Watch Out For Counterfeit USPS Forever Stamps On eBay

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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eBay is seeing a current flood of counterfeit USPS Forever stamps listed on the marketplace as scammers look to make a quick buck from buyers trying to beat the postage increase in this week.

The real cost of a forever stamp went from $0.58 to $0.60 yesterday, along with increases in media mail and several other USPS services.

USPS Postage Rate Changes July 2022
USPS rate changes are coming July 10th - here’s what you need to know!

An alert reader sent me this egregious example of a clearly suspicious eBay listing showing 200 Forever Stamps being sold by a low feedback seller in China at a very steep discount that works out to ~$0.20 each.

Odds of these being counterfeit stamps? 100% in my book. 👎

Espresso Drinks US Postage Stamps - Booklet of 20,coffee Flag————FROM USA,200PCS | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Espresso Drinks US Postage Stamps - Booklet of 20,coffee Flag————FROM USA,200PCS at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

I'm also seeing quite a few suspicious looking listings that show a US location on the listing, but the seller account is registered in another country.

Many of these accounts are registered in China but I'm also seeing quite a few in the UK as well, which makes me wonder if the scammers may possibly be using compromised accounts.

2018 US 2 Rolls of 200 American Flag FOREVER - Unopened! USA FREE SHIPPING | eBay
2018 US 2 Rolls of 100 American Flag FOREVER - Unopened! USA FREE SHIPPING

At the very least, I recommend always checking the seller's feedback page to see where the account is registered and what their feedback ratings say.

But honestly, what I really recommend is - don't buy Forever Stamps on eBay or other 3rd party marketplaces, period.

It's clear eBay is not policing their site and taking appropriate action to protect buyers from these scams, so the best advice I can honestly give is to completely steer clear of them and only purchase stamps from USPS verified and approved vendors.

More info from the United States Postal Inspection Service:

Counterfeit Stamps - USPIS
To ensure your trusted communication arrives without delay, the Postal Inspection Service wants you to be aware of--and avoid phony postage.

Have you purchased stamps on eBay or other marketplace you later discovered were fake? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!

eBayUSPSFraud

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.

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2345Nacho
I’m on a fixed income . I bought these Forever stamps , thinking I would save some money . Now I’m reading their a scam .
This is what I get for trusting everyone .
I wish I knew how to get my money back .
I sure could use it . I paid over $60.00 for my order.
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Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholdercoachgutYesterday
Can you export to a CSV file? I need a way to organize my inventory in the order I would like to sell them.
Avatar Placeholderfoxxresell2 days ago
Maybe if they didn't blindly ban sellers and provided customer service this would not be happening. I am not sure any humans work at etsy. After I was wrong banned, I had no way of contacting anyone and even sent paper letters (remember those?). They were all returned to me.
AvatarLiz Morton3 days ago
This article was written three months when the GSP rates went up, then back down (but not all the way to where they had been previously) due to a glitch and/or tariff changes at that time.

The rates have now gone back up again because the de minimis exemption for items made in China ended on May 2, 2025 - and it also appears that if the seller didn't specify the Country of Origin, eBay may be defaulting to the assumption that it was made in China for the purposes of calculating the duties for the Global Shipping Program.

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/trump-ends-de-minimis-china-other-countries-to-follow/

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Sudden-dramatic-increase-in-global-shipping-price-after-winning/m-p/35064987/highlight/true#M520410