How about posting "Scam Alerts"
To my untrained eye, there has been an uptick in scammers posting very questionable items for auction lately. I noted an offer of Scott #197 starting at $100 from a seller in the Czech Republic. They even acknowledge in the description that only 30 copies exist. This auction ends today at about 3:30 Eastern time. Wow, a $40,000 stamp starting at $100! My thought is that there should be a place in this forum to warn others about such obvious quackery. Of course that would require the cooperation of Hipstamp, whose sensibilities probably resemble those of Facebook. i.e. what's good for the bottom line is what;s good for us.Does anyone see any merit in this, or is it a waste of time?
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US 197 is NGAI also deep brown color.
The other clue on this one is, it is a used example. NONE of the special printings from 1880 are postally used.
https://www.hipstamp.com/listing/united-states-martha-washington-prof-10-top-and-10-bottom/41648444
Reported this 2 days ago, no idea why it's still there.
But hey, perf 10 and top AND bottom... that's got to be rare.
(Hey buddy, here's a clue... they made a PERF 10 version of this called the 585 since your photo shows perf 10 on all sides... and not that there is a printers waste version of this in perf 10 at top or bottom either... this is a 65c stamp. Seller has 0 feedback.
I want to shrug my shoulders, roll my eyes and ask, "where do these people come from?" But of course I know. They come from that never-never world of reality TV where folks buy abandoned storage rooms and then gush over all the great stuff they can resell. I actually saw this on youtube: "I saw a stamp just like this on Ebay for $5000, and here's a whole box of them! We could have a half million dollars here!" Dah, I'm sorry, I'm ranting.
100% in agreement with you. I must report 10+ items a day and half a dozen sellers a week... to their credit, Hipstamp have removed every single item one I've reported and 9 out of 10 sellers... I just want a fair market. Not one where people are cheated and misled. It's the biggest enemy against this industry, and most seem to have a "oh well, buyer beware" attitude toward it.
Just about every site I seen some type of scam happening it's up to members n administrators to keep things fair n report such miss leading listings!
But I saw this recently on that other auction site.
From a notorious top seller.
Sold the 1992 Columbian reissues, removed from their souvenir sheets, for $330.
Notice that no Scott #'s were used, and the warranty is only if the stamps are not as described. So technically there was no lie. The buyer got what they see.
It really bothered me.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/313671202431?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&pageci=213d62ff-9d25-4e79-9ba9-1880bc40e1ab&redirect=mobile&nma=true&si=1YaIiRLY47iK3jx02u2mzzaABB4%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc
The item is definitely # 209 and it has been relisted so I sent a report to HipStamp.
Alan,
The idiot who bought the 4 Columbians is a moron and on top of that it was sold by a reputable company and it was listed under US 1941 - now unused.
Now I know there are shill bidders on eBay (it has been a problem for at least 15 to 20 years. If you look at the bids it kind of looks that way. There was also one bid redacted but eBay will never tell you who that was.
The seller defended themselves by saying they have teams that take apart collections
then catalog stamps for resale. And they don't have the time to verify every stamp.
Please people, I dont know all there is to know and a lot of you people scare me with what you do know. Im glad to say Im learning. If you ever see one of my listings and think WOW BULLSHIT, please call me to the mat. I don't want to be that guy.
Yeah, right. And they're not at all concerned with the possibility of their know-nothings listing a true rarity as a common item.
There's nothing good to be said about any if this. It's a lousy thing for any business to do, but there were a couple of folks who thought that they were taking advantage of it, regardless of their inexperience at philately. And no one is going to stop an auction.
Whoever ended up with this fine set of modern Columbians, I hope they could afford the lesson they learned.
I took a look at the starting bid which was 1c, I guess the bidders up to $5.00 or $6.00 dollars caused the havoc.
Before the lockdown, I've been fortunate enough to live in a city that had a half dozen dealer shows a year. I've trusted on faith that all those hoary headed dealers are not misrepresenting their stamps. It's a small community, they wouldn't last long if they did.
To Rene B., I purchased some stamps from that dealer also. They were priced right, they respond to questions, and they ship fast. They tend to ship first class with discount postage on the envelope. That doesn't bother me.
But after I saw how they sold those Columbian reissues, I did a quick Google search and saw a heated discussion about them on stampboards, I had to get my loupe and perf gauge out to examine them closely. Even then I marked them as suspect and in my eyes it devalues the stamps, and in turn devalues my collection.
His job was to deconstruct them, then rebuild furniture pieces with the parts.
To the untrained eye, they looked like authentic Chinese antiques.
This man saw nothing wrong with this because he was selling them for a fraction of the price of a real antique.
The people he bought the junk from were happy, his customers were happy, he was happy. What was the problem?
But in my eye, it was just wrong.
Some forgeries are collectible but the post marks on this one well and everything else scream fake! Caveat Emptor…