Thinking Like A Crook...

Ever think to yourself, 'if a person did not have any business morals, and wanted to use online auctions to make large profits; how would you go about doing it'? Obviously I don't want to supply a lot of details here but it is important to know what to look and be as well informed as you can be.

First, what kind of material would you want to deal in?
You would want to material in the $250 - $4000 range. Anything cheaper and it isn't worth your time and anything more and it gets higher on the radar screen for collectors who know their stuff. You would probably want to deal in an area with high demand, like US material.

What types of altered stamps would give you the best profit margins?
The highest margins would be to buy lightly hinged material, touchup the gum, resell it for never hinged material. The price delta between hinged and never hinged classic material is often very, very substantial. Reperfing is also another area in which you can buy low and sell high. And lastly you would also look for light pen cancels that you could wash.

You would want to ensure that the bids you get are covering your costs.
Shill bidding would be used, you would establish multiple seller accounts. It only takes opening multiple bank accounts with minimum balances in them. Open at least 15-20 seller accounts and put some activity on them over a few years, spread things out to make them look legitimate. This would also allow you move material between your seller accounts if needed. You would need to cancel some sales (to avoid online auction fees) so having many multiple accounts will help by not drawing attention to just 2-3 of them.

Be located in one country but sell from another.
This is a big one, you want to add as many layers of complexity to the transaction as you can. Not only does this stretch the legal jurisdiction across international borders and laws but you would also get some protection when a huge multiple national online auction company doesn't have one division communicating well with another 6000 miles away. Note to sell from a different country you don't need complicit individuals in the other countries or cut them in for a large part of your scheme; you simply use one of the many online companies who provide international mail forwarding such as this one http://www.expatexchange.com/intern...warding.html.

Play the odds.
Be responsive to any buyer who wants to return anything, count on keeping your seller rating high and present a 'rock solid' return policy. Simply always be willing to suck up a few returns as long as you can keep duping the majority of the buyers.

Assemble nice looking lots
Put together lots salted with 1-2 of your altered items, single items draw closer scrutiny


If course there are many legitimate sellers who might do some of the things listed above but this is what the shady sellers count on. There are plenty of good dealers out there; go to shows, ask around for references if you are buying higher dollar material. If a dealer has a long history in the hobby, if they have an actual brick and mortar store, these are good signs. Are there some good, even great, buys to be had online? Certainly, but understand that bad sellers count on our egos driving us to believe that we know more than the next guy and can spot them.

Don

Great advice. Thanks

"You would want to material in the $250 - $4000 range. Anything cheaper and it isn't worth your time"

This is far from accurate, that's why there are so many fake cheap coils and fake Kans.-Nebr. out there. Time is money so the important question is "how long will it take me to fake well?" Plus once fakes are out in the market they get recycled by the lowlifes who buy them as fakes but sell them as genuine.

Sorry, did not mean to imply that the only altered material is in this range; I concur that altered material exists at all price ranges. But if you wanted to set out to make a living on shady material I think my point stands. This would be the range that represents the best opportunity to operate in.

Altered material ends up in the marketplace for many reasons and as you point out, for many years. I was trying to paint a profile of one type of seller that exists, the ones that are out to make a living at it.
Don

"Obviously,I don't want to supply a lot of detail"-----PLEASE DO .............your crook in your example has a very short life span on ebay ,doing it your way as posted .Lets see a posting about the long term dealers who have perfected the CON.

Floortrader,
Sorry, at this time I cannot without risking undermining official actions. I posted this only to help folks understand some of the warning signs. Like I said, some of things listed above might occur with good sellers.

I don't like 'profiling' any more than anyone else, generalizations can be misused and misunderstood. (Love the comedian's line, 'the cops were profiling, they were stopping everyone who was driving on the sidewalk that night!). There are plenty of good sellers, plenty of good listings. But there are sellers who are making a living by holding multiple accounts and playing games such as shill bidding and it can go on for a very, very long time and involve large amounts of money.
Don

I am disappointed .......thought you could teach the other posters about all the scams the stamp dealers use and the correct way to stay out of legal trouble and still take money out of their pockets ......disappointed .

I once read something somewhere that crooks can be mistrustful paranoid people who justify their crookedness by thinking that everyone is out to get them too. Thus, they believe that they have to get everyone first before anyone else does it to them. It's like trying to be one step ahead of the crowd for them. Ironically, it may just be another crook that's out to get a crook so that they justify each other including themselves as their own worst enemy.