Massive Dump of US Forever Stamps Underway.

[bobdenneu]

Within the Past 2 days there has been flurry of listings of US Forever Stamps emanating from China.  When paging through New Listings of US Forever stamps, looking for bargains, I saw a substantial number of similar listings.   Digging deeper uncovered thew following: 

• Listing predominantly within the US Collections & Lots Category
• All listings Buy-it-Now or Best Offer
• 40 different sellers with ID profiles from China
• Approximately 1,300 listings
• Number of Listings per Seller between 13 to 49
• Each listing was for 5 Sheets or Booklets and 20 stamps
• Some sellers had more sets of 5 available with additional discounted price 
• Pricing average approx. $50 which includes 2 ounce sheets
• Listings shared photos across the 40 ID's
• All listings had free shipping.

What struck me the most was the quantities being sold by virtually the same person or group as there is no doubt that the 40 ID's were tied to one another.  All the issues listed have known Counterfeits in existence.

In summary, I don't know if this is a Holiday Sale and a one-time event or a new trend.

[malolo]

Great research. There must have been information from a postal organization to eBay that these offers/products are against the law if used on letters or packages.

Next eBay real estate might become an intersting palce to bid! Check out that one is only bidding on down payment! LOL

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204800586873?itmmeta=01HYVF9GPC2R3R7TM4HEFTCG52&hash=item2faf10f479:g:gXAAA...

And if one searches for China in eBay search one gets 46,000,000+ results. Must be a lot of trendy items for sale. ); >)

[bobdenneu]

Add a 41st member to the list reported from China.   Overnight the number of listings doubled to over 2,000 US Forever Listings as it looks like each of the 40 members doubled their open listings.   Surprisingly I counted 5 new 2024 issues among some of the new listings.  Also, the average price per listing dropped an additional $5 to $10.

[msgtdavid]

How many different issues (different Scott Numbers, not SIN's) has been reported here since the start?

[jaywild]

Roger that lot is right around the corner from you, assuming that you are still up in the Seattle area!  Would be nice to have a nearby "vacation" home

[bobdenneu]

Not sure what you're asking.  Please clarify.

[malolo]

Got my "vacation" home in PT which includes road access and utilities. LOL!  

Can't imagine bidding on a down payment to have the opportunity to pay $300,00 for a lot which requires a dock and everything be brought in by boat. Construction costs must be amazing considering all materials and employees must be brought in by barge or landing craft type vehicle. I used the Google Maps to determine there only 6 properties around the island with docks. That might indicate how difficult it might be to actually build a dock for your property.

Nothing in the wilds of Washington is easy. ); >)  Think tideland permits, building permits, etc etc. to say nothing about gettin gbuilding inspectors to the property to sign off on ongoing work.

[thines]

What does the discussion of lake lots in Washington State have to do with counterfeit US stamps???

[malolo]

Nothing, other than eBay will offer anything if there is some profit in it for the company. 

Here's the question.

A  realtor in California offers a listing giving the eBay user the opportunity to bid on the down payment of a lot where the page shows an asking price of $295,000. It also shows the "Owner is a licensed real estate agent in the State of California (not in Washington). Owner is not acting as a real estate agent for the sale of this property. No brokerage commission will be paid through this auction."

So you will be dealing with the real estate agent on a personal level rather than a listing deal through a realtor's office.

If you ask me this will be an advertising tax write-off for the lister and eBay will get a percentage of the down payment bid rather than the sale of the property asking price of $295,000. 

This all gets down to ethics of eBay which continues to allow offers of counterfeit stamps made in China, and with all its powerful AI and search capabilities refuse (or can't) identifyf=phony products coming out of China, because eBay gets its % of the final sales. So it goes.

[oggilby]

It would be nteresting to see statistics from USPS to see how many of these bogus stamps get rejected in the main postal facilities. I doubt if theses bogus items are being bought by collectors.  The UK is making the receivers of mail with bogus postage pay a huge penalty upon receipt, a few pounds above the rate sent. I doubt if USPS will ever do anything like that.

Hi Jay, Hi Malolo. Nice to see some of the “old” gang still around. I wonder if our Chicago know it all is still around somewhere., I can’t remember his id. I talk a bit to Anne every so often and  Rob Faux shows up weekly on the FB eBay Users Stamp Club page with postings.

[jaywild]

Hey Burt! (says Ernie)

I hope all is well with you two.  Always nice to "hear" from you

Jaywild

[jaywild]

I've bought some of those stamps (at least I think so) for forty cents on the dollar, just to satisfy curiosity.  My local PO told me the were legit (but what do they know, all they can do is rely on a snap judgment).  I have mailed letters using them and since everything has gotten where it was going, including overseas, I could only be an uncertain witness that the stamps were counterfeit.

[billsey]

Yes, Paul is still around. He's hanging out on stampcommunity.org at least, and may be elsewhere as well. My bet it better than 99% of the bogus stamps are used in the mail, by firms and organizations that do a lot of first class and most of them don't know what they are doing. Or at least don't let themselves realize it. I also believe USPS isn't trying hard enough to crack down on it...

[dbenson]

Paul is sunning himself in Florida.

Have not heard for Sherryl for a long time, she used to be in contact with me but not lately.

David Benson

[dbenson]

As far as I know there have been no reports of fake Australian stamps sold on Ebay.

I had a discussion with an Australia Post Investigator last year about the usage of cleaned stamps being used as huge quantities of kiloware from various Missions by some Auction Houses. He told me that the Post office can only intervene when the items are presented at the PO counter.  He also told me that a shipment from China two years ago was found to contain 400,000 forged $ 1.00 stamps. 

What is on Ebay that is forged are the PO Satchels which have Bar codes imbedded on them.  They are accepted by the PO computers and go through as normal mail.

David B.