eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎12-08-2020

I've been told by many I shouldn't buy my collections on eBay to resell on eBay. Everyone talks about sourcing locally. This sounded good to me because I could cut out the 50 pounds shipping charge from the UK on my album (which increases what I pay by 30%).

Well this is what happened...

I went on a local site (anywhere within 100 miles of my city) to find people who were selling lots of stamps. I contacted a few that I thought might be promising for giving me decent material. The rest of the ads I saw were various common junk that they wanted ridiculous money for. (Let's say my price on eBay is $15, they wanted $100 CAD for similar stuff).

The first guy I contacted only has mint stamps and he wants to sell them by a percentage of catalog value individually. That's not going to work for me, but he is a senior and expressed an interest in having me come by to talk to him about stamps (and he will show me what he has, maybe I'll find something to buy for my own collection). My partner is up for this on Saturday (I won't go alone).

The second guy has what he calls a "mystery box" and he's agreed to let me come and take a visual look at what he's offering. He wants $150 which works out to 10 cents a stamp. This is in line with what I pay for albums online, and this guy does have some older material which is very interesting. This lead seems promising, and I'm bringing extra money to see if he has more stuff he can sell me while I'm on his doorstep. (There are pictures of the mystery box and it includes an album. I want to see what's in the album).

The next guy has his stamp collection in manila file folders. I asked for British Colonies (so I can be focused), he tells me to say which colonies. I name a few. What he shows me is a page for each one with 2 to 6 stamps. They are all common, and all stuff I get in every single album I buy online. Then he tells me he wants a fair bit of coin for each of these little collections. He was asking $100 CAD for a New Zealand collection that I have in my store for $25 (and mine has a lot of the good stuff too). When I told him the market value of his items he tells me I'm not paying enough, so contact ended there.

One woman was asking $160 CAD for her collection but not many pictures. I contacted her to see more, but they are all Canada corner blocks in Mint Condition. I think she can get reasonable money for them, but it isn't something that interest me. I used to collect those but had to give up because it was an endless task to try and get every single stamp that was issued.

One guy that's 40 minutes from my city had a looseleaf book of used stamps that he was asking $20 for. What he had looked interesting, but he said there was many more pages he's not able to show. I messaged him to ask about stopping by on Saturday to see the collection (and if it was a big stack of pages with lots of stamps I wouldn't even need to look at them, I'd just give him the $20, I thought this was a good deal for me and I was willing to gamble and not take up too much of his time for $20). He got mad and told me everyone wants to come and see the stamps and it's only $20 so I should just agree to buy them now. I decided to go look at the listing again and reconsider my position (and perhaps agree with him, as I am cool with gambling a bit), but he was so angry at the responses he took the listing down. I figure that's a dead lead now.

The last guy told me he had 10,000 stamps, so I figured I had a chance to get some British Colonies. Turns out he has mostly Australia and Canada (two places I don't need... a junk seller in the UK that was cleaning out a basement sent me an album with 8 pages of Queen Victoria from Aus, Canada and Ceylon, so I don't really need good material, I haven't even finished packaging these yet). He mentioned Keeling Cocos. I thought this might be good for my own collection so I asked what he had. He's fixated on catalogue numbers (and I'm probably the only stamp collector with over 10,000 stamps that never used a catalogue... most of my personal collection was an inheritance). Anyway that's not going to work out so we ended contact.

The end result is that I think I am doing way better on eBay finding albums. Right now there aren't many good albums for sale (they are either good and cost more than I'm used to paying for that material), or they have too much junk material that I won't be able to move without some good stuff thrown in.

I've also come to the conclusion that the material I'm offering in my listings is pretty good generally speaking... but unfortunately my stamps haven't been selling much for the past month, so it might not be so bad that I can't source any today.

