eBay

quiart · ‎05-09-2023

What is eBay doing about sellers selling counterfeit stamps? Sellers who are posting stamps for sale way under the cost of postage + shipping and selling fees are not selling stamps at a loss. These stamps have got to be counterfeit stamps purchased at ridiculously low prices, usually about $5.50 to $6.00 per book or sheet of 20 $0.63 stamps. These purveyors of counterfeit stamps are selling them at below face value to include their shipping and selling costs. Nobody sells current, Forever stamps at a loss. This flood of counterfeit stamps are putting us legitimate sellers out of business. My suggestion is that eBay should determine the legitimacy of these suspect stamps and if found to be counterfeit, suspend the sellers. If it is determined that these same sellers continue to sell counterfeit stamps, they be banned from selling on eBay permanently. Something has to be done about this.

simba6 · ‎05-09-2023

Wait until they start selling 100 bills for 60.00.

femmefan1946 · ‎05-09-2023

I don't know if it is a verified fact or an urban legend, but I have heard that George Bush shipped a billion dollars - in US bills- to Iraq (when they were allies against Iran) which subsequently disappeared.

It sounds unlikely, some misunderstanding of how aid payments are made is more reasonable, but I am too lazy to do more than repeat the gossip without any verification.

I do remember an early episode of The Rookie in which two LA cops were left in charge of a mere million dollars in bills and were shown with a crate of neatly stacked bills approximately 4'x4'x4'.

dbfolks166mt · ‎05-09-2023

I don't know if it is a verified fact or an urban legend, but I have heard that George Bush shipped a billion dollars - in US bills- to Iraq (when they were allies against Iran) which subsequently disappeared.

It sounds unlikely, some misunderstanding of how aid payments are made is more reasonable, but I am too lazy to do more than repeat the gossip without any verification. If the billion was in $100 bills that would be about a 10 ton shipment. 😀

I do remember an early episode of The Rookie in which two LA cops were left in charge of a mere million dollars in bills and were shown with a crate of neatly stacked bills approximately 4'x4'x4'.

Always love the way TV inflates everything. Depending on the denomination of the million dollars if they were $100's then a box 6.14" wide x 2.61" tall and 43" deep would hold a million and weight about 22 pounds.

dirk12955 · ‎05-10-2023

Simba, A $100.00 bill and $100.00 in forever stamps are not the same thing. You can trade

a $100.00 for an equal value in goods or services. You can put it in your 401K and maybe it'll

increase in value. You can gift it to your church or a Graduate.

Forever stamps can only be used for one thing, To mail a 1 oz (Or less) USPS item. They aren't cash and they

aren't really a commodity as they can't be used for anything else.

The PO won'y but them back. They are a one way market.

If a stamp dealer, Or a Coin dealer, Or a pawn shop, Or an estate buyer, is looking at a roll

of 100 forever stamps, or 5 rolls, or 10 rolls, What does he want to pay for them? He does not

need them or really want them other than to buy cheap and sell for a profit.

So he pays $20.00 to $30.00 per roll and offers to sell them to the next guy at $40.00-$60.00 per

roll and maybe the end buyer will actually use them.

All U.S. postage is good forever. The 5 cent Washington stamps Grandma purchased in 1965 are still worth 5 cents and can be stuck on an envelope.

Fake Forever stamps are a real thing. But to confuse the issue, there are real forever stamps

floating around for sale at a discount too.

jerseyboymusic · ‎05-10-2023

I don't have this problem when I buy a book of stamps at my local post office

moondogblues · ‎05-12-2023

"

I don't know if it is a verified fact or an urban legend, but I have heard that George Bush shipped a billion dollars - in US bills- to Iraq (when they were allies against Iran) which subsequently disappeared.

It sounds unlikely, some misunderstanding of how aid payments are made is more reasonable, but I am too lazy to do more than repeat the gossip without any verification."

I typed in 'cash sent to Iraq" and got tons of hits. Here's a snippet from Wiki:

'$12 billion in U.S. currency was transported from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad in April 2003 and June 2004, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. A Vanity Fair magazine report concluded that of this sum, "at least $9 billion has gone missing".'

pls-consignments · ‎05-12-2023

"many of these "reduced price" stamps are thefts from the post office..."

