Stamp Repair Fraud

Sorry not trying to pile on criticism of floortrader's post. Really on the contrary, because certainly there are some sellers that have a repeated history of doing this stuff (offering total cat value allegedly from owner when clearly some high valued items are garbage).

I enjoyed seeing the repairs and would like to see more.

It would be nice to know which seller is the alleged perpetrator in this case.

The first stamp would have thrown me off because of the darkened color. The second stamp I am not sure if I would have caught it. I assume the third stamp was made to look like a pre-print paper fold. I must admit I would have automatically discounted the item as undesirable because it was an EFO. The repairs are obvious in the UR corner.

I am sure some dealers might say they wouldn't have time to go through the lot, but that isn't an excuse. I go over every stamp I put up for sale with a fine-tooth comb (ok not literally so).

Fortunately I have yet to receive such items within a lot from ebay.

I would feel duped if such does occur.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

I routinely receive stamps that are horribly overdescribed or with flaws hidden and not described from ebay, Bidstart, and Delcampe. Counting such stamps as part of a normal complete set is truly fraudulent. As far as large lots, perhaps the answer is to not buy them.

Read Jim Kloetzel's article in published about ten years ago in Scott's Stamp Monthly magazine. He points out that many bidders bid low on ebay out of fear that they will end up with "stamps they don't want and can't return". It is one of the reasons that better material doesn't sell for high enough prices at ebay auction. The worst material sometimes sells for more than market value while the best material sells at a fraction of market value. Many sellers switched to fixed price to avoid dumping good material at low prices. Unfortunately, much of the junk has followed the better material to fixed price.

It is not uncommon for brick and mortar auction houses to sell collections with high catalog value at low realizations. Some of the collections are made up by dealers wishing to unload inferior stamps. Sometimes the lots are salted with a few better stamps in the hope that potential bidders will miss the mid-value junk mixed in. Remote bidder who bid low, lose out on almost all of the better lots and may end up buying the worst lots no matter how low they bid.

Some auction houses are better than others.

Clark

I've heard that before about auction houses, but I have very little experience with them. I am just beginning to look at online auction lots and would be in the boat of bidding blind and low (for safety sake). I haven't done that yet really.

So, apparently some with more experience (well at least Clark) know which auction houses to avoid or at least know that "some auction houses are better than others". I know others have stated this in the past. How can others like me, those that haven't been ripped off yet, get that information? I understand that it is an advantage to have this kind of information and maybe we should all have to go through the wringer and earn our dues - I could at least support that viewpoint, knowing that I would be reluctant to give up an advantage in auction bidding to potential competitors.

Probably just printing names might be unfair as its probably hard to prove this "salting" of collections. If there was some way to assemble a list and then anonymously rate auction houses, or report them to a venue like stampsmarter, that would be nice.