a vulcanizer, which makes the actual stamp. A cushion is then glued to the bottom, each design is cut out, and then placed on a wooden block.

Their stamps range anywhere from $5 to $20, but they do have a large pile of $2 stamps and a bucket of $1 stamps not glued to a wooden block.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was this massive collection of stamps. But throughout the years, with collaboration from creative minds, Viva Las VegaStamps has designed more than 1,500 plates, numbering more than 20,000 individual stamps, dubbing them the stamp company with the largest variety in the world.Social media affecting the business

Viva Las VegaStamps has always had steady, almost cult following of stampers, with around 6,000 followers on Facebook and 3,000 on Instagram. But within the past two years, the business has seen waves of virality.

“The last two years we got a lot more (customers) in-store than we had the previous several years,” said Jeff Gartley. “Largely because we’ve had a couple of TikTokers come in and make some fairly viral TikToks, and then an Instagram influencer came in.”

The store was also put into the book “111 Places in Las Vegas That You Must Not Miss” by author Mackenzie Jervis and photographer Kaitlyn Kelsey.

Analog is in, said EJ Gonzalez, owner of Shop Mama Sage in Downtown Container Park, host of Junk Journal Club Las Vegas and stationery lover, adding, “Everyone’s trying to find slower hobbies.”

“There’s something powerful about creating something with your hands nowadays,” Gonzalez said. “People are buying more supplies, and that goes hand-in-hand with stamps.”

And, it’s true. Gonzalez’s junk journaling club, which meets once a month, always sells out its 80 spots.

Gonzalez didn’t know Viva Las VegaStamps existed until a customer from Chicago visited and told her about the store. During her jaunt to the store, she made a TikTok, which garnered over 6,000 likes and 44,000 views.

“Why did I not know this place existed?” Gonzalez said in her TikTok. “It’s overwhelming in the best way.”

While there, Gonzalez bought a showgirls stamp, one with an 8-ball and one that read “whimsy,” saying “we’re all trying to be a little more whimsical.”

“I haven’t even touched them, they’re so cute,” said Gonzalez, who also classifes stamps as trinkets. “I just have them sitting in my craft station at home.”

Patronage waxes and wanes at Viva Las VegaStamps, some days only seeing two to three customers in-store. Most of their sales are done through their website, Stampo.com.

They also have multiple regulars who have bought from the company for more than 20 years.

“We have something go viral, then we got a lot of people coming to the store for a couple weeks after that,” said Jeff Gartley. “A lot of them aren’t stampers, but they still came in and shopped and everything.”