Rule #10 of Collecting: If it's valuable, somebody will figure out a way to copy and sell it.
A nine-year stamp forgery ring was recently busted on e-Bay. Even though the dealer has been exposed, many of those people that bought fake stamps will probably try and get their money back from the bigger suckers.
The man believed to be behind the scheme is a longtime stamp dealer living in upstate New York. He has been investigated by law enforcement, suspended by eBay and exposed in Internet forums devoted to stamp collecting. Yet the massive operation continues to churn out philatelic fakes, burning collectors and, some say, undermining the very foundations of the hobby.
A retired FBI agent who worked numerous stamp fraud cases during his years with the bureau describes it as the "the most prolific and most notorious" scam ever perpetrated in eBay's problematic stamp-collecting category. (MSNBC.com is not identifying the suspect because he has not been charged with a crime.)
Source: Traders Trade -- Auction and Ecommerce News for Buyers and Sellers
Surprisingly enough, the fraudulent items didn't come from China. It has got to be only a matter of time before the Chinese decide to print sheets of Inverted Jenny's and flood the market.
bā-sān-qī wǔ-sān-líng-jiǔ or 八百三十七 just isn't the same as 837-5309.
Although if Tommy Tutone was in China, I bet they would sing about Jenny Zhu of ChinesePod, my favourite podcast on learning Mandarin.
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