Stamps

mimi1234

Hi all,

A bit of a thick question. When folks sell new stamps on eBay, are they genuine? I've seen someone selling 100 1st class ones for about £7 less than they actually cost in the post office.

Has anyone got experience of these? I'm tempted to buy some but just want to make sure they are proper stamps before I do.

Many thanks,

Mimi

BookWorm

Obviously I can't talk for everyone. However, for my part, I have sold genuine stamps on there. I was given them for free as a survey payment and there was more than I could possibly use so offered the surplus at below face value to ensure they sold. The money was more use to me.

knightstyle

A couple of years ago I bought a load of 1st and 2nd class on Ebay and have been using them ever since. They look genuine but one letter was intercepted and the recipient had to pay £3 odd to collect it from the sorting office. It had a Fake stamp stamp on it!
So I recon some are fakes but they are pretty good fakes.

emmbrook

It!!!8217;s a mixture - the large booklets / sheets of red self adhesive stamps are risky with lots of fakes in circulation - apparently produced in Turkey and maybe China so I hear. Many of the so called unfranked stamps are also likely to be fake - and illegal to use anyway. However, if you buy a mix of stamps from someone (maybe all first class but a mixture of designs) then you are likely buying stamp dealers!!!8217; excess - so long as they have gum.

All my postage is bought in this way usually at about 20-30% below face value. I also buy at auction for my collection in bulk and sell on what I don!!!8217;t want - I would normally expect to pay 60-65% of face value at auction and large dealers will pay less by buying direct from estates etc.

Lots of people who started collecting in the 50s and 60s onwards are now aging so collections are coming onto the market in some numbers. Modern stamps were produced by the millions so are of little value other than a few rarities. Hence they end up on eBay as postage. I often use 40:year old plus stamps.

Safest sellers are obvious stamp dealers selling a range of items and not just first and second class stamps.

silverwhistle

They're probably not fakes but may have already been through the post but unfranked. Sometimes this gets noticed, I presume, other times they can't be *rsed to collect the shortfall.

soolin

silverwhistle wrote: »

They're probably not fakes but may have already been through the post but unfranked. Sometimes this gets noticed, I presume, other times they can't be *rsed to collect the shortfall.

The stamps are now scanned, not just read by eye so re used ones are easily caught. Also postal fraud is an easy crime to police and its nearly as easy to hold the item and charge a penalty on it as it is to ignore.

Even putting a bit of sellotape across a brand new stamp would cause it to be re charged as the machine would have read it as not valid.

It's odd though how many people think postal fraud is an acceptable crime!

ballisticbrian

It's pretty obvious that when stamps are sold cheaper than franking an envelope (which is basically Royal Mail's wholesale price), then they are fakes, mostly the sellers that have unlimited supply and their own web sites selling similar.

NBLondon

Like BookWorm - I sell some for that reason. Like emmbrook - I buy excess stock from dealers and use as postage. Job lots described as "unfranked" or "off paper" have almost certainly already been used. In theory, they are for collectors who might find an unusual rarity in there. I'm sort of suspicious of the 100 booklets at well under face. It might be that someone running a business bought a lot in advance and now needs the money instead... or it might be that they were pilfered from an employer! But anyone selling multiples of these at less than face is either making a significant loss or something is dodgy.

custardy

silverwhistle wrote: »

They're probably not fakes but may have already been through the post but unfranked. Sometimes this gets noticed, I presume, other times they can't be *rsed to collect the shortfall.

So how do you deem an unfranked stamp?
It has served its purpose for the fee paid.

libra10

I have occasionally sold books of 4 large envelope stamps on Ebay.

They are genuine stamps provided in part payment for completing certain surveys.

mimi1234

Thanks everyone for your responses. I wasn't talking about unfranked stamps, these were adhesive ones in a proper 100 set.

One of my friends bought 3 sets of 100 stamps and told me about it. He got a nice discount on them and has used most of the stamps anyway. He showed me them, they all looked legit but 2 of the sets had a darker red to the stamp colour and 1 pack had a faded lighter red.

This is the reason I wanted to know if they might be genuine or not. The kooky part of me was thinking how would one get their paws on 300 new stamps (possibly even more if the buyer sells more) unless they had a PO or their PO was shutting down and they had loads of stamps to sell on.

Also, I've been bitten by a gift card purchase on eBay which sounded too good to be true and it was (seller had somehow got a fraudulent gift from House Of Fraser), so just wanted to make sure that the stamps were not going to end up being fake.