I'm at the post office almost every day shipping my orders and have never seen any kind of notification there regarding this fraud. They need to have signs and posters prominently displayed!!
Wayne is a blessing to the community. I have bought stamps over Ebay a number of times as a collector and i have found counterfeits amongst them. I recently got a letter in the mail from someone trying to sell me discounted postage. That's really bold. Laughingly I checked out the stamp on the letter and of course it is counterfeit.
In my opinion, a way to curtail this is to levy hefty fines against ebay, pinterest, youtube, and facebook and instagram for carrying these ads and for the counterfeitters and their associates here in the states to be arrested and sentenced.. The only way for stamps to be sold online should require that the seller to be validated by the USPS in the USA and from the other post offices in other countries.
I’m both thankful and a little sad that I came across this video. I recently started an online business and I’ve been paying the full price for stamps, but I thought I may be able to save money on postage by buying for a discount. The only thing that bothered me was that I couldn’t understand how these websites were able to sell stamps for half price. My interests were piqued and I decided to do a little research, leading me to find this video. I’m sad that I won’t be able to save a bunch of money, but at least I will support USPS and won’t go to jail.
It's not hard to get stamps on eBay for about 2/3 retail price, if you're willing to use stamps of lower denominations. Stamps with numbers on them are also more fun.
@@jeffw1267 What do you mean "of lower denominations"? Like postcard stamps? Or older stamps with numbers showing how many cents they cost back then? -You can use postage from the past, yes, but you still must put 68 cents worth on a letter envelope. Now if you mean the sellers on eBay are offering stamps for prices that are 2/3 of the ACTUAL value of the stamps, then they are either fake or stolen. There's no reason they would sell them for less than their true value, period. And I'm an eBay seller myself, so I can tell you they wouldn't just be taking a loss on investment; they would also have to pay eBay fees to take that loss. Nobody would do something that dumb.
Actually you could have bought them when they were excessively cheaper. If you bought stamps before they went up to $55 per 100 in 2020, then you paid only $50. It's only been 4 years, and stamps do nothing but go up. With this current increase from $68 to $73, if you could afford to buy thousands of rolls now and wait until the next hike, you could sell them for a couple dollars below that newer rate and make more than $5 per roll.
Michel, Charles, I am following you ever since I saw you on Graham's channel. I am an amateur philatelist who started collecting in 1972. I was 8 years old.Yes, you guessed it: I love stamps. I now collect China and Hong-Kong since 1997 when Hong-Kong got back with China. Today, I only have 29 stamp albums. (I sold one China and one Hong-Kong album. I had two albums of China and two albums of Hong-Kong stamps.) Great show. David Colombier
some 'authorized' retailers IE Costco... are allowed to sell stamps at a slight discount. Typically 25 cents or so off a 100 count roll. 25 CENTS.... NOT 25 PERCENT!!! So.... that roll of 66 cent stamps may cost $65.75 instead of $66.00.
So I re-watched this for a third time and am astounded there isn't even the slightest recognition that another option would be to GO BACK to line engraving press printing of postage. Currency is much harder to counterfeit for this reason and printed bills ALWAYS provide a means of counterfeit detection. Eventually, litho printed counterfeit stamps will be identical to legitimate postage. If it is true that the USPS is losing up to 150 million dollars or more a year to this problem, the cost of going back to line engraving seems a bargain.
You are doing people a valuable favor with this podcast. I do a lot of mailing. Just went to 3 local Post Offices in search of postcard stamps--and they're all out! I was tempted to buy the counterfeits online, but you've talked me out of it.
WOW I purchased some of these. I used several of them. I will stop using them. I`ll put them up and mark them counterfeit. Maybe some day they may be worth something. I`m writing this one year after you made this video and there still for sale on Facebook?Thank You for The Video.
Just went to the post office to ask about some postcard stamps that were purchased at a discount. The clerk looked at them and told me they were postcard stamps (yes, I knew that) & were legit. I asked him how he could tell & he said, "Well, when you know, you know."😶
Basically the USPS should go back to line engraving. And also one should buy stamps first directly from USPS Philatelic center, USPS authorized post offices, and stamp dealers belonging to one or reputable stamp dealer associations. As for the slow disappearance of physical postage stamps, it is already happening but quite slowly --- see Iceland.
Since the release of better generative ai models, increasing the resolution of scanned images with high accuracy has been much much easier than before. I'm not sure if this is even a battle that can be won. They might just have to go back to denominated stamps so that if they counterfeit, they aren't as likely to profit.
Man, I thought this was mainly an issue with forever stamps so never bought them online! I'm a Post-crosser and love using unique/older stamps for aesthetic purposes as people on there collect them. But knowing some denominated ones are fake makes me scared to use those too! 😂
LOL…I had started getting these ads on Facebook that I knew were for counterfeit stamps. I reported the ad to Facebook and the ads completely disappeared from my timeline.
