Sorry to double-post, but I am interested in peoples thoughts about this item and the listing.
"creativityplus4" is listing
"1866, India, POSTAGE OVPT ON 8 ANNA BILL, SG 018a, Cat £24000, QV. V.RARE."
Item number: 310687812189
Link:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310687812189
Image:

Price (Buy-it-now or make offer): £4,800.00 (free posting!)
Returns: No returns accepted
Description (crazy html bits at end as per description):
Check out my other items!Be sure to add me to your favourites list! The StampShop
Notes Spectacular
More Indian States in the Shop, click below to get the complete list.
The StampShop
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1866, India, POSTAGE OVPT ON 8 ANNA BILL, SG 018a, Cat £24000, mint, brown cracked gum as usual QV. V.RARE, buyer can send for certification if required, please note that cost will not be paid by us.
Many items like these will be offered in the next month or so, as need to retire. All will be offered without any reserve and very low start value. Any questions please send me an email.
Good luck.
The StampShop
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PLEASE NOTE THAT WE DO NOT PUT RESERVES ON OUR AUCTIONS, SO YOU MAY BID IN CONFIDENCE.
PLEASE SEE OUR OTHER LOTS IN THIS AUCTION.
The StampShop KEEP A LOOK OUT, WITH MANY GOOD LOTS THAT ARE NOT OFTEN OFFERED BY OTHER EBAYERS.
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR BIDDING.
Check out my other items!Be sure to add me to your favourites list! The StampShop
On 07-Jun-06 at 18:11:24 BST, seller added the following information: On 25-Nov-08 at 00:31:10 GMT, seller added the following information:
PLEASE NOTE. MAJORITY OF THE OLD INDIAN, AND PAKISTANI CURRENCY NOTES WERE STAPLED, SO THE PIN HOLES ARE AS ISSUED..
On 14-May-09 at 09:53:23 BST, seller added the following information: amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div style="text-align:center"amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a style="text-decoration:none" href="
https://mostpopular.sellathon.com/?id=AC100105"amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="
https://www.sellathon.com/Resources/Images/countercredit.gif" border="0"amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/aamp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/divamp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
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Here are my questions and comments on this item:
1) What do people think about if this is a genuine original stamp, an official reprint, or a forged overprint on a basic revenue stamp (or an outright fake stamp and overprint)?
2) Given the uncertainty, what would be a fair price to offer?
3) I note that creativityplus4 states "buyer can send for certification if required, please note that cost will not be paid by us". I find that a strange comment to make. Firstly, once you buy it, it's yours and you don't need permission to send it for a certificate, or to do anything else with it! Also, there is no mention of what the seller may do, should the certificate come back as bad (or good, or opinion declined). So, why mention this? And coupled with "Returns:
No returns accepted / Return policy details The seller won't accept returns for this item.", I find it hard to follow his train of thought with this aspect of the listing.
4) For the best part of five grand, I would hope to see a scan of the back of the stamp at the least in the listing. Why is it not shown?
5) The surface appears to have a few rubs. I know that these green overprinted service on revenue type Indian stamps can suffer from this a bit, but is this amount average for the issue?
6) If the seller is confident in this stamp, why would he not get it certified (for a cost of what - a couple hundred pounds maybe?), at which point, people would have better confidence to bid on it (assuming the cert comes back clean).
7) Surely one of the big London auction houses would be able to sell something like this for a better return that you'd get on eBay, given the high net worth clients that they must have on their lists, etc, even taking into account their fees.
Given the apparently casual approach to the listing and some of the other comments I make, I am left confused about the listing and the item and not at all sure if the seller is really trying to get this item sold, or has something else in mind?
I need this stamp for my collection (postally used though - no mint for me!) but even if I decide to blow a huge percentage of my stamp 'pocket money' for the next several decades to get a copy of this (which I have rarely seen offered), how could I possibly bid on this specific example as listed? All I could do is to offer an amount that assumes it is a spacefiller grade reproduction, until proved otherwise. What would you buy this for, as listed, if you were to make an offer on it?
Sorry for the long post, any thoughts or input on this stamp or my comments and questions would be greatly appreciated. Has creativityplus4 been shown this thread? I'd love to hear his responses!