Counterfeit Forever Stamps

I think the point is that it would be one thing if these were fixed price listings offered at 25% of face. Auctions are a completely different dynamic, and a seller's minimum bid setting cannot be interpreted as being somehow indicative of the source or legitimacy of the material.

Regular auction sellers with large followings routinely start items at 99 cents regardless of value. It has no bearing on the items themselves.

A question to answer is this, what is the current bulk wholesale percentage of face for forever stamps in your area? Getting 25-30% of face, in cash is considered a win here.

I'm having a hard time believing the story behind ebay dealer after ebay dealer who somehow has large quantities of current Forever stamps that they're happy to sell for about 25% below face value. I can understand an occasional estate sale or business liquidation, but that doesn't explain seller after seller with what appears to be an unlimited inventory of current stamps at virtually the same discount. Unless there's a legitimate wholesale source that I'm unaware of, the economics simply don't add up. How can so many sellers repeatedly acquire genuine stamps at prices low enough to make money while selling them for only 75% of face value? That pattern makes me skeptical that these are all legitimate stamps.

I am sure that some are not. But saying all are bad is not a good idea; proof is still required in each case. Since we can't do that, we have to just have to wonder which are which.

Here's another one of these suspect sellers. It's an offer, not an auction, for $600+ face for $200, or $169 each if you buy four or more of the lots. It says they have sold 12 and have 10 more available. They are mostly Forever stamps with some older denominated stamps sprinkled in. If you do the math, they are selling these stamps for between 33% to 28% of face. The 22 lots in this one listing total over $13,000 face, mainly in Forever stamps. This same seller has numerous other lots for sale that are similar to this one. It looks like they have sold untold $1000s of face value in the last 6 months. Two buyers have said they received counterfeit stamps which the seller of course denies since they always UV test them.

I have seen several listing or buy it now listing on ebay which I think are counterfeits. I can not see anyone selling stamps at such a large discount. Especially when they are forever stamps. I have also seen high demomination stamps in sheets of four being sold at a steep discount. Those or being offered out of the United Kingdom on ebay. They are most assuredly counterfeit. Has anyone other than myself seen these listings if so what is your thoughts.

I have seen those high denomination mini sheets being sold way too cheap and in way too large of quantities on ebay. I wouldn't touch any of them. The Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps have been counterfeited just like the Forever stamps.

No legitimate seller with two brain cells to rub together would knowingly lowball thousands of dollars of these modern stamps, especially Forever stamps and especially on ebay unless they were bogus. Seeing so many sellers engaging in the same activity is a massive red flag and ebay sees that and chooses to look the other way. It's shameful but since ebay has no apparent legal exposure to consequences it continues.

This is not a victimless crime. USPS continues to lose money while performance plummets. My mail is always getting "lost" now or delayed by days or even weeks while corrupt entities siphon off hundreds of millions in revenue for fake stamps that people use to receive costly services in return.

These activities are historic in scope and China is the main culprit.

If it continues at this rate what is the outcome? How much is too much to lose?

"A question to answer is this, what is the current bulk wholesale percentage of face for forever stamps in your area? Getting 25-30% of face, in cash is considered a win here."

1) Buyers in your area are pathetically cheap.
2) Buy prices for forevers are depressed everywhere due to the abundance of counterfeits.

"I am sure that some are not. But saying all are bad is not a good idea; proof is still required in each case. Since we can't do that, we have to just have to wonder which are which."

It only takes the two brain cells rog referenced to see that the examples currently being discussed are almost certainly counterfeit.

Two brain cells can certainly say that some are counterfeit. No quantity of brain cells can say that all are counterfeit without checking them all. That's called proof. Not supposition.

True. But at some point the market becomes so saturated with counterfeit stamps that the presumption shifts. When current Forever stamps are being offered at steep discounts, the default assumption has to be that they're counterfeit or stolen unless there's credible evidence to the contrary.









In my opinion, we've passed that point.

Presumption is fine on a personal level. Then one makes a decision to buy or not to buy. But it's not a good idea to automatically do so on everything offered when posting about them on a chat board. As I have pointed out before, it's condemning without proof. Even if the odds favor it, it's always a bad idea.

I recently picked up. Large lot of forever stamps on whatnot (auction site). And as I compare them to known USPS genuine, I notice that they all have tagging but is much brighter than the known genuine.