Fake Express Mail Stamps On Ebay (Grand Island Express Mail)

I recently bought this lot:

ebay item: 125127181458

When I got these, I check them under UV light and they were not tagged. The real ones are tagged.

Be careful!

Looking at his feedback this guy has quite the scam going. Needs to be reported to postal inspectors. They SAY they are taking this more seriously now.

Haha jeez. What really makes it dubious to me is how this guy has accumulated so many— I've never seen a SINGLE modern express mail in person and he's getting dozens uncancelled? Ok… good on you for the UV check

Linn's had a warning that these were around back in September of last year with this quote from the article:




https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...ation-stamps

You can go on Etsy and several stores are offering counterfeit stamps. It is rather obvious when they are selling mint express stamps for less than 1/2 value. It doesn't seem to me anyone is policing this.

You really expected authenticate stamps at a 50% discount?

While one would not expect to get high denomination stamps at that much of a discount, I pay 60% of face for my postage from my local coin and stamp shop, as much as I want, up to and including Forever stamps. Established brick & mortar and show dealers pay even less... so close to 50% is not that far of a stretch as a general principle.

it is a real stretch for express stamps

Sigh.

As I EXPLICITLY stated: "50% is not that far of a stretch as a general principle" and "while one would not expect to get high denomination stamps at that much of a discount..."

One thing that I noticed about the 5430 counterfeits are the corner die-cuts. For the most part, they seem neither uniform nor very similar to ones on a real copy.
Added: 5430 = Grand Island Ice Caves

I also noticed the irregular corner die cuts also. I went back and looked at all the Priority/Express Mail stamps in my collection and most have the same corner shape on all corners but obviously rotated 90 degrees depending on which corner. One exception is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge stamp of 2012, Scott 4649, which exhibits different die cut patterns on each corner. Even the picture in the Scott Catalog shows this.

On many of the counterfeits that I've seen, the counterfeiters do a poor job where the vertical and horizontal die cuts intersect.

Even if any of these stamps are genuine, it's still illegal to reuse them if they've already passed through the mail.

IN general I simply avoid paying below face value for stamps whenever possible (well grab bags of vintage stamps from someone with accreditations I will go to).

I read that Linn article too regarding Express and Priority Express mails tamps. I do see these at the post offices here in NYC but mainly the Priority Mail ones, the Priority Mail Express only have seen at post offices twice. They are out there but likely in cities where there is much ecommerce and international shipping (as well as need for passport services and the person may need a few prioirty mail and priority mail express to expedite matters)

There are legit stamps offered below face. There is a list of known counterfeits in the Scott Specialized and they have not been going backwards to counterfeit older ones (it has only gotten out of control on new issues recently), so you can safely buy almost any commem before a few years ago and most defins that are more than about years old. A good mix is also likely to be safe even if it is more recent as the counterfeit seller are offering full rolls and multiple sheets and multiple lots of the same thing over and over (you can check their sold history on ebay).