eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎11-23-2023

So the back story on this collection... is that it showed up at the shop in Feb 2023, and a local stamp dealer came and appraised it for us to make an offer to the owner. It was appraised at $5K (I wasn't party to the negotiation, just knew what the appraisal value was). It fit in five large boxes, two of which had lots of "loose" stamps (tiny little albums, glassine envelopes and ziplock bags of loose stamps... I weeded out all stamps on paper when I got this collection and gave them back to the shop, won't touch that with a 10 foot pole).

So around February when it was obtained by the shop, they sent it out to an auction house. The auction house did nothing with it for six months (and I could see why when I got my hands on it, it's a full time job for three months for one person to deal with all those stamps, I've been working on it part time for two months, and am only halfway through the collection). Basically we said "give us our stamps back" when it became evident they were going to sit on them, and my brainiac comment to our shop owner was "if you let them keep it, it's just going to lose value while it's not being sold". That seemed to create a sense of urgency to get the collection back for us to deal with ourselves.

Well when I got it, I went through everything, and I gave my appraisal value of it at $3500 (what we would pay the customer, I'm a little unsure how much we can sell it for since there were too many unknown items in this collection that needed careful research, I'm going through it in detail now).

Well there was stuff at the bottom of a shoebox that had a very high value and was at one point, six months ago, particularly scarce. But now there's 4 or 5 of these Dollar value jubilee stamps on eBay in every denomination they made. I have a full set, but to avoid the issue of signature on delivery I broke the set apart and have been listing them slowly to reduce the chances of a $750 sale which will be problematic for me to ship from Canada. (I will deal with it if it comes up, but I'm trying to avoid that by limiting the availability online, and they are selling, just not fast).

This is my fear though with this collection... it's dropped 30% in value from the time the shop got it until the time I got it, which was about 6 or 7 months later. And while I'm processing it, more of these rare stamps are appearing on eBay and the prices are being pushed down. I have stuff going up but in a few weeks or so, more are appearing that undercut my prices and I have to lower them.

I guess you could say I'm concerned on how much profit will be left by the time I'm unable to sell any of these stamps at all... I have set aside all coins, banknotes, tokens and anything that's low value or purchased by common collectors in favour of trying to get the rare valuable stamps dealt with first.

Basically the pool of collectors is decreasing as we move forward in time, and our shop is seeing all sorts of rare things turning up right, left, and centre as baby boomers downsize and estate sales come in. This stamp collection is no exception. It's the greatest thing I've ever seen, and since I got it, a few more collections have turned up (that I had to pass on selling for them), and I'm not even excited to see a bunch of Canadian Bluenose stamps because after the great big collection, nothing seems to be very rare anymore as it comes into the shop.

Well if you deal in stamps and collectibles and have feedback on the declining pool of customers and prices dropping, and rare stuff turning up everywhere... I definitely want to hear from you.

If you don't deal in collectibles, I hope you enjoyed my story of the day.

C.

chapeau-noir · ‎11-23-2023

@sin-n-dex's story is emblematic for pretty much any 'collectible' that might be on eBay, or elsewhere, particularly now with an over-crowded selling space. What was once 'rare' turns out only to have been hidden.

Hell is empty. And all the devils are here.

reallynicestamps · ‎11-23-2023

a large collection of UK GB stamps. Most of it is presentation packs..... ALL of it is MNH.

Are they post -1974 when the currency was decimalized?

Those are postage.

Rip them apart, sort the stamps by denomination then list the counted packets (100x 20p/ 100 x 40p/ 25x £1.00) at a percentage of face value with Free Shipping.

Show pictures of the stamp values and of the packets.

Sell them as postage.

On the UK site.

They are postage.

They have no extra value because they are dead common.

Postage.

If they are pre-decimalization, remove the plastic wrapping and use them as firestarters.

duncanvr · ‎11-24-2023

Interesting story as far as prices being pushed down, when I price my QV covers if I have a rare one sometimes I price it higher than other sellers so not to get undercut in price. Believe it or not at the higher price these have still sold for me, as buyer has perceived value. Not every buyer is going to weed through all the other seller listings. If you promote and list at higher prices within reason yours can still sell for a better price. Certainly not good racing to the bottom with valuations. Don't drop your prices just because every other seller is. There are still thousands of buyers for stamps. I like your penny black cover. I don't know if your stamp buyers are like mine where some of them just keep coming back and buy more from me.

postcardcountry · ‎11-24-2023

I work for an estate sale company, currently part-time, previously practically full time.

