It's unfortunate but true that a lot of people are trash out for their own money and welfare. They lack tangibles measuring personal growth and ethics. They can't think for themselves. They don't want to think. There are paid fakes and also so-called useful idiots feeling it easier to go with the flow rather than risk banishment from fake freedom of speech and association.
It is a catch-22. Who wants to associate with scumbags? But if anyone wants to leave this place better off for future generations, one must participate? Yet if the only options available for that are to get one's arse gaslighted, then what's the fricken point of anything?
Many corrupt stamp dealers only act as if they care about newbie and intermediate collectors. They control the major stamp forums. They are a form of Edward R. Murrow as in people with fake integrity. They are not upset with stamp corruption, only that some make it too obvious or get caught making it more difficult for themselves to take advantage of the naive.
I went to a stale big stamp forum and immediately made an impact. That's easy to do mostly anywhere since currently most people lack skills. They have lousy grammar and worse ideologies. They have nothing to offer anyone. They are basically freemasons or other forms of pig going along to get along. They want their piece of the pie. They don't want to discuss the pros and cons of pie or indeed the essence of life. They want theirs and desire to protect self-defined beautiful minds from witnessing too much of social reality's brutal truths.
(While editing this, I can't help but notice how negative it must sound. I'm not sure there is any way to pussyfoot around the extent in which life is unnecessarily rigged and unfair. So sometimes I go a bit over the top. Yet, things are truly bad with no relief in sight anywhere or in any form, imho.)
I hate to link too often because the medium is such twisted garbage. Here was a 2007 story from NBC news in which a mysterious NY stamp dealer was exposed as apparently operating a criminal enterprise.
Is eBay stamp racket the Net's stickiest scam?
The author called it a nine year ongoing saga. Basic number crunching shows that this specific crapola has been basically going on since around 1998. Apparently the worst kept secret is that a major stamp dealer has been fvcking around with stamps through regumming, reperforating and by utilising various deceptive tricks in order to rip off stamp collectors.
Most "repaired" stamps are basically worth about 1% of catalogue value if not less. They are no different than any other damaged stamp except that on the surface they look a lot nicer.
The stamp dealer in question is apparently a company named New York Stamps. I don't do eBay, so I wouldn't know from experience. But there are various threads out there which seem to point to them as the alleged perpetrator described by NBC News.
Ebay seller - nystamps
At first I thought that forum was legit. I've been there for about a month until getting banned in the last couple days. While most of everything they offer is useless and boring, I livened it up a month ago with
"Stamp Leaders of the World."
I followed it up with another thread titled, "Now they are saying $50 stamps are worthless." That article has been deleted. I suppose I should thank them for that. It proves my point that there is no freedom of speech and association on the internet. The thing went on for well over five pages. I didn't take kindly to verbal abuse and let them know that. Now poof, it is all gone. They are fricken cheating scumbags. People with dignity and nothing to hide don't delete threads.
My biggest crime was probably saying enough is enough with the promotion of Mystic Stamps. After I made that point, they locked me out.
They were hounding me. They didn't like that I was making it clear that philately isn't rocket science and that anyone can do it. It was old-school Socrates telling people in power they are not as smart or necessary as perceived.
There's no real point in my discussing the verbal abuse because it's been scrubbed and life is too short.
The main point remains that stamps are a scam and that the people dominating major stamp forums want to rip you off. To do so they need you thinking there is a hierarchy between experts and consumers with us needing to bow to and comply with authority. They are afflicted with authoritarian personality disorder as defined by Altemeyer. As quoted from
Animal House, "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
They don't like that now anyone can identify stamps and their true values. They wouldn't let me post Colnect which has drop down boxes enabling easy stamp identification.
The problem is we have been left with only three apparent avenues for philately dispersal. We either go to stamp dealers and auction houses to get ripped off or enter tougher territory called opening our own online stores and selling the stuff ourselves.
It is a buy now period, so the idea of how to sell doesn't really matter right now. No one should be thinking of selling. This is not the time. But the problem will not go away by itself. Philately will not heal because of efforts made by astroturfers dominating stamp forums.
No matter what is pointed out, too much interference is run protecting the predator companies. It doesn't really matter to me because I don't fall for that kind of nonsense. I may actually stop collecting because this recent experience has left a bitter taste in me mouth. But I probably won't. Stamps in themselves are not the problem.
