Scam?

I purchased a group of stamps from an estate primarily for the few older stamps in a small album. While looking Thur the other material I came across a large amount of what was labeled as " stamp investments." The more I read in the inventories that the lady kept with detailed costs and statements "hinting" of the great value of the sets she was acquiring for her "donation" I became quite upset.
The lady "donated" Thousands of dollars for the stamps she received. All are various souvenir sheets from the1980's & 1990's.Grenada and st.vincent being the most common. The letters she kept along with the invoices from the "Foundation". I will quote some of the "almost" promises. " These sets are quite a collector's item, and there is no telling what their value could go to in the future. In fact because of their value, your donation would not be tax deductible. " The sets are the Barbra Streisand souvenir sheets of 1993. She also "acquired multiple sets of the Maldives Great mysteries of the world souvenir sheet sets. Also numerous sets of the Grenada souvenir sheet sets saluting the coming exploration of mars.The letter about the appreciation of the value of these sets is in my opinion so much bunk. The poor lady sent in for dozens of sets at a" donation" of $100.00 per set!The full letter is to lengthy to post here,but I can see how a collector with little knowledge of the stamp world would fall for this rip-off.What do you think?

I hope for everything to be perfect and nice and easy to explain. Unfortunately I have found that this isn't so. There are these nasty thing called viewpoint and perception. Changes everything. You change your viewpoint and you change your perception of whatever it was you were viewing (or thinking about or visualizing).

From my viewpoint of a guy trying to generally live an honest life that letter / sales technique is quite disturbing.

However, to the salesperson who was using that technique / letter it is probably a great idea.

A person does what he feels is the right thing to do.

There is also the basic human instinct of survival. Looking after yourself. The lady mentioned could have been thinking she was doing exactly that. She felt great about it. Otherwise why did she continue with it?

The salesman 'sold her' the idea that this was a great idea for making money by using wording that changed her viewpoint of how much the stamps were worth or would be / could be worth.

I wouldn't call her stupid or even uninformed because she was reacting as most humans would to a perceived easy way out of the survival challenge.

The salesman was dishonest by omitting facts of historical appreciation of similar stamps.

I myself have been caught in this 'trap' of human thinking one way or another. It is frustrating and maddening but hopefully enlightening. You learn from your mistakes.

A lot of people have to do it that way, the hard way. That sales technique will continue to work, much as we wish it didn't.

Look at what we pay for stamps. Is 10 cents too much? A dollar? One hundred dollars? How can a little piece of paper that won't feed us or clothe us or provide shelter be really worth something?

Viewpoint and perception, if we didn't have them we probably would have left Earth by now for some 'better' planet. No, wait a minute, I mean stayed. No, we would have left. Um, er . . .

I think there is a chance that USPS postal investigators may be interested. These operations close down and pop back up, so good records may be of use to them, even if this scam is long over. Maybe not, but it can't hurt.

It would be your good deed for the day.

My 2d.

Collin

Having spent most of my adult life in sales on and off. I find this disgusting. I put people like this in the same category as those who bilk the elderly out if their life savings on bogus stock scams. This is not a matter of perception. It is outright theft! The person/Persons who came up with this did it knowing they were full of sh_t(Trying to keep this clean). They were pedaling wallpaper to the unknowing and unsuspecting. By offering them as a "gift" they get certain legal protections. While the person who donates gets none.

It is a disgusting Scam plain and simple!

Thank you for your replies. I think here that the USPS would be unlikely to proceed in this case since everything was designated as a "donation". from the many pieces of other correspondence that I have it is obvious to me that the lady thought that she was going to reap a financial bonanza very shortly. There are also such things as statute of limitations, whether it would apply in this case I would not know. I realise that there are similar marketing techniques used in about every business, some more deceptive than others, But as a stamp collector, and a business man dealing in hobby items I find this reprehensible.

Stampaddict......

In my opinion......this type of thing rides the border between legal & illegal......yes it's ok to ask for donations....but to give the impression that wallpaper can turn to gold is another matter. I would write out our objections as collectors and mail a package to your State Attorney General. Here in Nebraska our Attorney General tracts this type of thing and actually warns the public about such scams. He also is working on ways to prevent foreign scams from entering the country.

If nobody complains, State Attorney Generals can't do anything and the scam continues.