Listing Forever Stamps

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

As an FYI/heads up.  Why there are different policies regarding the selling of permanent/forever stamps on the 2 sites. Who knows?  Only reason I noticed was a US seller had listings ended. Not sure how many of approx 1500 listings I found  when I did a general search were listed by eligible/ineligible sellers?

Dot ca:

https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/stamps-policy/stamps-policy?id=5043&st=3&pos=1&query=Stamps%20poli...

What is the policy?

• Counterfeit stamps and equipment designed to make these items are not allowed
• Collectible stamps must include a picture of the actual item being sold and specify any alterations or flaws not seen in the photo
• For replica stamps, the listing’s title, description and photos must clearly state or show that the item is a replica
• ****Not noted regarding eligible sellers****

Dot com:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/stamps-policy/stamps-policy?id=5043&st=3&pos=1&query=Stamps%20pol...

What is the policy?

• Counterfeit stamps and equipment designed to make these items are not allowed
• Collectible stamps must include a picture of the actual item being sold and specify any alterations or flaws not seen in the photo
• For replica stamps, the listing’s title, description and photos must clearly state or show that the item is a replica
• Forever Stamps can be sold by eligible sellers only

eBay definition of eligible seller: Certain products are restricted to sellers that have pre-approval or meet selling requirements.

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

Some rules like this will probably show up here as well, as we saw in a separate thread there are counterfeit Canadian stamps being offered as well.

I believe the USPS sells stamps (the new stuff same as you'd get at the post office) on eBay so they would of course be an eligible seller.

This would explain why those trying to sell the counterfeits have shown up on other chat boards on other selling platforms with their direct website name (assuming they got kicked off here).

This is yet another great example of how the criminals of the world make life much more difficult for the rest of use because yet another set of rules have to be put in place to try to stop it.....

Having said this at this point in time, it really should not affect many if any of the sellers of real stamps because the "postage" lots will still not have much in the way of "P"/"Forever" stamps in them because they've not been around all that long yet, and people are not hoarding/"investing" in stamps straight from the post office like they did in decades before (IMO it is not a good investment at all to just buy a pile of each new stamp that comes out by the way, "investing" is very much different from collecting with respect to how ones time and $$$ are spent).

[ricarmic]

PS an easy way to spot the problems is if they are offering very low % of face (face = postage value, ie "P" currently = 92c).

Anything "foreverish" being offered below half face as a BIN is very very highly likely to be counterfeit (even below 75% in all likelihood). Even the also illegal "uncancelled" (ie 2nd time around) stamps generally will work their way up to half of face if they are auctioned.

It does surprise me that the USPS and CP don't pursue this more because it is very easy to spot, probably it is NOT very easy to prosecute given most of the counterfiet stuff is coming from overseas.

[reallynicestamps]

There have been counterfeit booklets of US stamps showing up, usually from California sellers , over the past year or so.

If you want to buy "real" mint stamps for postage, don't buy booklets and don't buy stamps that are newer than perhaps five years old. Those are the most likely to be counterfeit.

The packages of stamps I used to sell here came from philatelic estates, from the days when collectors would buy sheets of stamps as an "investment" (Bad Idea-- stamp collecting is a hobby,not an investment). And it's been my experience that the widow doesn't dispose of the philatelic estate for about five years after the collector dies.