eBay

deltilogical · ‎03-29-2023

How else can I understand it? They censor us over every little thing we say so it is obviously permitted. The first thing I see this morning is one of the unending ads for this roll of stamp at half price. From China! This is not a mistake. It is not an accident. All the FAANG companies are in on this.

buyselljack2016 · ‎03-29-2023

Call me a skeptic, but I find it hard to comprehend how a profit can be made selling coils of forever stamps for $29.99 that cost $49 when sold by USPS in 2017. (reference notice 123 Jan 22, 2017)

Your "local" USPS is very possibly not qualified to verify stamps to be valid.

a_c_green · ‎03-29-2023

@buyselljack2016 wrote:
Your "local" USPS is very possibly not qualified to verify stamps to be valid.

Oh, God, no. The average clerk barely knows enough to get by with the business he's transacting every day (and even then, I've seen too many in-person examples of clerks being anywhere from clueless to flat-out wrong).

I can envision the clerk squinting at the suspect stamps, then calling over the most senior employee within earshot, they both study the stamps closely, then announce that they can't tell. (They may be right, in that instance.)

mcw1627jed · ‎03-29-2023

Unless they actually opened the roll and checked for the phosphor tagging and for plate numbers about every 25th stamp ,they are likely still fake.

If they just scanned the roll for the barcoding they didn't know what they were doing.

I reported dozens of these fake listings on here and just gave up as they are never ending.

If they're at half face or less they are simply fake forever stamps if they are available in quantity.

I contacted postal inspectors with fake rolls as evidence and they just didn't care.

mcw1627jed · ‎03-29-2023

Not a good comparison.

Grandpa likely doesn't have hundreds of rolls of the same stamp.

Those 3,4,5ct stamps or whatever are hard to use to mail because how many you need and are worth less with each rate increase by the usps.

Where the forever stamp can be used for first class 1oz whatever the rate increase and can be used by businesses wherever.Not too many businesses are going to use multiple stamps on their mail because of the time involved .

I could go around in any town and sell all the real forever stamps I wanted if I had them for 1/2 face.Why would anyone be selling them for 1/2 & many cases less than a 1/3 ,pay the Ebay fees and give free shipping If they were real ?

I've reported dozens of listings on Ebay that were listed at 1/3 face or less and gave up as they are never ending.

retro_entertainment_collectibles · ‎03-29-2023

@mike_jayroe wrote:
I've reached the point that if I "NEED" to buy something that I can not find made in America, then I will try to find something made anywhere but china. I got a tea pot that was made in Thailand. Every other one I looked at was made in china.
If I can't find something that I do "NOT" absolutely need that is made in America than I will do without it.
I am sick of supporting chia's economy.

Get no argument from me, I've been saying we've been in trouble since the 1980's when I saw and read findings of the very think tanks I spoke of. Does anyone think Chinese people have gotten rich in their country from "The Country Club" building up of American Millionaires? Americans have been complacent in a shift of values that now stray towards "Me and Mine" not "Us," Lifestyle and entertainment have shifted core values and that was taken advantage of in big fashion. I was involved in politics some 15 years and whilst people love the point fingers, judge and juror the truth of the matter is much of the world did not sit on it's behind the past 50 years pursuing lifestyle and entertainment. Nor will American's give up anything of significant lifestyle consequence even to ensure a nation exists for their children or grand childrens future. Saying it and doing it are two different things.

There is literally no generations in America's history that have had it easier than the Boomers forward, now the costs of that are facing the nation. Question becomes how do people take many steps backwards so as their kids and grandkids can even have a possibility of stepping forwards.

dirk12955 · ‎03-29-2023

The Point of my story, If a seller walks into a flea market, a Coin shop, A stamp dealer, or goes to a stamp and coin show to sell his collection that is mostly postage, he's going to take a hit.

Not arguing if the forever stamps are real or not. I'm arguing that there are forever stamps

and other US postage being sold at a discount that are perfectly real and can be used on a

daily basis to post mail.

I've purchased rolls and other forms of forever stamps on ebay for years. All of them were

real and all of them were purchased at about 60-70% of the face value at that time. The fakes

are a more recent problem and finally drove most forever stamps off ebay.

And while were on the subject. Ebay hasn't stopped the sale of coils of forever stamps. I just looked at a sold listing for 5 rolls $63.00 X 5 = $315.00 and they sold for $225.00 There's a very active market for rolls

of forever stamps on ebay today.

inhawaii · ‎03-29-2023

"Hello Google and China, this is Ebay calling. What do you say the three of us partner up and sell some counterfiet US postage stamps and make a few bucks."

Ridiculous.

Papa Was A Rolling Stone - The Temptations

retro_entertainment_collectibles · ‎03-30-2023

This morning I spoke with a friend who's a postal clerk about this matter, he told me legitimate one's ink will glow under UV light. He told me back in 2021 there was actually some news buzz about it locally and 99.9% assuredly anything like this coming from China be illegitimate. He told me generally what the PO does with unsold stamps is they are cancelled then sold to dealers.

He told me if someone suspects they've purchased counterfeit postage it should be reported to the Postal Inspectors which are basically Federal Police. He told me usage of them for postage is considered defrauding the Post Office and if found to be used on merch said merch can end up at a recovery center, it may not even be returned or delivery attempted postage due. He said these items usually just disappear from tracking scans.

He also told me just last month in February the USPS issued public warning about counterfeit postage and directed me to this: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/0215-usps-warns-the-public-about-surge-in-use...

somanypostcards · ‎03-30-2023

@maxine*j wrote:
I am sorry to say that this is old news. Counterfeit postage stamps have been coming out of China for several years now. It started with Forever stamps and now includes others. The counterfeits show up everywhere on the web, not just eBay and Amazon, and the USPS fights this all the time.

Here is some info from USPS, including a place to report sellers of counterfeit stamps:
https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/counterfeit-stamps

-

I suggest people go to this link and view the video. Near the end it says: "Buying and using counterfeit stamps is a Federal crime." This puts eBay buyers at real risk!

eburtonlab · ‎03-30-2023

The latest fakes also glow under UV, and may not be distinguishable from the real thing without elaborate testing.

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/quality-of-modern-counterfeit-u.s.-stamps-keeps-...

Folks interested in this issue might be interested in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjjrnaMGDl0&ab_channel=ConversationswithPhilatelists

The discussion about modern fakes starts around 9:50.

dbfolks166mt · ‎03-30-2023

The latest fakes also glow under UV, and may not be distinguishable from the real thing without elaborate testing.

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/quality-of-modern-counterfeit-u.s.-stamps-keeps-...

Folks interested in this issue might be interested in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjjrnaMGDl0&ab_channel=ConversationswithPhilatelists

The discussion about modern fakes starts around 9:50.

Yes it has. I had also mentioned earlier that China and a couple of other countries have gotten VERY good at counterfeiting just about everything.

buyselljack2016 · ‎03-30-2023

A local postal worker at an office that I frequent recognizes that a customer is using fake (line through the forever) stamps, closes eyes/mouth, sends the mail along to possibly be detected on the way. Does not wish to confront the clueless customer.

Someone is going to be very disappointed if one of those stamps is on an envelope with a payment enclosed, and that mail is confiscated/payment delayed.

reallynicestamps · ‎03-30-2023

He told me generally what the PO does with unsold stamps is they are cancelled then sold to dealers.

That right there tells me, having dealt with stamp dealing for over 50 years, that your postal worker has no idea what he is talking about.

For one thing, there is almost no market for used/cancelled modern stamps.

For another, dealers buy very small amounts of modern stamps because they are easy for customers to buy themselves.

But he is right about the 'tagging' on the stamps. Dealers sell UV lamps, both longwave and shortwave, for the use of collectors. The tagging can mean very different values on otherwise identical stamps. They can also be used on counterfeit money. We used to sell a few every year to the RCMP for that purpose.

However it is not difficult to buy UV inks to add to the stamps.

And he is right about the Postal Inspectors.

assortedcollectibles · ‎03-30-2023

@toysaver wrote:
America is so screwed. We can't even make our own socks or underwear anymore. We pay to have it made and shipped from the other side of the world. Our money has given this other side of the world the opportunity to buy our real estate and control our destiny.

None of this is by accident, but planned. It is the same all over the western world.

mcw1627jed · ‎03-30-2023

I agree that discount postage lots are available with forever stamps mixed in for a good discount off face like you stated.As I buy them myself from time to time.

It's the many listings with many multiples of rolls at 1/2,1/3, 1/4 of face.Most listings I reported were listed as located in CA with seller's of little feedback.

This has hurt the sellers of legitimate forever stamps both pushing the selling prices down and taking away sales.

Many of these counterfeit listings are easy to spot and Ebay could easily do more to stop them.

They seem to be able to remove many other types of listings.

Because of all the bogus listings over the last two years,I personally won't buy any forever stamps I can't inspect first.

I expect the honest sellers will have fake stamps working into their stock in the future.