Mom had two sets of dishes, one for every day, one for company. If they are not Mid Century Modern in design, no one wants them unless it's pennies.

Furniture - bedroom sets hardly sell as a set. Most people only want a piece, and those do not care who the manufacturer was, expect they know it will last longer than the current furniture. They buy because "Suzy needs a bed frame", "Bobby isn't a baby anymore and needs a dresser for his clothes."

Franklin Mint items - pennies on the dollar. Carpets - pennies on the dollar.

Kitchen utensils - dollar store prices, if they sell for more it's because "mine just broke" or "I lost mine and need to replace it now".

Even Gucci, Michael Kors, Coach used sells only when the price is 1/4 of new. Even when the original handle wrapping is intact and it's obvious all that purse did was sit in a closet.

So....what you are seeing in stamps is happening with anything old.

When I first started on eBay back in 1997/1998, I was selling our fiestaware collection. Lots of items were labeled as 'rare'. As eBay grew, it because obvious those items were out there, just weren't easily marketed for resale in the past. Harry Rinker (columnist, author) would say "anything made after World War II is used goods." We had friends in the car collection world who said "anything after World War II is just a used car". (that includes all those 55/56/57 chevys, corvettes, muscle cars).

Every once in a while I catch an Antiques Roadshow episode where they show an appraisal from years ago and then show the current price. Far more items go down in value than go up.

bennotbill · ‎11-24-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:
Sell them as postage.
On the UK site.
They are postage.

Unless they are the new bar coded stamps they stopped being postage in July. That said Royal Mail are still operating their send in to exchange your old stamps for new service so they still have value in that respect.

sin-n-dex · ‎11-24-2023

@ten_o_nine wrote:
This is my fear though with this collection... it's dropped 30% in value from the time the shop got it until the time I got it, which was about 6 or 7 months later. And while I'm processing it, more of these rare stamps are appearing on eBay and the prices are being pushed down. I have stuff going up but in a few weeks or so, more are appearing that undercut my prices and I have to lower them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If more of them are appearing, then they must not be rare stamps.

Um, if you're going to mince words, I could say "they were not available very frequently in the past, and now many are available now". Them not being available at one time is what made them seem "rare". In reality there could have been thousands out there that were sitting in someone's collection, but since I don't have info on what's in people's collections, just what's for sale on eBay (and other places), that's what I'm going by.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎11-24-2023

@sakic92710 wrote:
I had a similar thing but it was with sports cards. 1954-55 Detroit Red Wings Reprint sets. For some reason, the Howe was a little bigger than the rest of the cards. There were many sets. I did very well selling them BUT, the previous owner wrapped each set with elastic bands! Unbelievable! Did more damage to the Howe than the other cards. Those sets had real value if some were not partially wrecked on the sides.

This kind of thing happens A LOT. I have literally lectured people at the coin store to stop dipping heavily circulated coins to make them appear "shiny". They're not fooling anyone, I can see the wear and scratches, I mark the prices down on these when I list them and their behaviour is costing them time and money. But the way the store is organized, the person in charge of world coins has the final say on what prep is done to get them ready for sale. If I'm lucky I grab stuff that's toned from the scrap bin and snatch it up before they dip it on me and lower the value.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎11-24-2023

@sakic92710 wrote:
Thank you very much. I appreciate some ideas on what to do. When I did a search for sold presentation packs, they did not show very many sales for North America. From what I recall, they did not include your sold listings so, possibly, presentation packs might do better than I expect. If I have SEVERAL posted, they might draw more attention. I was going to cancel my store & remove my listings by Dec. but just might cancel & give the stamps a shot here before deciding to move on. Cheers!

While I was at work, this happened:

So they do sell. What you need is some repeat buyers who get a few each time. Do combined shipping deals if you can, that encourages them to buy more. I get that shipping from Canada is a challenge with keeping shipping down, perhaps you can check the weight of some to determine how many they can buy to get the best shipping rate, and market it that way.

I took the junk mail out of most of the presentation packs to make them lighter for shipping. You can check my solds to see what I sell them for, I have shipping enabled on these to Canada, so you should see all the listings and solds for this item.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎11-24-2023

@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:
Usually, these auctions have been consigned by estates.

