Counterfeit rolls of forever stamps

[geezertools]

There are now a plethora of sellers offering rolls of 100 forever stamps that would normally cost

$66.00 from the USPS.  Their prices are so unbelievably low as $14.68 and slightly above for the same roll.

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.  These are either counterfeit, or the product of a seller that is not proficient at math.  I propose that they are counterfeit.  Anyone that buys these from a Chinese seller for resale, and believes these are legitimate, is either naive or commiting a criminal act.  The USPS and, ultimately, the American consumer via increasingl postal stamp prices are the victims of this pracice.

How can this practice be curtailed ?  The easiest way is for ebay to stop sellers from listing rolls or sheets of forever stamps at less than face value.  For a company that has numerous ads on You tube for selling only authentic goods, these items fly in the face of this "authentic" mantra.

Second is for buyers to reject these offers from sellers.  If sellers can't profit from these sales, then eventually they will dry up.

Thirdly, you as the ultimate consumer, must resist the temptation of placing your financial gain over the financial soundness of are USPS.

[simba6]

eBay had added rules for bulk stamp sales.   China is well known for knock off items.  If the postal service had not switched to cheap printing this might not have happened.  Today's stamps are printed like baseball cards.  Not very secure.   Serves them right, can't fault China because they can produce them for less than the US  postal service.   Free enterprise at work.  Just kidding, it's a federal offense.

[12345jamesstamps]

Someone the other day a USA seller posted only one auction of such an item and the auction got cancel so eBay is doing something. Was posted here in fact.

Stamp sellers who sell worldwide stamps including USA forever stamps in the USA in my opinion are OK.

We can't eliminate everything on eBay that might be fake...coins, purses, watches, etc., etc. 

As a wine director, it's easy to even put fake wine in a legal wine label and bottle....and these buyers might not open the wine for years to find out if it is real.

It's the feedback, ID buyer country, date seller joined, etc. helps in buying something on eBay.

[eburtonlab]

Counterfeit items are not allowed to be sold:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/counterfeit-item-policy?id=4276

The fact that counterfeit items are not allowed on eBay does not actually stop sellers from trying to sell them, though.

Some of the counterfeit stamp operations are quite sophisticated and include various security features just like genuine stamps, including micro-printing features and UV ink.

Some info in this thread:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/The-Stamp-Board/Reporting-US-Forever-Stamp-Sales-that-Appear-to-be-Cou...

If you suspect that a listing is counterfeit, report it to eBay. Sellers of Forever Stamps are supposed to be pre-approved by eBay before they can sell.

If a deal is too good to be true, it is not true.

[mudshark61369]

@geezertools,

"Thirdly, you as the ultimate consumer, must resist the temptation of placing your financial gain over the financial soundness of are USPS".

That would mean using common sense which is in very short supply these days.  Many buyers who can't resist passing up a "good - too good to be true deal" think they can rely on the Money Back Guarantee (MBG)  if things go wrong, without bothering to think that a scam seller will do other things to void The MBG protections.

As for ebay being able to "fix" anything, first they would need to be able to vet each of the millions of new listings posted daily on the site which is pretty much economically unfeasible. Even if ebay came up with fixes, they cannot fix stoopid.