Private Sellers trying to sell valueless stamps at ridiculous prices

[jere-nott]

I sell GB Queen Victoria postage stamps plus a sprinkling of other stamps. Most starting in auction at a low starting price.

Has anyone noticed private sellers trying to sell valueless stamps for stupid money?

I have noticed that some crazy private sellers are flooding eBay with for example a Wilding QE11 1953 3d Blue

(CV 90p so valueless) Buy it Now Price £1500! Do they think that buyers/sellers are stupid?

Who are these idiots? Just makes me so angry, just my little rant, sorry.

[*vyolla*]

It's likely that some self-styled 'expert' on FaceBook has put the word out that they're worth silly money because they saw something similar on the news sell for that amount. Myth turns into 'truth' pretty quickly on social media - I recall when the new five pound notes were issued sellers were listing those on eBay for silly money because they had James Bond's 007 in the bank note number somewhere, or AK47. Some were listed for thousands and those sellers had added a high Reserve too, which cost them loads even when their fiver didn't (surprisingly!) sell. That listing fee is non-refundable, and some had been using it lots and for relists too.

[goodibags]

You can also pick up 1st class or 2nd class barcoded stamps being sold at TWICE their current Royal Mail value.

Basically there's no defined upper limit for what you can get away with.

Only on Ebay.

[jere-nott]

I know what you mean. They are just idiots who think that experienced sellers are stupid. I know nothing about bank notes (except  how to spend them). But I know a lot about GB stamps and their worth.

If the idiot trying to sell the 3d Wilding stamp for 1500 quid good luck, I have hundreds of them which I use for labels. Might contact him/her and tell them they can have mine for a tenner each.

[kidmore_kats]

I can sell you a very rare 50p piece for £1500

Don't worry if you don't like it, I've got about thirty others 

[jere-nott]

😂I can sell you a very rare QV 1881 1d Mauve stamp for £1500 if you don't like it don't worry I have 200 others!

Or some very rare QEII Castle Stamps for £600 each but if you don't like it don't worry I have a few thousand of them! LOL

[cymru500]

Going slightly off topic, a couple of people i know save the used stamps from mail they receive at their office and at home. When they have a bagful they send them to a charity who benefit from them in some way. I don't understand what benefit there might be in having hundreds, if not thousands, of used British  stamps? Maybe some individual foreign stamps might have a value? Can anyone enlighten me please?

[jma2815]

I don’t know…but I always wondered what Blue Peter did to raise money with all the used stamps and milk bottle tops kids sent in for the starving children 🤔

I think you have to be over 50 for that one. 

[treetopsminicottages]

The charities can sell the bulk lots of stamps as kiloware. They are sold by weight left on the paper. 

At one time all parcels in UK had good old fashioned stamps on them so some high value ones could be found in the bundles.  Now it is mainly labels the stamps will mainly be from letters and large letters of course.

[mintsource3000]

Or could be that they have just raised their prices to silly amounts to keep the listings live to see what happens with all the New proposed ebay changes, so bit harsh to call them idiots with out the full facts .

[jere-nott]

I have the facts. The listed stamp is valueless. The seller has had this on eBay as a BIN since May 2024 together with a few other stamps equally worthless. I know my stamps including pre-stamp history going back to Henry VIII

[goldenwolfman]

Have non of you heard of money laundering? 

[jere-nott]

It's called kiloware. I have donated thousands of stamps and First Day Covers to my Charity shop.

Again, going of topic, I was at my local Auction House in Christchurch wanting a QV stamp collection. In the other lots was a huge box of kiloware stamps on paper (no interest to me). However I overheard a young lad (about 12 years old) saying to his Mum that he would like them. Alas she was outbid by someone and stopped bidding and the young lad was in tears so I outbid the higher bidder won the lot and gave it to the lad, he was overjoyed.

His Mum gave be a big hug and the young lad shook my hand. Well worth the 30 quid spent.

[goodibags]

One guy who volunteered in the postroom at a human rights NGO in London collected all the stamps from the incoming mail. At the end of the year he sold them and raised £9000. Gave it back as a donation to place he worked for free.

[insidethe93]

It only needs a single uninformed eager buyer for one of those sellers to make a killing.

[thetimetower]

This is the issue with most private sellers in general tho. Selling items for £5 personally which is maybe £1 profit tops, and have guys come in and sell the same item even cheaper. I can't even see how they are making money unless they're stealing their stock lol. I think there's just a large portion of private sellers without a single braincell.

[wycombe1]

Almost none of these overpriced items sell. Of the few that do the majority sell through shill bidding. Most who collect stamps are not stupid and will not waste money on rubbish.

[leon842]

This has been going on for all the 23 years I've been on Ebay - every time I look at one of these ludicrous listings, I get an email within hours from Ebay's artificial unintelligence inviting me to make an offer. I don't expect the idiots will ever go away, but presumably they don't find any takers!

[tommystrezures]

@*vyolla* 

I have a five pound note with the serial ak47. I tried selling it on here but the poor AI bots pulled the listing for breaching the firearms policy…. It probably didn’t help with my main title reading something like; own your own AK47 (five pound note)

op, there are a lot of chancers on here with not just stamps but coins etc too. The not so clever side of this is if I am appraising at our local auction house and the vendor gives you a print out of the contents of their stamp collection as per eBay pricing it can get embarrassing telling them their juvenile album is worth no more than a tenner but eBay told me it’s worth 50,000 pounds.