Re: Modern Fake Stamps Are Flooding The Market

LOL.

Feedback: Great item! Thank you.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-X-BRITIS...047675.l2557

what a joke

And if you look back further on the completed listings you will see that some went for much more. You can only see the last 90 days. This has been going for much longer....

it is possible that some are catching on to the warnings on my site.
When the Exporter article came out several dealers immediately shut down suspect invert lots.

I purchased several lots from one at $25.00 before the article was made. Since then he shut down a bunch.
Here is a simple task to figure out who.
Go to ebay
Search under stamps
search for Vincent error
go to "completed listings".
Scroll down to the bottom. You will see the Michael Jackson inverts and many more. you will also see certain sellers persist to sell in ongoing sales. But hehe the MJ, Queen and such are done....at least for the moment.
Better hurry though because that 90 day thing comes up quick! Then...the evidence is gone.

P.S. to get something shady you sometimes have to be shady. Sorry

Next page
St. Vincent 1984 Olympics.
Inverts and normal issue forgeries.
Got the inverts yesterday....from Israel. hint hint.
Now where are those originals I had stashed for years...oh yes...in that file....

If your looking at all those sold inverts right now...makes you feel a bit sick huh? That is just the tip of the iceburg.

Maybe this fits the thread. Here is a set of 1893 replicas of the US Columbians scott 230-245. They came from a seller out of Russia. I bought a set as references and modern forgeries will have their own story to tell 100 years from now.

http://stampwants-stamps.bidstart.c...20552/a.html

The quality was quite well done. Gummed, perforated, nicer quality paper, and colors matched very very well. Not marked in any way as replicas. Although clearly not line engraved, the printing was pretty detailed. He quoted me a price for a complete set in the full sheet formats of 10, but I passed on it.

The lot was nicely franked registered took about three weeks to arrive. The bonus he sent, which was a mixture of many gummed perforated US stamps... $1 trans miss, $2.60 Graf Zeppelin pair with plate number selvedge, C1, 50c baby Zeppelin, some of the early large format newspaper stamps, and a dozen others. These I gave to my friend's three year old grandson to play with.

These would fool most non collectors, and some collectors.

Indeed they would for some non-savvy collectors.
With modern issues it is quite easy to forge them being litho printings. Also the availability of the actual printing equipment used is...should I say...readily available for the serious forger.

With Format the process used was quite extensive in they used very fine screens along with high quality papers, inks and it now appears a gum that cannot be reproduced easily. Format was specialized only in stamps whereas most printers at the time made banknotes and many other things. They were stated to be the forerunners in many aspects of the lithographic process which is why many of the issues they produced have photo like qualities. that is why the stamps apparently are very hard to forge. It appears now several attempts have been made with what I would consider...disastrous results.

Thank you for your comment Crouse27. It is like a cool breeze in here..hehe.

Just finished the St. Vincent 1984 Summer Olympics page.
Scott# 765-8
Fake inverts both perforated and imperforate are on the market.
Funny thing about these is the 1c value is not inverted on any of the sets! Looks like the forger "forgot" to invert it?



This set I purchased from a seller in Israel selling on Delcampe.

These St. Vincent 1984 Olympic inverts are being sold by what looks like a respectable London business on Amazon and ebay. The Amazon description is:




Mike

To shodan and mikyh on these St Vincent offerings. They are not valid for postage are they? But could easily be used to defraud government of revenue and not just unknowing collectors. Also, are the fake stamps that are being mass produced only for small countries? It seems to me if it was the UK or USA being forged that the FBI and British authorities would be involved.

Either way, as dangerous as these "stamps" are to become as they proliferate and propagate, should the catalog editors be making notes to warn that these issues are known to be expertly forged? Especially as the research is done showing this to be the case.

Also above in the description mikyh posted, "stamps are licensed issues." Is that more puffery that is not true especially as they use the word stamps exhaustively. I think a stamp has a duty and definition for postal use in paying for services rendered by a postal authority. That interpretation is my own. So the use of the word stamps throughout in context of stamp collecting seems fraudulent. Almost as dubious as some stamp auction companies offering these kinds of lots.

To MikeyH,
For a seller to say "these stamps are later printings of the 1984 Issue" is a bit like saying "I know these are fake but ...".

Also, "The stamps printed by the liquidated Format International Security Printers have a good rarity factor." must make them super rare as they were printed by Format 25 years after Format went bust.

The seller who "looks like a respectable London business on Amazon and ebay" is only selling counterfeit LOTW stamps on ebay, Amazon and his own web site. He's a graphic designer by trade.

To everyone else - this thread is an entertaining read. Shame it's gone off track a bit at times, but shodan has highlighted a big issue, albeit not in a way to make friends and influence people. (BTW, I only collect GB - with the aim of collecting a decent copy of every stamp before I pop my clogs). I do however buy topical stamps for my kids - What better way of getting them into the hobby? These fakes are a kick in the milk teeth for them. Every kid has to start somewhere. Should it be with fakes? Ignoring the personality clashes on this thread, there's a serious question that needs addressing (somewhere in this thread).

