Welcome to Stamp Scandal, the site reveals the shabby practices that currently operate in the philatelic business, practices that are plunging the once reputable world of stamp dealing and collecting into the twilit world of the barely legal and downright illegal.
See the Breaking News sidebar for latest updates and the menus below for current stories and stories we shall reveal over the coming weeks.
Current stories are in the first drop down menu but make sure to check the menu of future stories for a list of other major scandals that we shall be exposing and make sure you check back for regular updates.
Please email us if you have a story of your own that you think we should feature or if you would like to offer your opinions and comments.
OUR HEADLINE STORY
CLOSE HIM DOWN!
The Stamp Scandal Catalogue of Illegals
The old adage "If you can't get it done properly, then do it yourself " has never been more true than now. The UPU, the WADP, the catalogues, Scott, Yvert & Tellier and the notorious Michel, have failed to make any impression on the production of illegals.
Stamp Scandal considers a stamp illegal if it is produced without a proper contract with the Postal Administration concerned. The endless discussions around other terms such as abusive, illicit, fake unauthorised etc. etc. only serve to cloud the issue. If an agent has a legal contract with the Postal Administration to produce stamps on its behalf, then those stamps are legal. As we said recently (see Leavey Lecture):
"The UPU must challenge the Postal Administrations when they submit directives identifying illegal stamps and find out if contracts have been issued to those agents for the issue of those stamps. If such a contract exists the UPU should reject the claim of the Postal Administration and contact the agent to inform them that the Postal Administration is behaving in an unethical manner and attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the stamps issued under that contract.
Without this active challenge from the UPU, unscrupulous officials in Postal Administrations can continue to lure legitimate postal agents into contracts which are later refuted because of the fraudulent activity of those officials, and illegal stamps will continue to proliferate."
The UPU would help everyone if they immediately expelled offending countries from membership of the UPU. Unsuspecting agents could then avoid drawing up contracts with those countries and the situation would stabilise still further.
Stamp Scandal.com is committing itself to the production of an online catalogue of illegals, continually updated to enable the collector to identify whether they are buying worthless labels or genuine stamps. Click here to go to our first entries.
Coming
Soon - StampScandal.com's List of
the Leading Producers of Illegal Stamps
Hold your breath everyone: we are compiling a list of the leading producers of illegal stamps, worldwide. A REAL list: a list that the UPU seems unable to produce.
The UPU and their friends, the self-proclaimed policemen of philately the Figueiredo Foundation, have failed utterly to expose those responsible for the flood of fakes that are destroying philately as a hobby and a business. Too many fingers in too many pies, in our opinion.
Stamp Scandal thinks that all those wonderful, selfless people out there who blight all our lives with their endless production of worthless labels masquerading as postage stamps should receive the credit they deserve so we are assembling a rogues gallery of the worst offenders to name and shame them and, we hope, drive them out of business. If the UPU won't do it, we will.
Keep coming back for updates.
Press coverage
Stamp-scandal.com is starting to cause a stir in the philatelic press - see Filatelie, then click on Nieuwsarchief. This is just the start of our campaign.
Support for our cause continues to grow and it's good to see a magazine like the American Philatelist acknowledging our efforts.
Philatelic sites are beginning to recognise the importance of our work.
The Texas Philatelic Association features our site on their "Resource" page.
Our site features in the news section of the Hong
Kong Philatelic Society and the Clube
Filatelico do Brasil web sites.
Jean de la Tornade
Editor
Current stories
Future stories
