Modern Made Forgeries

I am getting slightly irritated about the number of modern made forgeries - One seller states

.

Another says :



What's more alarming is people are buying them! These are just two sellers I found on ebay while searching for GB Victoria stamps. A while back I confronted a seller selling album pages. The pages were obviously from stampalbums.com (I asked for some sample pages). Once I mentioned stampalbums.com I never heard from him again. He was/still is selling one country album pages in pdf format for £4.95 a pop.

I think I am in the wrong business, thoughts ?

Drew

Well, I guess people have the right to buy "replicas" or "copies" of famous stamps. As long as the seller isn't misleading people into thinking they are genuine, it's legal.

However, the the StampAlbums infringement is despicable. You should definitely report it to William E. Steiner at http://stampalbums.com/ and to ebay's fraud and complaint center.

KirkS

I ran a quick search on ebay and the seller is still selling them - the reason I noticed originally was because steiners pages only go up to certain years - all these sellers pages went up to the same years.

I did report it to Mr. Steiner but did not receive a reply from him so left it at that.

Here is a link to one of the sellers listings (maybe he has an agreement with stampalbums?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/GREAT-BRITAIN-S...em3a6044f37b

Sorry if this post is has now turned to an ebay post.

Forgeries as described above have been around since the early days of the hobby. Say you have a completed page in your album, sans 1. That 1 is an extreme rarity with 2-3 known. Some would rather have a forgery in the blank rather than keep looking at the hole. It's the same concept as a space filler(almost). While I do subscribe to the concept of "space fillers" I am not a big fan of forgeries in my collection. However I do have 5 or 6 in my book. But, they are "classic Forgeries" (ie: moens, Speratti) and have value in their own right. I do have them noted as such. They are all $5000+ stamps. At some time I might get the chance to replace them but it is unlikely as under a dozen are known to exist. I did not seek these out as Forgeries they came in lots that were acquired over the years. As far as I am concerned "Modern Forgeries" or "Copies" are no more than wallpaper.

I'm surprised that ebay hasn't had complaints about this before. If they have recently banned all Nazi items being sold then why are they not preventing forgeries? If they are allowing forgeries in stamps then what else are they allowing to be sold as forgeries? Think of the art collections, antiques or other things of greater value that is auctioned off for charities.

Donna

The problem is that they are clearly labelled as forgeries - there is no deception by the seller. What boggles the mind is they are probably printed on a colour laser printer and are being sold for £2.00 and up. I could do a full sheet of the inverted Jenny tomorrow at work, stamp the backs with the word copy and then flog them.

True. You know what really is a shame? Is that in the day of true art forgeries, the forgery was done by a somewhat decent artist of the day. I guess now that the creator of the stamp forgeries are master button pushers.

Donna

I'll buy one ! I don't have a repro of the inverted Jenny.

I do have these though:































...and more ! [But another time]

I think they make a great Cinderella display and are harmless. Real forgeries that are sold as stamps are, on the other hand, both harmful, illegal and sadly, expensive.

I have said it before here many times but I will say it again, it is extremely sad that you cannot make forgeries but you CAN sell them and deal in them...and own them.

There are a few morons who take advantage and try to sell the repros as the real thing. But in the general run of things and when put against real forgers who commit real crimes, they are harmless.

Londonbus1

OK, here's a question.

Which of the scans in my previous post was the odd one out and why ?

Londonbus1....I'll try to find a prize!

The Universal Postal Congress block is the odd one out ....

the confeds are obvious forgeries. they aren't even good forgeries..

I have a extra 6 or 7 available..

SV,
They are not forgeries, they are reproductions. Made for collectors,souvenir hunters etc. And originally sold as such. I have the Confederate Repro folder somewhere which I will scan.

Forgeries are made to deceive, these are not. But some scoundrels get hold of them and try to make an extra buck. And they succeed. But only in small,small figures.
Forgers and dealers who buy and sell them, are making it big. This is where the problem is. Except to most in the philatelic world, dealing in forgeries is OK.
Some guy is spending time in jail for forging stamps while others reap the benefits of their wrong-doing.

Londonbus1....OK, I'll shut up now !

Back to Londonbus's challenge:

Is the odd one out the Tristan da Cunha facsimile 'cos the doc states that they are a copy?

David

No!






No!

Londonbus1....First correct answer I read at breaky wins.

LB, The Europa 1980 is odd, it is modern.

This one looks a genuine proof officially printed by the French State Printer.