Golden Replicas or Golden Stamps - however they are offered, they are far from what they appear to be. You can save yourself a lot of reading if you remember one simple fact: only an official postal service such as the Royal Mail, US Postal Service or Deutsche Post can issue stamps, just as only a regular country/state mint can issue currency. As has been stated in various court rulings against Calhoun's, the Postal Commemorative Society (PCS) and other collectors, their reproductions of original stamps may not be called "stamps" as the term is misleading and illegal in this context.
In addition, many of those entities have never been licensed for their work or individual series, meaning that the reproduction is (strictly speaking) illegal anyway. Under certain circumstances, people who resell these items may be considered to be dealing in illegal/counterfeit material and could be prosecuted depending on country and/or state laws. Of course, such cases are not immediately taken to court, simply because the effort is disproportionate to the expected financial compensation. But just because the original copyright holders do not openly assert their rights does not mean that they will be ignored forever.
Of course, people will ask how it is that these collectors' groups and societies can easily dupe thousands of customers into believing in their marketing whitewash and still remain in business for long periods of time, even years after the first allegations of fraud were made. Firstly, most of these things happened in the pre-internet era, and even with the internet it still takes ages for information to spread. In fact, even today, many people try to hide these facts or claim they are outright lies, even when court decisions and company closures clearly show the facts. Completely ignoring allegations of fraud, misrepresentation and illegal marketing activities, as well as incontrovertible court decisions such as the results of the Scottish Staffa affair, people still end up sitting on a stash of useless junk after being scammed.
The only people who still think they have a valuable collectible are those who have been tricked directly (or indirectly via a deceased relative) into buying/owning such items. These people then try to sell their items on eBay for a few dollars, but in the end they have to give in to the bargain bins at stamp collector events where these "treasures" are dumped for 50 cents each. You could say that philatelists have a sick sense of humour, but they have found a great use for these replicas, especially the presentation sheets: they buy the one or other replica as a representative backing for a presentation or as a cover because it's cheaper than making a classy cover themselves. Isn't it ironic that what was once considered a collector's item ends up as marketing and presentation tool for real stamps ?
That said, take a look at one of the typical misrepresentations in this area: the claimed value (or increase in value) based on gold content. This part is usually just nicely worded marketing whitewash, for example "... gold stamp replicas are a form of medal or medallion and they can be an interesting way to invest in gold while acquiring historical, artistic or antique artefacts ...". Sounds nice ? Well, it's nothing but pure nonsense.
From a technical point of view, gold of a certain quality (less than 12k, although it is claimed to be of much higher quality, as normal people can't check it anyway) is vaporised onto a substrate (e.g. tin foil) in a process similar to regular wet electroplating. However, the resulting gold surface is so incredibly thin - think molecular strength - that it's useless when it comes to measurable gold content per item. In other words, you would need literally tonnes of these replicas to get any amount of gold worth looking at; still even less than a gold filling, mind you. However, the cost of extracting the gold would be astronomical and one could easily say that the ancient Greek Sisyphos had an easier job.
The easiest and cheapest way to get real gold is either to buy a batch of the real 22k+ gold leaf used for gilding and decoration (usually 1/7000th of a millimetre thin, still much thicker than any steamed replica), or to visit your local bank and buy gold coins or small bars. Don't fall for online gold scams, don't trust back alley gold dealers. Only a bank will provide the real thing and allow you to additionally cash in on tax benefits (where applicable). Whatever you do, hold in mind that the claimed gold content of replicas holds absolutely no value.
A genuine stamp becomes rare and collectible through normal use, wear and tear. A gold replica made in batches of thousands and still freely available after thirty years is definitely not rare and collectible. In fact, the street value of these items is simply based on what a particular person is willing to pay at the time. After all, there is no official independent catalogue or price scale to apply, as literally anyone can create their own series and catalogues with fantasy prices to match. It's the same as any ready-made collectible: overrated, overpriced and utterly useless. Ask some sobered-up collectors who have invested in all sorts of ready-made collectibles (e.g. from Franklin Mint and others) and you will see that they have all lost money, especially when inflation is taken into account over the years.
Those who do a little research will find that the appraisal sites and the "experts" who are claimed to be helping the collectors in question are often linked to the actual publisher of these replicas, which means that the publisher will back up the alleged collectability and prices with fake statements provided by such a stooge. Another common trick is a special form of shill bidding, also known as "inhouse sales", on eBay or similar sites: the publisher has one person put a particular replica up for sale, while two or three others start a fake bidding war for the item.
Even if there is no real buyer before the auction ends (read: nobody was stupid enough to take the bait), the artificially inflated price is then used as a future value reference. As the item remains in the hands of the publisher, there is no real money involved, except perhaps the auction fees, and these are peanuts compared to the marketing effect, as running ads is far more expensive. Hold in mind that all of this is made even easier these days, as creating dozens of fake accounts has become a no-brainer thanks to the help of dedicated AI tools.
As you can see, it only takes a little time and planning for such unscrupulous individuals; the money they make is easy to make, as long as there are enough dumb sheep to exploit. So don't be fooled: no matter what they try to tell you, these items are a complete waste of money. Period.
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