Hi folks,
Sorry for delay. Comcast email server went down Sunday and well numerous other things occurred taking me away.

Thank you for your comments indeed I know exactly which seller you are speaking of mikyh. Has to do with "bank" hehe.

I and others are onto them and believe connections are with the criminals. They have shut down many "invert" lots on ebay but persist with issues like the Olympic issue. I can tell you no such "inverts existed until now and if you read my page on them you will see indeed they are forgeries.

During Formats existence they did many reprints and in the last year they reprinted many LOTW cars and trains series (legally). What they did not do is downgrade the quality of their stamps! All reprints are extremely hard to tell because they used all the original screens and materials to make them.

Except for the 40th wedding inverts they really did not make "inverts". They made missing color "errors" and the infamous missing tennis ball "errors". They were supposed to be for promotions but it got out of hand with certain shady dealers.

That part is very complicated. These forgeries indeed Crouse27 now need to be noted by catalog editors because they are all over now.

It is noted in SG specialized that "unauthorized" reprints were made for the Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley issues for St. Vincent. It is not noted in Scott.
In my research I discovered around 10 other sets that were reprinted the same way. I have a whole section on them already. All have the same odd perforation size. They were never noticed. Now...they are everywhere.

This same thing that happened in the early 90's is now happening. They will and have flooded the market already. More attempts were made to add to this but it has been thwarted temporarily. It has not been stopped.

Soon you will see inverted cars from the LOTW series if the lots that were stopped are sold through other avenues. Possibly not though because the makers know we are onto them simply because the lots were stopped. They may destroy them and go "underground".

You can call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever but I am telling you this is bigtime criminal activity that is being done by professional forgers who have been here for decades. They are not only forgers...they make illegals. I am not proof positive but I bet if you compared these forgeries with some illegals they would be of the same exact printing process!

I thank you again for these comments because it shows me that you are starting to see what I have discovered is real and people need to come together to be able to stop it. I do not have resources nor ability. Some big dealers in the UK are involved in trying to stop it. Indeed...this is really a threat to me in a personal way. These people, I am sure, are not happy with my uncovering of what is going on and thus unless more people become involved...I might....not be around to see the conclusion.

I really Have to go. It is late and my work days are long. I will respond again tomorrow evening U.S. time. Please...I only want serious interaction in this thread because as I said...this is a very serious problem for thousands of collectors.
Indeed stopping them will help many of us in sales (authentic material of course is what collectors want) but for me it is not about increasing interest in what I have although it probably will.
Almost all that is presently forged I have none except maybe a specialized piece or two..
It really is about preserving the hobby for our kids and for ourselves too.

Quick note.
Just received Nauru Scouts souvenir sheet mentioned earlier. 10 of them!
It indeed has been forged.
This is proof that the forgers are not just hitting LOTW issues.
It is now evident...this is much worse.
Off to work!

Just got home.
Received genuine Belize 1986 Royal Wedding souvenir sheet.
As I suspected the imperforates have been forged. I bought a lot about 3-4 months ago and thought they may be genuine. They are not.
Here is an image of them together taken at 300dpi and optimized by the provided optimizer for this forum.


Can you tell which is genuine and which is fake?
I already told you...it is the imperf.
Here are fast images of Prince Andrew I took at 1200dpi.
Quite a difference. Which one would you want if you were collecting them?

The fake one?


Or the genuine one?


Have to go....very tired.

Hi Shodan. We have corresponding before, mainly on Tuvalu's involvement, and basically agreed to disagree with each other .

One comment I would like to make is on your statement




This is not entirely correct. In the case of Tuvalu, many of the stamp sets printed by Format were so poorly printed that they are full of flyspeck varieties so that most stamps on a sheet can easily be plated. Also, the paper quality was terrible on some, many years later the stamps are subject to yellowing. The inks also fade easily in minimal lighting.

Another thing I learned about Format is that none of the recorded printing quantities could be trusted. If 5,000 items were stated as printed, 100,000 could have been easily printed. Very little from Format will have any real monetary value, and minimal collector value in my opinion.

Here is a document on the Philatelic agencies involved that I posted on the internet years ago, you have seen this but others may not have:

http://tuvaluislands.com/stamps/LOW_story.htm#top

Lastly Shodan, as others suggested, you should seriously think of moving forward and updating your website. It is SO 1990's ! There are many cheap hosting packages out there that often supply free well-designed templates.

Good Luck.

Thank you BeeSee for posting that interesting article. So Clive Feigenbaum was involved in Format International? A bit of googling of this person reveals that he ordered Format to print Tuvalu "stamps with errors for sale to collectors at inflated prices". All other so-called errors printed by Format should also be suspect.

And as you so wisely stated, these stamps (and the fabricated errors) are virtually worthless unless of course you are trying to flog them on ebay to unsuspecting collectors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Feigenbaum