Q=CreditGuy]Stamps are not like stocks, people do not buy loads of "forever stamps" to plan for retirement. Sorry, but you're wrong. You're not in the business. Fact is, there are many people who have throughout their lives loaded up on current U. S. postage as an investment. They like buying from the post office at face value because no one is making a profit from them, like us mercenary stamp dealers. When the Forever stamps came along, some switched to buying that instead of the latest commemoratives, because their value could ONLY rise. Did you miss my point that the Forever stamp sold for 41 cents in April 2007 when it was first issued and now sells for 44 cents? First class mail rate was three cents until 1948. It's not an inherently dumb idea to think stamps will rise faster than inflation.

People assume that they can always use them for postage or sell them for use as postage. (That's a lot of postage for some.)

All you have to do is look at the Postage listings under Stamps/United States in eBay. Sort by highest value. Notice how many dealers are offering lots consisting of many different older stamps for use as postage. Those come from such investors. The plate blocks from each sheet used to be a premium item. Investors gathered them by buying full sheets, removing the plate blocks, and then using the rest for postage.

I'm not saying investing at stamps at the post office is a good decision. You can hit a winner now and then, but mostly it's a losing idea. That's why the investors (or their heirs) wind up selling their stamps at a loss.

But I am saying it's fairly common and not the least bit unusual. Don't take my word for it--look at the listings and see for yourself.

Throughout the years some have also thought "investing" in Beanie babies and timeshares were solid long term “investments” too. If everyone made wise decisions then no one would be rich. As for your conclusions of the forever stamps as an investment that has been analyzed time and time again by both professional and amateur investors and the general consensus is that hoarding forever stamps purchased at face value is a poor investment long term.

The main problem with “investing” in forever stamps is that when congress signed the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, one condition of that law states that the price of ALL USPS First Class Postage Letter rates from that point on would always be based inflation and not general operating costs of the USPS as had been the case with all previous First Class mail stamps. In other words to put it simply the USPS First Class Letter postage rate will never be allowed to outpace inflation. In exchange for this concession the USPS was given a streamline process by Congress where the USPS can apply annually for general operating cost product specific rate increases on premium USPS services such as PO Boxes, Money Orders, Priority and Express Mail. Before this the USPS could only apply for a rate change every 24 months and even then it had to be a general percentage increase that applied to USPS services.

Bottom line it IS an inherently dumb idea to think forever stamps will rise faster than inflation.

Also despite the fact it seems you have actually somehow convinced yourself that the majority of below face value stamp sales on eBay are really from legitimate sources that does not change the reality that most of those below face value sales sold on eBay are acquired through illicit or illegal means. For example...Postal worker charged in theft of $600K in stamps and reselling them on eBay

okay - That seems logical. Stolen cc's = $0 cost stamps = 100% profit!= jail time....
Prob. explains a majority of the eBay stamps.
Still not buying the "investment" idea....

You forgot one and the most likey source of US postal stamps on eBay...Stamps purchased at the Post Office from automated vending machines and kiosks using stolen credit cards. When my wife retired from her Postmaster job last year that was by far the the USPS's biggest fraud problem. The USPS' credit card fraud problem was so bad in 2008 the USPS was considering discontinuing accepting credit card payments completely for deferred postage products sold in the US(ie stamps, prepaid mailers etc.). However they ended up settling on just removing the credit card payment option from USPS owned automated stamp machines. In known high fraud locations they completely removed all the stamp dispensing kiosks and stamp vending machines from those locations.

No one is talking about old stamp collections, just large numbers of Forever Stamps.
That is the root of the topic.

Seems like someone close to the source has said it is an issue with stolen credit cards and these stamps.
They may not be stolen, but who buys $2500 of forever stamps to resell at a loss...... I'd venture to guess it would be someone who used a stolen CC!!!