Have You Seen This US Collection On Ebay - What Could Go Wrong?

Seal Team Five has been dispatched to deal with this. ST6 was busy elsewhere.

Would have been better to have just a single 121 invert instead of busting out the whole Robert Cunliffe. Lost all believability. Can't believe it's at 7g. ebay needs to step in.

Step in what?

Everything seems legit accept the expensive stamps.

Thanks KRelyea for bringing attention to this lot. Love the "stiff as a board" and just as flat classics.

In 23 years of looking at stamps on ebay, I've never run across anything as entertaining as this lot.

Free shipping appears twice on the listing but then you look at the description and on one line: low starting bid buyer pays postage but on the next line in red characters: free shipping world wide tracking number register mail.

Come on guys, free shipping. How can someone pass this up?

Maybe I should start selling stamps!

I'll go no higher than $10K. Not a penny more!

Why do the "rare stamps" look dull and flat, yet perfect with not a single problem? Gee, I know. Anyone got a photocopier?

What I like best is the whole idea that some collector of very rare stamps, quite a few of them including inverts, puts them in a brand new stock book among bargain basement cheap stamps any kid could afford. You know, like collectors of rare stamps usually do.

Also, they end up in an antiques store in Egypt. You know, like so many collections of rare stamps in brand new stock books do when they're mixed in with cheap stamps. It all makes perfectly good sense. No more than $10K, I say!

I watched a documentary show the other evening, Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller, that focused on international scammers. Very well done. She spoke with a number of them and they had a common comment when it came to their American victims that brought them millions of dollars. Americans are "stupid" and "lonely" and far and away the easiest prey. We can laugh at the hubris of this listing but it is deadly serious business that ebay should be more aggressive in policing. The story of a recently widowed elderly man who was in mental decline and was scammed of everything he had and finally shot himself in the head is a grim reminder that this stuff has real victims.

Sorry for the downer but this nonsense should be shown for what it is. A crime in progress.

It's true that there appears to be a crime in progress, but it's also true that the victims share part of the blame here. Anyone who is not sufficiently knowledgeable to recognize that all the valuable stamps are just photo fakes should not be bidding hundreds or thousands of dollars on the lot. But they are greedy, and believe they can pull a fast one on an unknowing seller. That's why these scams work, because of greed on both sides.

Victim shaming is not a good look.

Neither is having such ignorance as to spend thousands without having a clue.

I don't think ignorance is the main factor here (although it plays a part) but believe, as you said, its nothing more than out and out, unadulterated g-r-e-e-d !

Shills. No real buyers.

Agree with Redwood.

You know what? We don't know who the bidders are. They could be shills. They could be a couple of doddering old foagies that can't remember where they left their teeth. They could be someone foolish enough to think they have found a $1M lot selling for $7K, and greed is eating him/her up. They could be anyone.

In the end, if the authorities were called (assuming scamming buyer and stupid/greedy seller are both in the same room with the cops) who would the police be arresting? The stupid/greedy guy who can't get out of his wallet's way, or the guy that tried to sell a bunch of fakes?? Of course, the seller is going to say (correctly) that he made no claims on the authenticity/condition of the lot. But he would still get looked at. Closely. The victim might get a good eye-roll.

Shaming a victim says more about the sayer than the sayee. If there's a crime here, it's the seller that's doing it. Let's shame him/her.