I understand why the auction house you consigned to put them in the low priority area.

A knowledgeable stamp dealer would have sought to cherry pick these lots, or may actually have done that before you received it,

My attitude about large collections is never to pay based on the total value of the collection, even when discounting from it. I buy based on payback analysis, how much can I count on receiving quickly and offer that amount or less for the lot.

Unless you are competing with a stamp dealer with an established customer base, it is the way to go. And if you are competing with a dealer with an established base, let him have it.

The same issues occur to many collections where there are not enough young collectors.

Use this opportunity to improve you collection liquidation skills, you paid for the lesson.

You made lots of good points that I want to address...

First question, why does the auction house consider it a low priority? I think I know the answer, the amount of work I've put into it with lots of things having little return (and only maybe 50 or so stamps that are good for cherry picking) would not make it as attractive as the small collection of all valuable stuff. That's my theory, but could you educate me a little more on their point of view.

I wasn't privy to any negotiating or dealing with this collection, so I had zero say in what we paid for it. I only valued what I had on hand as something I would pay $3500 for, that's just my opinion. I did not make any spreadsheets or tallies to determine the value, it was just an overall impression. So I am learning the lesson on this one, but I only received it after all other attempts to liquidate it had failed.

However, since this whole experience, I am now the stamp appraiser in the shop, and I go in weekly to appraise collections that come in to determine what the shop should pay. I also determine if I'm interested in selling it or not, and suggesting what they can get for it and how. So that's the positive that came out of this.

For the cherry picking, some of the books like the UK books had no obvious stamps missing and lots of seemingly rare and valuable stamps in it. The USA book had lots of early stamps missing (mounts were there, stamps were gone). No one knows where in the chain of custody this happened, just that they were gone by the time I got it.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎11-24-2023

@chapeau-noir wrote:
@sin-n-dex's story is emblematic for pretty much any 'collectible' that might be on eBay, or elsewhere, particularly now with an over-crowded selling space. What was once 'rare' turns out only to have been hidden.

The shop owner told me they are seeing similar trends with items they deal in (like coins and banknotes) that didn't show up for a long time, and now several are showing up all at once in collections coming in.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎11-24-2023

@duncanvr wrote:
Interesting story as far as prices being pushed down, when I price my QV covers if I have a rare one sometimes I price it higher than other sellers so not to get undercut in price. Believe it or not at the higher price these have still sold for me, as buyer has perceived value. Not every buyer is going to weed through all the other seller listings. If you promote and list at higher prices within reason yours can still sell for a better price. Certainly not good racing to the bottom with valuations. Don't drop your prices just because every other seller is. There are still thousands of buyers for stamps. I like your penny black cover. I don't know if your stamp buyers are like mine where some of them just keep coming back and buy more from me.

I stopped promoting new items, but I think I'm going to need to start that. I'm going to run this concept by my silent partner and the shop owner to see what they think. With no promoting, we keep more of the net sale, but we likely sell less things. Probably half my stuff (13K in listings) is promoted, maximum 5% unless I made an error. I only do 2% on things with tight margins so it gets some visibility in the promoted section of other listings, but it's not a significant amount that will affect my bottom line. Lots of that Royal Canadian Mint product would be promoted for about $1.50 which is pretty small.

I don't generally try to undercut other sellers, but just pick something in a ballpark of what they usually sell for, and pay little attention to the high priced ones listed that will likely never sell. Some prices are completely out to lunch on some things, so I don't bother with that and look at solds. It's not a perfect system, I told the shop owner (who doesn't do eBay) that we can't tell how long it was listed (at least I don't know how to do that), so it could have been listed low and sold really fast, so I need to use some education on whether or not I use the information I find on eBay or just do my own thing for that item.

On low priced stuff and things that are actually rather uncommon, I make up prices and go from there. People will express interest in something but not purchase if the price is too high.

C.

isaiah53-57 · ‎11-24-2023

@sin-n-dex wrote:

Well if you deal in stamps and collectibles and have feedback on the declining pool of customers and prices dropping, and rare stuff turning up everywhere... I definitely want to hear from you.

If you don't deal in collectibles, I hope you enjoyed my story of the day.

C.

