Not Yet Issued US Stamps For Sale On E-Bay

While searching for a dealer from whom to purchase the Swedish issue of the upcoming US/Sweden joint issue for Ingrid Bergman, I noticed that several e-bay dealers are already advertising the US version, at a steep mark-up over the USPS. The prices asked for the sheet of 20 range from $12.95 to $18, plus shipping. For something that every post office will be selling for $9.80 in a few weeks. Why would anyone spend 1½ to 2 times the face price of the stamps? It's not as though they will get them any sooner than the FDOI, the dealers advertise that they will be available a week or two after the release date.

It's called GREED.

Peter

Yes, greed is why people are selling them. I am trying to figure out how anyone can be gullible enough to buy them. I thought perhaps people who live way far away from the nearest post office, or are home-bound. But if they see these adds on e-bay, they had to also see the USPS add where the item is listed at face price plus a modest shipping fee.

Edited for typos.

People who live far away from a post office can order stamps through their carrier (no extra cost as their carrier delivers)or use stamps by mail (minimum cost. I suspect the Barnum syndrome is at play.

I don't have any problem with this. It may interest overseas buyers. It's no different than the "new issue service" offered by many dealers for non-US ("foreign") issues. You always pay a markup if you use a dealer to send you a new issue, rather than ordering direct from the postal authority, but if the postal authority won't ship to you or you don't speak the language of its site, it may be easier to use a dealer. There may even be less risk of loss of the shipment, or easier to work with the dealer for a refund or replacement.

Folks who have figured-out ebay may be reluctant to try & figure-out yet another website, register at that website, hand over credit card details (again), follow the idiotic advice to pick yet one more unique-yet-easy-to-remember-yet-difficult-to-guess password ...

My son figured-out Amazon. To him, that is the internet. When he was looking for sushi at his new TDY, I introduced him to Zagat. The last time I won that level of amazed approval was over twenty years ago, when I made a rubber band jump from two fingers to the other two fingers on one hand.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

So will the Scott's catalog use the official first day of issue date, or date of earliest known use for these stamps?

cjpalermo - Overseas sales, I didn't think of that, thanks.

ikeyPikey - That's my whole point: that you can buy stamps from the USPS on e-Bay using your same PW and billing info as you would buying from the dealers selling the stamp sheets at the marked-up price.

Eligies - Funny you should mention the "Barnum Effect". I knew a comic book dealer in the 1970's who had the highest prices of any other dealer, as much as 5 times higher on some items. We were talking one day and he told me that his role model was P.T. Barnum.

Maybe there are folks out there who are willing to pay a premium, albeit a stiff one, to avoid the nuisance of going down to the post office to pick them up, go online to order them (although presumably that's no more taxing than contacting the dealer), or are just simply not in a position to easily acquire them, maybe overseas buyers as another poster noted. Maybe money is no object to some folks and the convenience of having someone else do all the legwork is worth it to them. I wouldn't pay that type of premium, but I don't collect recently issued stamps anyway so it's not an issue for me.

Regarding the use of the term greedy for those dealers trying to sell the item for a multiple of the USPS price, if someone else out there is willing to buy it for their own reasons that may not be easily discernible by other people, that's their business. If the buyers and dealers reach a mutually satisfying deal, then I'm not sure what basis there is to call the dealers greedy. If you don't want to buy it at those prices, then don't. If no one at all buys the item from a dealer at those prices, then it's the dealer's problem if he/she has bought a pile of them to try to resell.

Correct! I rarely buy on ebay, and have long ordered from the USPS store, so, like, who knew? Everybody but me

One must also consider that the Ingrid Bergman stamp is not yet available for pre-sale at the USPS Store's website. Further, the USPS Store (Stamp Fulfillment Services) will be closing for their audit for from July 23-27, 2015, so orders will be delayed. And let's not forget the $1.30 postage fee the USPS tacks onto orders under $50; or $1.85 for orders over that amount. All things considered someone who wants to get their stamp order in bad enough may be willing to pay a premium for it.

old guy: Scott will use the official day of issue in its record. None of the ebay sellers who are currently listing stamps that haven been yet issued have the stamps at this time. They will receive the stamps on the day of issue or later just like anyone else.

Does anyone think that the demand will be so high that if you don't preorder them you won't get any? Does anyone know what city is handling the ceremony?

Zero chance

To be fair to me - and the folks buying from these premium sellers - searching ebay (on my clean browser) for 'new postage stamps' (etc) did not bring-up the USPS store on the first page of results.

And searching 'new ingmar bergman forever stamp' brought-up only her movies.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey