More Information On The Massive Morgan Con Game

Most of the high end stamps sold on ebay are sold by a cartel run from England by the Morgans. They use the following usernames: Mint-Stamps, Superdeal70, Postage-due, re-entry, stamp-store1, bargaindiscountstampsales85, rushmore_bargains, and others. They use shills instead of reserves on high end auctions. THEY ARE READING THIS FORUM. They use many different locations Birmingham Alabama, New York, but they are actually in Birmingham England. They sell massive quantities of stamps on ebay. ebay gets paid for all their shill sales so they don't care. They are exempt from the rules everyone else has to follow. Shills are not suppose to be allowed on ebay (except for the Morgans) If you have any dealings with the Morgans (I had to return a $1000 stamp that was misidentified) or if you write anything negative about them, you will be blocked from ever bidding again. Bottom line, if you don't mind dealing with crooks, buy from them and keep your mouth shut. If you want to deal with honest folks, be careful!

His name is not Morgans, see this thread for more info.
https://goscf.com/t/40340

There are many other threads, in this and other forums, which can provide more info for those who are interested.

If you got away with only having a return and then being blocked, consider yourself lucky.
Don

irisgarden, thanks for outing this group...I applaud your service to this Community!
I'm one of those Forum members who think it is always good to know about hucksters. If a dealer or seller acts unscrupulous they deserve to be named!
Same type folks who like to fix horse races. Assume they are smarter than everyone else.
When really, vast majority of very bright folks tend to simply treat others the way they'd like to be treated.

Fortunately, since I resurrected my interest in stamp collecting I have dealt with
98% honest ethical folks. Sure, I've purchased on ebay mixed collections in albums or larger lots that have included some damaged material, but in those cases the goods were typically as described, or represented by decent photos or scans.

As for using shills, all I can say is buyers in auction settings need to establish their own comfort level regarding their top bid. And then stick to their guns. Like many other buyers, I find winning a stamp lot at what I consider a good price to be exciting...often more fun than placing the stamps in my albums. But I refuse to get sucked in to a bidding war! I set my projected lot value based on estimated CV and determine my top ceiling bid based on the maximum percentage of CV I am willing to pay. If I don't over pay based on my budget then it doesn't matter much to me if I'm bidding against a shill, or another dedicated collector.

dcaraz1949, I also always use a snipe program, determine what I'm willing to pay and ignore the other buyers. It might seem that shills are no big deal, but they are. Let me give an example. Yesterday, an individual sold a mint S-85B which catalogs for $17,500 for only $1750. I bid $580 and there were four bidders above me. Why did it sell so low? The seller was not aware how important the header is. Don't say "Uncle Shelby's really old stamps" but say "US Stamp S-85B" It misses lots of searches with the wrong title. In this case, there were no shill bidders and it was a fair and honest auction. The prior day, the cartel closed an S-42 which catalogs $1200. It sold to the shill about 3 weeks ago for $942 and sold to the shill again two days ago for $930. Many of the high end bidders have recognized these better stamps will be covered with a shill bid so there will be no bargains. Good stamps (sometimes), decent prices (sometimes) but no bargains. We all love bargains.

They sound like pond scum losers. And hopefully this comment will get me banned from bidding on their lots!

There are mug shots online for this individual, but I will refrain from posting links. A big part of the problem is that this individual has had as many as 50 aliased names in real life going back several decades. As seen with the original post, this causes confusion and obfuscation which makes it difficult to string all together. This individual has been arrested in both the UK and in the US (Utah), he is no longer allowed in the US, escaping from being held is also on his resume.

His online retribution antics are well known; there are people who have suddenly found out that they were the seller of a cars when the buyer shows up at their door to take the auto for example. Fake web sites, fake Facebook accounts, etc. are also all used to seek revenge against those he wants to hassle. The feisty 'down under' stamp forum has several threads, some of which will take you over an hour to read through, that outline some of this fellow actions. And believe it or not, shill bidding and bogus listings are far from the worse behaviors.

I wish there was a good philatelic publication or organization which would write an exposé on this but all seem to be fearful.
Don

I believe I just had a brush with these birds: bargaindiscountsales. I will post a scan of the lot below but I bought it because they missed a Scott #500 plate single [I needed the number for my plate # collection] which shows they are not infallible. The stamps were mailed from Somerville NJ. They included a paper slip I thought was interesting - the first I have ever seen - they are asking buyers NOT to send feedback on purchases over $ 150! I wonder why? The email they mention 'hmorganask' in Birmingham UK reminded me of this thread.

Here are the stamps - a pulled perf on the #500, but overall worth the price paid.

Yes, you did.


You may have not got ripped off on this transaction but unfortunately you ended up supporting this person. I think buyers should always check the ebay 'ID History'. Even if you don't recognize any of the names, ask yourself why would someone change their name multiple times? A case could be made for 1-2 changes, but changing it more than that should raise warning flags.
Don

Edit; The listing stated the stamps were in Birmingham, Alabama yet they shipped from NJ? Have you looked at his other names to see if this lot was sold before?

Don, Thank you for clarifying this even more. It's even larger and more sinister than I realized. I'm proud now that the cartel has blocked me from bidding. I happen to buy quite a few expensive stamps and covers on ebay, but they will no longer be getting any of my business. I hope others feel the same and ignore them. I'm even hoping that ebay in their infinite wisdom will say "enough is enough" and shut this giant scam down.

One variation on the shill scheme. Here's what happened to me. I put in my top bid. The shill bid was just $10 or so above mine. I lost. The next day I got a message from the seller saying the top bidder was not able to pay and so they were offering the stamp to me at the bid level I put in. I accepted. I was not aware of the cartel and didn't think it through. Later I realized what just happened. If the shill hadn't bid I would have gotten the stamp at a much lower price. This way they got my top bid.

Ouch.

Just another angle to watch out for.

Chasa, congrats on the "10209".....are you going to try to find the other one also?

Pulled perf aside, that's a nice find there......Ray

ray: I have 2 10208's, the SC499 and the SC500 - I need some of the other SC499's - the search goes on!