That is incorrect. Nearly all of the counterfeit stamps are Forever Stamps (usually flags) and are printed by shadow facilities overseas and sold online. They come both in rolls and yes, now booklets. The issue is not just about selling them. But USPS has contributed to the problem due to antiquated machinery that is unable to detect them. Instead of investing in new infrastructure to address this, its much easier to pass the loss off onto honest consumers by raising stamp prices. Counterfeit stamp sellers are fully aware of this. Therefore, as long as counterfeit stamps continue to work, people will continue to sell.... and buy them.

pls-consignments · ‎05-12-2023

"There is only so much that others can do to protect the willfully ignorant, or the greedy who are eager to believe in deals that are too good to be true, from themselves."

Although I appreciate your perspective, I would have disagree with your buyer demographics. Yes, the counterfeit industry is thriving upon those you mentioned. But they are also targeting the "unwillingly ignorant", namely the generation of those who still use stamps vs. electronic communication. Both of my parents (who are in their 80's, found rolls of Forever flag stamps online and asked me to purchase for them. 😞

dirk12955 · ‎05-12-2023

onefootflipper2 · ‎05-12-2023

The entire "below face value" forever stamp business is primarily driven by crime, even when the dealers themselves are legitimate sellers.

Most seniors don't hoard stamps, most estates don't have any. Even most stamp collectors don't hoard rolls of modern forever stamps. I am sure there are some, but it can't be most of it.

What does happen however is that people steal these stamps from their employers and other places where they might have access and then they sell them to the dealers, who then sell them on ebay. I saw the same thing when I worked at the card store, people who never bought anything, didn't seem to play any of the card games, but had a neverending supply of Pokemon cards or packs to sell to the store on a weekly basis (likely stolen from Wal-Mart).

That doesn't even get into the counterfeits, which are obviously crime on even the surface level.

dirk12955 · ‎05-12-2023

The scan is of an envelope containing a stamp collection I bought from an ebay seller. I received this today and him using all those

old 29 and 32 cent stamps made me think of this thread.

worldcoinauctions · ‎05-12-2023

I don't use them for ebay postage, but I buy a lot of unused vintage stamps at 30-50% of face from peoples old collections. We do use them for postage and yes it does get a bit funny looking. Common practice among coin and stamp dealers. The collectable stamp market is much different than it was in the 1970s and 80s, now most post WW2 and even post 1900 US stamps are better used for postage than collected. Modern forever stamps though? I never see those.

femmefan1946 · ‎05-12-2023

The Forever stamps that are being sold in booklets and rolls are mostly counterfeit.

And eBay has made it difficult to sell those the same way that hand sanitizer and N95 masks were made difficult to sell, by restricting those who are allowed to list them.

@onefootflipper2 said Most seniors don't hoard stamps, most estates don't have any.

which is true, but a couple of decades ago, pre-internet basically, about 11% of households** had a stamp collector of some level.

And one of the most common ways of collecting was to subscribe to the USPS Philatelic Fulfillment Centre and get every single stamp they issued.

When we run into those collections it is not unusual for the packets to still be unopened decades after purchase. ( We see the Canada Post issues, but US dealers would say the same.)

These are not the sophisticated collectors who are actually developing collections that will at the least hold their own against inflation, and might even rise in value. Their collections are no different than Aunt Phyllis' collection of Bradford Exchange "Gone With the Wind" plates, except that the widow will get something back, while Phyllis' family can't even use the plates* on the dinner table.

*They are not food safe. Lead glazes.

** According to the USPS.

annadryl · ‎05-12-2023

There was a thread a while back where a seller bought a role of the fakes and shipped about a dozen of his sales with them. About half made it through but several were either confiscated by USPS or were delivered postage due. It depends on who caught it (or didn't) along the way and PO staff can take all different actions.

The seller's feedback was hit pretty bad and he had several INR's, don't know if his account survived. As mentioned, sometimes the cheaper price of fakes does not benefit! Buyer beware...