Some protected NY Stamps by saying they refund when asked. Mystic is protected by astroturf claiming their heirloom album is the best bargain in the business with outstanding customer service, etc..
To them, knowledgeable democratic stamp collecting is not applicable. They want us to accept our own stamps as worthless or worth about 5% of catalogue if we ever wish to sell. They expect us to help stamp dealers pay rent and put their kids through college when the whole paradigm needs to shift stamps into more of a currency and no longer an instrument of pure power and monopoly. They are sharks in a dying industry. That being said, philately isn't on its way out. It needn't perish. The way it has been structured is what's falling apart.
The losers on that forum went after me for claiming I am both a newbie and accumulator of stamp wisdom. Most people are very shallow. It took me three years to master stamps. A few years ago I got into this after dabbling in youth. I can now identify stamps very quickly. That makes me both a newbie and expert. If you keep seeing them so often, eventually it kicks in. With pictures posted on the internet, you start remembering them. I offer the idea of a stamp revolution in which we cut out the big stamp dealers, auction houses and catalogue pigs such as Stanley Gibbons.
I can get by for the most part using Colnect and Stampworld. It doesn't mean I am 100% positive on everything, but one can get most of the work done through those two websites, imho.
You start remembering where the stamps come from for the ones without countries even named on the items. You start easily figuring out which year the fvckers were issued. At a minimum one can always break it down to a few possibilities and then set it aside for future verification.
But ye won't be able to follow what happened to me on that forum because the second thread is gone.
The goal of philatelic scumbags is at foremost the evoking of false authority.
Concern troll moderator Don Studebaker blames the newbies and intermediates for the sad state of philately.
What I think is damaging our hobby are generations of low quality collections that people (or their families) think are worth high values. There is nothing wrong with building a collection of low value stamps… as long as you know that is what you are doing.
Aaah, how convenient it was to then scrub my masterpiece concerning true real stamp values for sincere ethical people.
Meanwhile, the overall message of the forum is for folks to keep on buying from greedy stamp dealers and auction houses.
Because the enjoyment factor!
Don often speaks of the enjoyment factor. They don't want anyone discussing the ripoff factor or only on their terms. They are a good example of what Marcuse wrote on in
Repressive Tolerance. Our society is falling apart because there is no longer the illusion of fair trade and free speech. This is kinder, gentler fascism. All countries are increasingly authoritarian. The French and American Revolutions were basically fake news. Too long, did not read- the struggle continues.
Those losers deleted the thread because they were idiots who I easily made to look bad. Sorry for the broken record mailed in entry. They are cheaters in both the selling of stamps and discussion on them. There is a suspicious username Floortrader who I quoted as admitting he hinges some MNH's. MNH means mint never hinged. He basically breaks philatelic law. An Ikey-Pikey stalked me and spoke of conditionistas. There's some sort of weird psychological operation going on? Floortrader puts hinges on stamps with pristine gum. That's just too weird. And Ikey backed him on the practice. I guess you had to be there? They are hypocrites. I proved it, so they brought out the eraser.
One of the problems going on is regumming. It's called fake gum and will not impress anyone if you ever want to sell a collection including those. All of our stamps are being devalued by design. This is racketeering 101. It is a continuous loop between old people, families, auction houses, stamp dealers and overrated catalogue makers and various suppliers. Stamps are similar to food. Maybe they are not necessary, but they are a big market with lots of growth potential. But it is like baseball after steroids. The love is gone. Sharapova has allegedly washed her hands of stamps. They don't want us to know the truth about the money part.
Paid fakes and useful idiots give themselves away by running interference. Real people give up. Why would authentic folks buy stamps from obvious rats or anyone running interference for them? Why does so much sound like never ending commercialism?
Stamps are not on a down slide because people are dying off. It's because of scandals and corruption.
These are capitalists faking that stamps is a rocket science with dealers as trustworthy experts.
People keep going out of their way on that forum to protect the predators. I ratcheted up my critical commentary and then got the boot.
They were exposed as a bad, corrupt forum, so out came the scrub brush.
I had read through a lot of the archives. It used to be a much better forum. Women used to post. Now there are none. And the only people remaining for the most part seem to be very old, white whiny Archie Bunker styled capitalist pigs. No one should pay a cent.
everything is rigged and fake