Came here from a referral on post crossing. I'm pretty sure I've been duped by fraud stamps. I was looking for a specific series issued in 2019 and amazingly they were cheap on poshmark of all places.
Could there possibly be a reseller discount if they bought the pack of stamps years ago and the postal rate has jumped up and they're trying to clear inventory so the stamps would have been cheaper when they initially bought them then with the rates are now 5 years later?
TLDR idea for disposing of fakes: If you know an elementary school teacher, give the stamps to them to use for 'Good Job!' rewards on students' assignment papers! Wow this video was fantastic. I'm not a stamp collector but coins, yes, so this was also interesting just to hear what stuff like collectible errors are in stamps. But the reason I searched this counterfeit subject was because of the Endangered Species stamps I bought a while back. -It definitely struck me as shocking that the "USPS" was now offering discounted stamps, because I thought I understood they were _something like_ a form of currency in their own right. I mean I remember back in 1990 or so when I was a Waffle House waitress, a customer who must've found herself low on cash after eating her meal opted to go through her purse and leave me a little bit of change, some unopened packets of Advil, and a short strip of postage stamps as my tip. And I thought, "Cool!" because I would literally have to spend that much for that many stamps anyway! Oh and the Advil .... after a 10-hour 3rd shift, you bet, LOL. Also I've always known the USPS didn't offer quantity discounts, same price per stamp whether you buy 1 or a thousand. But when I saw this "deal" I figured it must have something to do with so many people going 'paperless' now, like desperate measures for desperate times. Alas, now I know I was scammed. BUT I gotta say, these black-background glossy relief animal stamps are still SO GORGEOUS, I just can't destroy them, lol. I think I will simply use them as envelope seals, maybe other decorative ideas. Ooooo! I'll see if my elementary school teacher friend would like to have some for 'well done!' rewards on student work!
THANK YOU! Excellent content!!! I am learning so much, and I will definitely SHARE what I have learned. I was able to cancel payment, for my stupid purchase, YAY!, but the fake stamps arrived anyway, and I will somehow burn them. It should be easy to assume the discounting is fake! Duh. But I was dumb, briefly. Now I will blow my horn.
As a new stamp collector this is very disturbing, considering #factcheckers exist but no marketing ad checkers to remove ads I see daily! eBay could have Authication Guarantee!!! Where to buy a UVS light or lamp?
I'm wondering if I received counterfeit stamps of the purple pansy LOVE stamps issued in 2010. I had one single stamp left and purchased a sheet from eBay seller to acquire more. However, this sheet of stamps, the stamp is BIGGER than the single stamp I had left! The coloring is slightly different too. I'm quite disappointed to think these are counterfeit stamps.
Literally, as I was listening to this, I realized I hadn't checked the mail today, so I put you guys on pause, and brought the mail in. One item was a mysterious letter with a somewhat fuzzy US flag stamp that doesn't fluoresce. Inside the envelope was a Christian tract (but I'm already a Christian). I just thought it ironic that somewhere there is some guy or gal sending out these Christian tracts and using counterfeit stamps!
And? You actually think they would use those stamps of they knew? I just found out and this has been happening for a while now. Judge much? How is the letter mysterious? So dramatic.
Retailers can actually charge less for stamps should they choose to. Just make sure that it is not a third party selling through Walmart or any other retailer.
People in China are not allowed to go on Facebook by the Chinese government. So if this is happening, it is happening with the complicity of the Chinese government.
They are Chinese individuals here in the USA. Not sure about the transaction that brings the stamps from China to here, but the resellers are in California or New York, almost without exception.
When did USPS start using the florescent tag to authenticate stamps? I have some I bought at my local USPS & they do not glow. they are 2015 & 2021. Or is my cheap UV flashlight the counterfeit?
The wave length of UV lights varies. or example, the novelty black light has a different wavelength than a *Woods Lamp that a mechanic may use for detecting the fluorescent dye to detect leaks in engine coolant or AC systems. Some theme parks and concert venues use fluorescent dye (ink) stamps. Difficult for the naked eye to see, but under the "special light" it sticks out like a bruised thumb. A dye can have very specific (narrow range) wave length reactivity, ... only reacts to specific light....
Your postmaster at your post office should be able to tell. I would hope anyway. I don't know if drivers or clerks are trained in recognizing counterfeits. But maybe
Would going back to engraving (maybe with phosphor ink) help? And could we put Zuckerberg in prison? I leave increasingly profane comments on the FB ads and then report the posts, but nothing happens - I keep getting more ads.
It is easy to find sellers both on RU-vid and Ebay who are selling discounted, counterfeits. Every one of us has a duty, IMO, to report them and inform them they are being reported for selling counterfeits. This is just as much a crime as passing counterfeit currency and needs to be taken seriously. When they claim you are defaming them.....politely point them to the USPS Inspection Service video as your source. Should shut them up. ;-)
