Are These Stamps Genuine?

mimi1234

Hi all,

I just logged and noticed someone said the stamp prices were going up tomorrow.

I just looked on eBay and saw these. Are they genuine or fake?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2487249.m570.l1313&_nkw=1st+class+stamps&_sacat=0

How come they are so cheap or am I missing something completely here?

theoretica

Many will be fake, some look like they have probably been used ('unfranked, on paper'), some may have been stolen.

serpico100

Probably replicas. It does state “for philatilist use only” i.e stamp collectors

mimi1234

I did notice one seller is in Hong Kong. I'm glad I asked. Sounded too good to be true.

soolin

As above these are fakes , the term ‘ For philatilist use only’ is believed to protect them against prosecution, but I am not convinced by it. 

Spoonie_Turtle

mimi1234 said:

I just looked on eBay and saw these. Are they genuine or fake?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2487249.m570.l1313&_nkw=1st+class+stamps&_sacat=0

This links to a search, not one single listing.

If a seller has loads of sheets and books available, and hundreds of previous sales of stamps, almost certainly they are selling forged stamps.  They may have the disclaimer "for philatelic purposes only" … quite what philatelic use thousands of identical fake stamps may have, goodness only knows.

If however someone has a variety of books and commemoratives for sale, finite listings, there's a chance it could just be someone selling legit stamps previously bought up at low prices and now unlikely to be used.

If a listing has very good, clear photos it is easier to tell (e.g. whether the backing text is right, if the shiny text on the stamp background looks right, etc.) because most of the listings seem to be really low effort fakes, but it can be impossible to be 100% sure.

This blog has some good, enlightening articles, especially these two show some of the more common mistakes

https://blog.norphil.co.uk/2019/12/machin-postal-forgeries-again-some-good.html
https://blog.norphil.co.uk/2020/12/spot-difference-how-many-things-wrong.html
But do also check the 'forgery' and 'postal forgery' tags

soolin said:

As above these are fakes , the term ‘ For philatilist use only’ is believed to protect them against prosecution, but I am not convinced by it. 

Whether it legally does or not I don't know, but on a practical level it does.  Royal Mail won't do anything about it, I've contacted them about it because the obvious fakes were driving me nuts!  And eBay won't do anything because of the disclaimer.

soolin

quote

'Whether it legally does or not I don't know, but on a practical level it does.  Royal Mail won't do anything about it, I've contacted them about it because the obvious fakes were driving me nuts!  And eBay won't do anything because of the disclaimer.'

Having had this interesting discussion before it seems that people that know about these things suggest the new barcoding will pick up these as fakes and either surcharge the recipient (thus causing the person using them - the sender,  some frustration) or if sender persistently breaks the law and uses them, then potentially prosecute them. Obviously sender cannot easily blame the original seller as they were warned that these were philatic use only, which leaves sender on the line for attempting fraud - which potentially can be very damaging personal and career wise. 

justwhat

Mmmm There are/were many reasons to invest in stamps before the prices increase and then sell them after the tax year. Or even sit on them for a few years. 

soolin

justwhat said:

Mmmm There are/were many reasons to invest in stamps before the prices increase and then sell them after the tax year. Or even sit on them for a few years. 

There was a lengthy discussion about this on another thread, the only way to make it worthwhile would be to invest tens of thousands of pounds and take a gamble you can sell them later. if you sell online through anywhere like ebay you are losing the fees and postage before you even start, and of course people are going to want a very heavy discount to buy online when they can just pay a bit extra and go to the PO.

If you sell through FB adverts or marketplace then people will assume they are dodgy and expect you to be selling them very cheap , and any profit is unlikely.

mimi1234

I'm glad I asked. I asked the same question a few years ago when they didn't have the barcodes but thanks for all your comments. It sounded too good to be true and it is.

Some have that "philaharmonic" disclaimer but some cheeky sods are saying "ready to use". 

justwhat

soolin said:

justwhat said:

Mmmm There are/were many reasons to invest in stamps before the prices increase and then sell them after the tax year. Or even sit on them for a few years. 

There was a lengthy discussion about this on another thread, the only way to make it worthwhile would be to invest tens of thousands of pounds and take a gamble you can sell them later. if you sell online through anywhere like ebay you are losing the fees and postage before you even start, and of course people are going to want a very heavy discount to buy online when they can just pay a bit extra and go to the PO.

If you sell through FB adverts or marketplace then people will assume they are dodgy and expect you to be selling them very cheap , and any profit is unlikely.

We sold on FB, after a couple of years and there may be many reasons to do this eg if a business uses   cash in cash out accounting. As i have said there are many reasons to buy stamps and there are many reasons too sell stamps. 

May i also add the top headers from 50 / 100 packs are collectable. (We pulled the headers from all the packs and sold on ebay with a small amount of stamps left on  as collectable)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=stamp+++header&_sacat=3506&LH_TitleDesc=0&rt=nc&LH_Complete=1

Again above is just one way that is viable to sell stamps. (costco and others used to offer a discount on stamps , increasing profit even more)