Be Aware Market Flooded with Counterfeit Stamps from China

[epicurean11]

If you buy postage for your business on eBay you will find an array of offers - pretty much all the bulk offers I have seen from sellers who are not stamp dealers are counterfeit. It is a criminal offence to sell them and a criminal offence to use them in the Royal Mail system. eBay don't seem that interested. Last year a couple trading on the site were sent to prison. They all pay high levels of promotion fees, so they appear at the top of any random search i.e. 1st class stamps. They offer commemoratives in sheets and bundles and whether gummed (the gum doesn't actually work properly) or self-adhesive, they are 100% counterfeit. Your customers will be charged £5 on arrival by Royal Mail if they spot them...the fact that their barcode machines aren't active at the moment means most will get through but if you're not a crook I suggest you buy your postage from recognised stamp dealers and not guys selling models, shampoo and/or cleaning products who have suddenly come across £20,000+ worth of stamps at 1/4 of the market value.  

[gly2010]

I have reported several sellers, allegedly stamp dealers, who are selling replica stamps on eBay. They call them MNH in the header, but MNH Replica in the description. Totally reprehensible. When challenged they say “ Read the description” EBay don’t care and say “ we investigated and found no issues” 

[jckl1957]

You are not covered by Paypal.  They changed their rules for refunds about a year ago.

They still allow a generous 6 months to claim for an item not received, but they only give you 30 days to start a return for an item which is not as described/fake etc.

[shopping-ferret]

To add insult to injury, when you fall foul of the crooks and report them to Ebay, they do nothing!!  You get replies from so called AI who deem no violation made, despite uploading proof.  You appeal and the appeal comes back within half an hour again denying violations.  So the only option is to leave them to it or go to all the trouble of having to inform the authorities.  I was unable to open cases as this only came to light months after purchasing a few lots.  Ebay did step in on the only case I was able to open and they refunded me, but I am still over £200 out of pocket.  This seller is ignoring my messages and despite previously telling me he was going to stop selling the Wallace & Gromit commemorative stamps, has not!!  He is on to a good thing selling bargain sheets that appear genuine.  He is not the only one doing this of course.  Ebay is FLOODED with counterfeit stamps but take no action to stop it.  I have reported this to them years ago and they have deaf ears and seem complicit, despite their own violations policy.

[epicurean11]

LATEST STAMPS TO BEWARE OF....CRIMINALS NOW FLOODING eBAY WITH 1ST CLASS SELF-ADHESIVE STAMPS WITH WALLACE AND GROMIT ON THEM, EXACTLY AS YOU SAID. THEY ARE ALL FAKE - I'VE ALERTED eBAY BUT THEY JUST DON'T CARE. PRINTED IN CHINA - SOLD BY GANGS OF THEIVES.  EVEN WHEN THE SELLER (CRIMINAL) HAS NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, STATING THAT THE STAMPS WERE REJECTED BY ROYAL MAIL AND THAT THEY WERE 100% COUNTERFEIT, STILL eBAY ALLOWS THEM TO SELL AND SELL. TME THEY PROTECTED OUR COMMUNITY.

[shopping-ferret]

Yes, I reported the seller and he continues to trade selling the same stamps.  What the hell is Ebay playing at when surely they must have had several complaints/reports?  I have lost out on so much as it was too late under Ebay's buyer protection, bar one case and Ebay were the ones who refunded me, not the seller.  I still have a bunch of stamps from him that I cannot use, which cost me well over £200.  I have sent him messages and he is ignoring me.  What is more, I reported issue to RM and got an acknowledgement  saying they would take 3 business days to get back to me and that was a month ago!!!

Legally, are Ebay breaking the law if they knowingly permit such activity on Ebay?  I have letters from RM telling me the postage used was counterfeit.

As well as the W&G issues, there are also smaller sheets of 10 dinosaurs and others containing 10 stamps with various characters, including Andy Pandy if I recall correctly.  Some sellers may be lucky and evade detection, but clearly in the area I live, that is not the case.

[stamp_hammer]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/146792044281?itmmeta=01K3WT8DM4YN8A5SPZ28SY372S&hash=item222d7cd6f9:g:Q9c...

[shopping-ferret]

So this is your listing for stamps - are you posting this to advise yours are genuine RM postage stamps?

[gjalp]

Its a different seller. That one in the link says London. Stamp_hammer is Bristol

[drgwalker]

I understood that all stamps used today have to have a QR code, so the stamps earlier in the thread are worthless to sellers to use as postage.

[gjalp]

You can still use commemorative stamps. Its the definitives that have to have the barcode.

[epicurean11]

Exactly as Gjalp said. Machin stamps without barcodes are no longer valid for postage - they're not exactly 'worthless', I sell thousands of them every year but to collectors. They also still have a value, as you can send them back to Royal Mail in their swap out' scheme and they will replace them with either left over stock from QEII or Charles III definitives all with barcodes. All other stamps, including Christmas are still valid. What's not valid is stamps produced in China and generally sold on eBay by supposed 'private sellers' who sell all sorts of items but clearly not stamps (i.e. these people are not stamp dealers) but aside from their trinkets and bits and bobs priced between £2 and £5, they suddenly have tens of thousands of pounds of stamps to sell 'for postage' as 'genuine' at 25-30% of face value. No one ever bought masses of single values (i.e. one value from a set of stamps) of very modern stamps - it just doesn't happen anymore. Nor would it be a good business model to buy them for £1.70 and sell them for 35p....with eBay taking 20%+ of that because they are all promoted to the maximum.  

[stamp_hammer]

Adding a link to an eBay listing isn't against policy, but commenting on the legality of it is.

Make of that what you will.

[shopping-ferret]

That is just ridiculous.   You posted a link and I did not quite understand what was behind your intention in doing so.  It is not helpful.