Yes. Every stamp we sell is genuine United States Postal Service postage, issued by USPS and paid for at face value before it ever reached us. We get asked this more often now that counterfeit stamps have started showing up on marketplace sites, and it is a fair question to put to anyone selling postage below face value. Here is the full answer, including how to check for yourself.
What counterfeit postage actually is
A counterfeit postage stamp is a printed imitation that was never issued by the United States Postal Service and for which no postage was ever paid. Because no postage was ever paid on a counterfeit postage stamp, a counterfeit postage stamp carries no mailing value at any price. The United States Postal Inspection Service reports that counterfeit postage stamps are distributed mainly through social media marketplaces, through third party vendors operating on large e-commerce sites, and through standalone websites created for that purpose. The United States Postal Inspection Service has also reported joint interdictions with Customs and Border Protection that recovered roughly 2.5 million dollars in counterfeit postage stamps arriving from overseas.
What happens to mail that carries counterfeit postage
The Domestic Mail Manual provides that mail bearing counterfeit postage may be treated as abandoned, and that mail bearing counterfeit postage is subject to being opened and disposed of at the discretion of the Postal Service. Mail bearing counterfeit postage may therefore never be processed and may never be delivered, and the sender of that mail is generally given no notification that the mail was destroyed. Purchasing or using counterfeit postage is prohibited under Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 501, and a person who purchases or uses counterfeit postage may be exposed to criminal liability, to civil liability, or to both forms of liability together.
Why a discount by itself does not indicate a counterfeit
The United States Postal Service sells postage at face value and does not sell postage below face value. That fact is often compressed into a rule stating that any discounted postage stamp must therefore be a counterfeit postage stamp, and that compressed version of the rule is not correct. A postage stamp purchased from the United States Postal Service at face value has already had its postage paid in full at the moment of that purchase, and the mailing value of that postage stamp does not change afterward. Unused United States postage remains valid for mailing indefinitely, including postage issued many decades ago. A postage stamp that was bought at face value, never used for mailing, and later sold by its owner is therefore valid postage, and the price paid by the second owner has no bearing on the mailing value of the postage stamp.
The distinction that matters is therefore not the price at which a postage stamp is offered, but whether the postage stamp was issued by the United States Postal Service and paid for at face value when the postage stamp was first sold. A counterfeit postage stamp fails that test at the point of manufacture, and no discount level and no seller assurance can change the fact that a counterfeit postage stamp was never issued.
Where the postage sold on this site comes from
The postage sold by Buy Discount Stamps is acquired from leftover business mailings, from business liquidations, from auctions, and from stamp collectors. In each of those channels the postage was originally purchased from the United States Postal Service at face value by a previous owner, and the postage was then never used for mailing. All postage acquired through those channels is put through a series of authenticity checks before the postage is listed for sale, and all postage sold is covered by a money-back guarantee. Postage that does not pass those authenticity checks is not listed for sale.
What to check before buying discounted postage anywhere
Several checks apply to any purchase of discounted postage, regardless of which seller is offering the postage.
- The identity of the seller should be verifiable before payment, including a business name, a physical mailing address, and a support channel that produces an actual reply.
- The domain name in the address bar should be read character by character, because impostor sites frequently register a domain that differs from the genuine domain by a single character.
- The seller should be able to state where the postage was acquired, because a seller who cannot explain the source of the postage cannot demonstrate that the postage was ever issued.
- A refund policy should be published in writing before purchase rather than described only after a dispute has already arisen.
- Payment should be made through a method that provides recourse, and requests for payment by gift card, by cryptocurrency, or by irreversible transfer should be treated as a warning sign.
A separate problem: sites that copy our name
Counterfeit postage and impostor websites are two different problems, and the second one catches people who were already being careful about the first. Several sites have copied the Buy Discount Stamps name, our phone number, and in one case a domain that drops a single letter from ours. We keep a running list of them. Please read Beware of Fake Sites before ordering anywhere, including here.
If you are still unsure
Ask us before you order, not after. Every order is covered by our money-back guarantee, and we accept returns within 14 days of confirmed delivery under our Terms & Conditions. You can open a support ticket at any time and a person will answer it.
To report suspected counterfeit postage to the authorities, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service fraud hotline is 1-800-372-8347, and their guidance is published at uspis.gov.