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]

Recently (beginning of August) I received about 6 emails offering this type of stamp. Being aware of this problem due to this thread, I forwarded the emails to the postal service

PostageFraudReporting@uspis.gov

First with explanations including full headers, etc. Then just forwarding the emails to the same PO address. I did not received any emails offering me stamps after about a week of forwarding them to the postal service. Maybe the postal service followed up? Who knows?

[bobdenneu]

Wouldn't you know, a day after posting about multiple US Forever Coil listings in the Baby Category, eBay removes the listings.   For those that missed it, there were 16 different China ID's each Selling 3 Rolls of 100 US Forever Stamps for $35.99.   All 16 were removed and 1 new listing appeared. 

Thank you eBay.  Better late than never.

[turtles-trading-post]

I had heard that eBay has banned selling of Forever stamps.  Good for them!

Still the ads run rampant on Facebook and the rest of the Internet.  I report every ad I see on Facebook and get the response  "This ad doesn't violate community standards"!     

[bobdenneu]

Ebay has not banned selling of Forever Stamps.  They do have a Stamp Policy with special eligibility requirements to sell Forever Stamps, but they don't have knowledgeable agents that monitor active listings. 

Like Facebook, eBay's standard response to online reporting of stamp policy violations is "We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy."  They have no consistency in reviewing violations as it appears they have no one that understands Stamp Collecting. 

[turtles-trading-post]

Um, yea!   "Forever Stamps can be sold by eligible sellers only"

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/stamps-policy?id=5043  

[malolo]

I went to the link you provided and posted the following message when I clicked on the thumbs down icon -

"Forever Stamps can be sold by eligible sellers only"

Who is an eligible seller? And how can a collector determine whether a seller of Forever Stamps is an eligible seller? EBay is being inundated with counterfeit stamps made in China and there is no way for buyers on eBay to know which are real and which should be reported to the US Postal Service as fraudulent stamps!

How does eBay determine which stamps are real and can be sold by "eligible sellers"? Who is the expert who determines which are real and which are fake?"

[malolo]

After the last email I received that offered "Forever Stamps", I reported the emails to the USPS. The last one elicited a reply from an automatic USPS reply mailbox, and it says that this is the mailbox for reporting fraudulent postage. So here's an email address which might get to the right people.

PostageFraudReporting@uspis.gov 

[bobdenneu]

This is eBay's Eligibility Requirement Policy.  I found that reviewers of reported violations in some cases, aren't aware of the policy or ignore it.  As far as I can tell, there are no eBay experts determining if forever stamps are counterfeit.  The only way the suspected counterfeit listings are even reviewed is when violations are reported online or via phone calls.  

Products with eligibility requirements policy

Certain products are restricted to sellers that have pre-approval or meet selling requirements.

What is the policy?

Some products may be sold only by sellers who meet some or all of the following requirements:

• Seller has an established history of active selling for at least 90 days, with 100 or more transactions and $1,000 or more in sales in the last 12 months
• Seller maintains a track record of delivering positive buying experiences, including an account that is Above Standard or Top Rated
• Seller complies with all applicable laws, regulations, and eBay policies
• Seller has registered for eBay managed payments and verified their identity
• Seller does not engage in high-risk activities.  If we believe a seller is a high risk for not delivering the product or meeting these requirements, we may, at our sole discretion, restrict their ability to sell these products

These products include:

• Bicycle helmets
• Car seats
• Cribs
• Forever Stamps
• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
• Over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray
• Sexual wellness products
• Emergency contraceptives