FAKE USPS FOREVER STAMPS...HOW DO YOU KNOW..

[romulus123]

Purchaed some USPS forever flag stamps at estate sale. Item removed from EBAY, because of FAKE STAMPS? How do you tell a fake stamp..I took these rolls to local USPS, and they said the are legit? 

[dirk12955]

I would trust USPS before I'd take eBay word for anything.

There are fake forever stamps around.   I'd assume they come from China.    They were being offered on 

eBay at silly low prices last year and eBay put a stop to it.

Now I see the fakes are being offered again on eBay at about 50-60%  off retail.    I'd assume again that these are getting reported and you got caught up.

[ebooksdiva]

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@romulus123 wrote:

Purchaed some USPS forever flag stamps at estate sale. Item removed from EBAY, because of FAKE STAMPS? How do you tell a fake stamp..I took these rolls to local USPS, and they said the are legit? 

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If you say that they are legit according to the PO why not use them yourself? 

[luckythewinner]

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@romulus123 wrote:

Purchaed some USPS forever flag stamps at estate sale. Item removed from EBAY, because of FAKE STAMPS? How do you tell a fake stamp..I took these rolls to local USPS, and they said the are legit? 

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eBay can remove your item for any reason they want, or for no reason at all. From the eBay user agreement:

"we reserve the right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone for any reason at our discretion."

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/user-agreement?id=4259

If eBay won't allow you to list them here, there are online services that will pay your around 70% of face value.

[mr_lincoln]

@romulus123   I have to agree with @ebooksdiva here, just use them yourself.  Not sure why anyone would buy stamps AND pay to have them shipped ...

Mr. L

[romulus123]

I got 200....dont have that many friends.

[mtgraves7984]

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@romulus123 wrote:

I got 200....dont have that many friends.

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@romulus123 

^^ That made me giggle. You know, I honestly don't remember the last time I used a postal stamp. Seriously.

[dirk12955]

Tagging on:

Discount U.S. postage is a thriving market and has been for many years.     U.S. postage can be purchased 

 for less than face value, sometimes 20-30%  below face in the secondary market.

If you see forever stamps at 50% of face value then read lightly.    Probably fake.

I buy real forever stamps at about 70%  of face value on a regular basis to use as postage.

[ms.rodriguez* · Accepted solution]

If you sell, start using some of them as postage BUT ONLY IF YOU KNOW FOR SURE THAT THEY ARE NOT FAKE.  You will have to make the line at the post office and pay the difference in shipping.  This will ONLY work  and be worthwhile on your bigger packages so that you have the room to add the stamps.  So if shipping is 7.00 and the stamps are worth 60 cents each.   ADD 10 stamps for 6.00 postage and then pay the difference at the post office.   You will get the receipt with the tracking # and then you MUST remember to add this tracking #  actual item on MY EBAY.  This way the buyer will get the tracking #.  It's time consuming, yes.   But it's a way of getting rid of the stamps and saving some money.  You can ONLY do this for USA shipping only.

I just found about 5 sheets of older stamps with denominations from 32 cents to 44 cents.  I do plan on getting rid of them slowly by attaching them to my packages.

[romulus123]

I ended up just pulling my listings......these were purchased at an estate sale. Bought a box with stamps, pens, paper, envelopes...all business related items. You would think the USPS clerk that said they are legit, would be enough to put this to rest, but not the case. 

[luckythewinner]

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@romulus123 wrote:

I ended up just pulling my listings......these were purchased at an estate sale. Bought a box with stamps, pens, paper, envelopes...all business related items. You would think the USPS clerk that said they are legit, would be enough to put this to rest, but not the case. 

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If telling eBay that a USPS clerk told you they were legitimate was enough to "put this to rest", then every single crooked seller with fake stamps would tell eBay that a postal clerk told them they were legitimate.

[romulus123]

Great idea.....thanks!!

[mr_lincoln]

@romulus123   When I first started selling it was to liquidate an uncle's personal property.    Included in the estate was a lot of postage stamps of all different values, he had a small business where he shipped things all over the US.

I used that postage on eBay packages and got a receipt with tracking number from the post office when I shipped.  I took the receipt back and added the tracking number to the sold file.  

Mr. L

[train_slide_central]

I did the same thing, bought fake stamps, then I started getting suspicious.. Then I found a thread on reddit or somewhere that shows how to tell they are fake. My local PO also had told me they are legit. If you look under a loop or microscope you can tell they are fake, there is a couple places in the flag where it is obvious. The printing shows the stripes appearing in little squares, you can't tell with the naked eye. You can also find the places on Alibaba where they are showing the factory in China where they make the fake stamps, and they  are only a few cents each.  So after confirming they were fake I went to my main PO and told them and the postmaster called the head office somewhere and they told her that they knew about them. Why they wouldn't send out a bulletin to all Post offices I have no idea.

I did get my money back from the seller and I turned the fake ones into the post office, and gave her the sellers information... I doubt they did anything with him.

[donedonedonehasta]

So here's the thing, I have 2 businesses 1 is retail where i get truckloads from SAMS of overstock to sell online and we do estate sales. Families contact us when a relative passes away and they want us to clean out the house of all the Contents so they can put it up for sale, we move the contents to a warehouse and auction it off or sell it then spilt the proceeds with the family 50/50. A local real estate agent died and his family contacted us to clear out his house and business office . In doing that we came across some 2018 stamps at his real estate office. I just assume since realitors still send out Christmas cards and other types of snail mail he stocked up in 2018. I took a few rolls of the sealed stamps to my local USPS where I've known the people who work there for years because I ship so much. They looked them over and told me they were legitimate. I had about 350 of them. I sold them on ebay. Only 2 people have returned them 1 because she read a post like this and another guy because he said something about a crest. Either way alot of these stamps are being sold on Ebay clearly the ones from China aren't legitimate yet I see that eBay allows them to be on. Not every seller of these stamps is shady or selling knock offs. I received a Vero warning they removed the listing I then called ebay, explained myself and they removed the Vero warning and reinstated the listing.