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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations February 4-5, 2006:

A Fool And His Money

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries. 

Recently, an eBay seller offered what he said "must be extremely rare" upside-down stamps -- 
a strip of four one-cent stamps from 1983. And this "find" could be yours for a mere three 
dollars plus shipping.

As near as we can tell by looking at the picture, all that was upside-down was  ... the 
picture. There's nothing wrong with the stamps, worth about four cents.

Maybe the seller was making a joke. Maybe he just didn't know. This lot didn't sell, thankfully, 
but there are some other silly stamp offers on the Internet auction site: Used stamps, dirty 
stamps, even stamps torn in half.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and often the only damage is to the would-be seller, 
who pays fees to list junk. But sometimes these worthless stamps DO sell, at ridiculous prices. 

Just because a seller says a stamp is "rare" or "valuable" doesn't mean it is.

Maybe it's rare because no one else wants it.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.

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