@sin-n-dex

I have a question for you pertaining to value of stamps - I recently sourced several manila envelopes full of late 1960's to mid 1980's full sheets of USPS Christmas stamps - They are in excellent condition - The face value of all the stamps is very close to $2K - I would have to think there is some collectible value to full sheets of USPS Christmas stamps from the 60's to 80's, but likely not a lot - Is there a rule of thumb for the asking price of full sheets of 50 Xmas stamps from those eras? such as 1.5x or 2x or 3x face value? Thank you for your time and good will in response!

sin-n-dex · ‎11-24-2023

@bennotbill wrote:
@reallynicestamps wrote:
Sell them as postage.
On the UK site.
They are postage.

Unless they are the new bar coded stamps they stopped being postage in July. That said Royal Mail are still operating their send in to exchange your old stamps for new service so they still have value in that respect.

This is very valuable information. I didn't know this, and I suspect no one at the B&M store knows this either, they're paying 25% FV (at the exchange rate) on UK stamps. We also pay that much for Australian stamps, New Zealand stamps, US stamps, and anything else they get in enough quantity to make up "postage" packets for people to put on letters. I take what I want and list it here, and I try to get 75-100% FV on most stamps. My brain works in Canadian currency, so I probably ask too much in US funds on some of the Aussie/NZ stuff.

Although I was at work and not posting until I finished, I did send this info to the shop owner so they put the brakes on any UK postage buying if any new collections come in. While I now appraise collections that come into the shop, if it's just "postage", I don't do it, they get anyone who isn't busy to add that up for making an offer.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎11-24-2023

@isaiah53-57 wrote:
@sin-n-dex wrote:

Well if you deal in stamps and collectibles and have feedback on the declining pool of customers and prices dropping, and rare stuff turning up everywhere... I definitely want to hear from you.

If you don't deal in collectibles, I hope you enjoyed my story of the day.

C.
@sin-n-dex
I have a question for you pertaining to value of stamps - I recently sourced several manila envelopes full of late 1960's to mid 1980's full sheets of USPS Christmas stamps - They are in excellent condition - The face value of all the stamps is very close to $2K - I would have to think there is some collectible value to full sheets of USPS Christmas stamps from the 60's to 80's, but likely not a lot - Is there a rule of thumb for the asking price of full sheets of 50 Xmas stamps from those eras? such as 1.5x or 2x or 3x face value? Thank you for your time and good will in response!

On US stamps, I actually don't know... I think if they came to our shop, we'd pay 25% FV and sell them as postage, even if they are from the 1960s. I've seen quite a few collections of mint stuff that's obviously old (like 40+ years) and they're only paying 25% FV for those. So that would be my best answer.

I have lots of issues with US stamps because there's a lot of varieties that are very valuable, but I don't have the knowledge to sort those out. I might be leaving money on the table with my current collection that I'm working on because I've undervalued something as the common issue when it isn't. I also know some of my US stamps are probably out to lunch on prices because I lack knowledge in what they realistically sell for.

C.

12345jamesstamps · ‎11-24-2023

Condition is real important for collectors...picky collectors....most who collect them are retired.

It would be better if you sold only stamps on your site...and not coins also.

Some of your high value single stamps have a gum thin or/and paper thin...which almost no one will buy...they are called "space fillers"...and maybe you can make a few bucks but not $100.+. Perhaps sell them as a group might work.

Seeing the back of every stamp is important if you desire to sell them...it's like buying a used car and not looking at the engine before you make the purchase.

"Repeat buyers" is the key....and always adding something new.

"Free shipping"...most won't buy if there is a shipping charge.

Selling something for a bargain might get you a follower or "repeat buyer".

I have "repeat buyers" who one item once a week.

And I am one of those sellers who lowers my prices compare to others who sell the same high value stamps and show up under my item for sale.

I would tell you that Chinese stamps...pre 1980 always increase in value every year.

Have to know what stamps are of value and what stamps are what we call "wall paper".

The market is still good out there...not enough for a living just selling stamps or workers you have to paid to work for you.

I usually just use a .66 stamp to mail something or $1.50 International. Tracking is not needed for something cheap.

I buy my USA postage stamps in auction lots on eBay below face value.

And all buyers who buy stamps expect you the seller to use real stamps to mail something....an eBay shipping label is a "Kill".

First impressions are so important to get that repeat buyer.

Certain topics sell very well...butterflies, fish, animals, penguins....you get the idea.

A stamp missing just one "perf" or a "corner cut" devalues the stamp and you really can't say catalog value if it has it...just like gum and paper thins.