Are You Guys Seeing This? Is This Real?

"Listed many times, by many different sellers, with the same image...."

More likely they are listed under different names by the same seller. They are clearly reproductions or fakes or whatever you prefer to call them. The middle 3-candarins red stamp has the same lower broken frame in all listings, so it's undoubtedly the same seller under different names. I have no idea why anyone would sell the same product as three "different" sellers, but it screams "bending the rules".

As "fakes," I'm fine with them, but they must be sold and marked that way or it's cheating. ebay makes this mistake too often, I've noticed, which convinces me they have no clear understanding of stamps. They should make a better effort to do this. I do agree with the idea of collecting fakes for reference collections so later collectors (if there are any!) can tell which is real and which is not.

Calling them "non-circulating genuine stamps" is either clueless or ridiculous. Do countries print genuine stamps identical to their real stamps but then not issue them to the public? I don't think so. This seller is weaseling his way out of the simpler and more honest approach of just marking them "fakes" and selling them that way -- or "reproductions" or "faux" or whatever word makes you feel good. Chinese business rules are pretty sloppy in this regard, it seems.

Of course, it's also obvious that at this price these cannot be real. I'm always surprised when people operate this way, pretending one thing but doing another that is obvious to anyone with even a little common sense. It's like saying "non-real genuine gold". That means "genuine fake painted gold" which reminds me of the Oval Office for some reason.

ebay even has a section for stamp "reproductions" if you look for it, so they seem willing to segregate them -- which is fine if you actually do that. But then this kind of obvious listing sneaks through?

On the bright side, the seller does offer "30 day returns". Smile. Also, if you check his "other items," there is a whole world of presumably fake copies of things you can buy. All he needs to do is label these listings as "copy of" and presumably this would be okay.

Sorry guys. Unfortunately (or fortunately, haha), I did not win that auction. The stamp's still trailing for way less than its retail value but all of this talk has given me cold feet to bid again.




Oh geez, I'm sorry. I am new to this hobby. I have a couple of local stamp purveyors, trusted guys who've been in the business for over 40 years each. They're my ordinary go-to for rare and/or exotic stamps. However, lately I've been browsing the internet, trying to find-out what else is out there, yk. This definitely came off as a surprise to me. I am aware of the long-dragon stamps from the qing dynasty. They're iconic.

I was hoping that maybe there was something that I did not know about (in terms of stamp varieties and values), and that these were genuine stamps worthy of induction into my collection.



Thanks. I won't.



I have nothing against ebay. They're merely providing a marketplace. It's caveat emptor (buyer beware) with these types of things, always.

Exactly my thoughts and this is the part that gets me the most. What do they mean by "non-circulating genuine stamps". Nothing about these is genuine. Maybe what they want to say is that among the non-circulating kind (variety) of stamps that's out there (basically all of the fakes), these stamps are genuinely a part of it.

Bit of a legal stretch but this is the only way this makes any sense to me. It seems like a badly translated phrase from google translate.

If you think ebay is bad, you should check out the Stamp section on Goodwill's auction site Shopgoodwill.com. Most of the employees seem absolutely clueless about stamps and how to properly describe and price them.

This a current listing: 1931 American Red Cross Commemorative Stamps - Lot of 2 Unused US Postage Stamps. Opening bid $14.99. Shipping and handling to my zip code would be another $14.56. Those "unused" stamps sure seem to have some pretty obvious cancels!

LMAO. What a rip-off. I guess their line of thinking is that if you're gullible enough to believe that those stamps are unused then you're also naive enough to pay-up 15 bucks for 'em. I'll tell you one thing, though ... and this issue is a bit of an insider secret.

Especially in the USA, stamp sales and circulations are fast becoming the new, preferred way to launder drug money. I've seen, like, even completely ordinary pink Abe Lincoln stamps sell for $40 on ebay in the United States. Enforcement agencies can't do anything about 'em 'cause they're aloof to small fine art sales like these and stamps are, just, perfect for moving small bills around.

The stamps that you've attached here could be serving the same ends. They definitely do exhibit a kind of artwork the cartels would like. All in good speculation.

Ridiculous. Why?

High fees: Criminals would lose a significant portion of their money to ebay's fees and commissions, making it an expensive method compared to other platforms.

Traceability: Unlike cash, ebay transactions are digitally recorded and tied to bank accounts, leaving a clear paper trail for law enforcement.

Increased security: Following past incidents, ebay has implemented numerous security measures and algorithms to detect fraudulent activity, especially over-priced or unusual sales.

Many instances of ridiculously overpriced items are not money laundering but rather attempts by sellers to inflate perceived value or manipulate search algorithms.

Why does it say All Categories? It should say Stamps.
I asked ebay to correct this several times but apparently the NEVER read their messages.

A 15% fee isn't that high for facilitating interstate drug transactions.



Immaterial. The paper trail isn't going to say that you shipped and paid for drugs under the guise of cheap stamps. It's going to reflect a legitimate fine arts transaction.



Need I even go there?

The stamp market is not big enough to hide drug transactions . Any playing around in this market would get a lot of attention .

What we got here is a lot of dreamers and misinformed people .

I understand where you're coming from on this, floortrader: Occam's Razor. Why presume malice where stupidity will suffice? But there's precedence for this type of thing, now.


The stamp market is pretty large and their tactics aren't *THAT* correlated with the market's size. All they require are cheap, seemingly vintage, mass produced stamps ... and there are billions of those. Plus, as you project, this tactic of theirs has gathered a lot of attention among folks who know about this thing (Philately).

Judging by the sheer volume of such ebay listings, one would think that it's not just a bunch of dreamers and misinformed people who're doing it but a whole, full-scale, mass hysteria event going on in international public display.

It is a sexier story. Cartels it is then!

Sources please. I found the news story about ebay's $59 million settlement for allowing pill-press molds to be sold on its site, but I found no information about the scheme being linked to using "revenue stamps" or "stamp envelopes for stealth". If true, how could ebay possibly be responsible or block such a sale? A buyer pays $1000 for a 'rare revenue stamp' and instead receives a counterfeit pill-pressing device in the mail. What would ebay need to do to identify this type of activity and block it, unless ebay becomes part of the shipping chain and can inspect all such packages itself ?

Same with the Hipstamp "Operation CoinFlip" story about hiding fentanyl inside encapsulated stamp mounts. What is the source of this story?

These quoted stories might be good plots for a TV movie, but it sounds like someone is hallucinating.


edit: spelling.

I give up ........

I can't source these stories either, ZebraMan. These excerpts were shared by AI, along with 2 other stories linked to drug smuggling in European philately. It can be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallu...ntelligence), for which I apologise in-advance.