Beware Trimmed Fakes

It's not unusual for ebay sellers (intentionally or not) to offer the inexpensive US Scott #24 with trimmed perforations as the more expensive Scott #7 or #9. Here's an example that recently appeared:



You can tell this is a trimmed #24 by the incomplete side ornaments at left and by the fragment of guide arrow at top left (this appeared only on plates that produced #24). This seller takes great pains in his/her Terms of Sale to stress that the buyer should use their own expertise to verify the stamp ID; in other words, the seller is not responsible for misidentified stamps. I am unsure of the SCF policy implications so have not specified the seller here.

Trimmed number 7/9s pop up fairly regularly on the Stamp Smarter website http://www.stampsmarter.com/. Trimmed stamps comprise of significant percentage of the listings that get Reviewed with trimmed #315 (5c imperf) being very common. Please feel free to join Stamp Smarter (its free) and submit a Review of this listing so it can be added to the database.

But please note we do not assume that the seller is being dicey, it could be that they just made a mistake. Part of what we do is contact the seller and see if they are willing to improve the listing. Many sellers reply saying that they did not know better, some pretend to not know better, and some use the ol' 'buyer beware' as a lame way to avoid doing the right thing.

I get a bit more frustrated when single stamps are sold, finding mis-identified stamps in a lot/collection is pretty common. I get more frustrated when the seller is supposed to be an 'expert' or dealer who is making their living from selling stamps. There are some who throw faked coils on ebay that look like a 10 year old cut them with scissors and just expect buyers to beware. When looking at #315 imperfs, it is important to note that the accepted minimum size should be 21.5x25mm.
Don

I hate cheats, Connivers and Liars. They prey on ignorant and innocent old people like me. It irks me so much it almost makes me quit collecting.

I agree with you TinMan... Like W.C.Fields always said.."There is a sucker born every day"

Isn't that a P.T. Barnum quote? Or did he say something similar? I recall that W.C. Fields once said " I went to Philadelphia once...it was closed" and "Go away kid, ya bother me!"

ya..i think your right.....

There are some sellers (including some who otherwise seem to be pretty "honest" based on their feedback (proving once again the limited value of the feedback system....) who regularly sell fake coils and fake imperfs and justify it by saying "buyer beware" or something similar and then rake in lots of money for them. Geez.......

Several years ago I got into it with an ebay crook selling obviously doctored stamps. He justified the practice as "marketing"...