C.

duncanvr · ‎12-08-2020

I often source on ebay and resell on ebay and will bid on any Queen Victoria stamp that will profit. Apart from that I use two big name dealers to source Queen Victoria covers for me where by I still have enough profit to resell on ebay. This works I get everything mailed to me. I list one at a time on ebay though. I now have hundreds of people following my ebay store and they keep coming back week in week out for my stamps on covers, I find Queen Victoria sells better than a lot of other British colony stamps. Just stating that if you can find two big name dealers to side with you then you can get stuff that has not been cheri picked through. Sadly when it comes to albums on ebay a lot of the better stamps are already gone. Good luck.

timesgoneby2018 · ‎12-08-2020

Confused by statement

@sin-n-dex wrote:
I've been told by many I shouldn't buy my collections on eBay to resell on eBay.
As a collector and seller...I find many things on and mostly off eBay (Local auctions, estate sales etc) ....not sure of your point. Sell what you own and the goal is to somehow make a profit.

mozartbach1971 · ‎12-08-2020

I'd like to sell stamps, however there are so many different kinds of stamps out there it's hard to tell which are valuable and which are not. Does it take a long time to know all the different values?

mopata · ‎12-08-2020

Sadly, stamp collecting in the US is a dying hobby with virtually no young collectors. I can sometimes buy collections of unused sheets and plate blocks from estates at 40% to 50% of face value. A few will get sold to collectors but, 95% end up being used for postage.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-08-2020

but they are all Canada corner blocks in Mint Condition.

If they are QEII they are postage. I sell them on dotCA at 80% of face including shipping. You can imagine what DH pays.

Except for the Regiments-- but every collector knows that.

One useful question to ask while shopping is if they have any back issues of Canadian Stamp News. It's a sister to Canadian Coin News.

You don't want them-- but if a collector has some, or even knows what it is he is slightly more serious than most you have run across.

And watch out for 21st century volumes of Scott. Even 20 year old catalogs can be useful. But of course the newer the better.

If you are offered an estate, ask if they have a Scott Classic.

stamp collecting in the US is a dying hobby with virtually no young collectors.

I disagree.

When we had our shop we helped with material for school clubs. Interestingly these were usually organized by the kids.

And the kids were girls, not boys.

It's my experience that kids collect for a very short time, a few months, perhaps a couple of years, then discover the joys of puberty instead.

Then when they have collected a spouse and a few kids, they may return to the hobby, using the kids as an excuse.

The largest contingent is seniors-- but guess how old the Baby Boom is now?

EBay and other online venues gave philately a huge boost, just as stamp stores and many other small businesses started to disappear.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-08-2020

You don't need to know the values.

Buy any volume of the Scott Catalogue and read pages 13 and 14. There is a blowup picture of a GVI Nyasaland stamps on page 14, and the facing page explains what the pictured catalogue entry means.

The rest of the introduction details how condition, centring, paper types, postal markings, etc affect value.

The values change constantly, mostly upwards, a few down.

So knowing how to find the stamp in the catalogue and being able to grade the stamps is the hard part.

DH was constantly amazed at club meetings how few of the older members had ever owned a single volume of Scott (or Gibbons or YvertTellier or Yang). Reading the introduction to Scott puts you way ahead of most older collectors.

duncanvr · ‎12-09-2020

I doubt stamp collecting is a dying hobby in US. I have many buyers there and tons of buyers in the UK all collecting QV stamps. I am seeing quiet a few younger people collecting as well. Stamp collecting seems very big in parts of Asia, I have regulars in Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and China collecting. It maybe down to what type of stamps you sell as to if there is much of an audience. Had a new buyer in from Malta today.

fern*wood · ‎12-09-2020

I know nothing at all about stamps or stamp collecting, and yet I am strangely drawn to your posts and hang on every word.

sin-n-dex · ‎12-09-2020

@duncanvr wrote:
I often source on ebay and resell on ebay and will bid on any Queen Victoria stamp that will profit. Apart from that I use two big name dealers to source Queen Victoria covers for me where by I still have enough profit to resell on ebay. This works I get everything mailed to me. I list one at a time on ebay though. I now have hundreds of people following my ebay store and they keep coming back week in week out for my stamps on covers, I find Queen Victoria sells better than a lot of other British colony stamps. Just stating that if you can find two big name dealers to side with you then you can get stuff that has not been cheri picked through. Sadly when it comes to albums on ebay a lot of the better stamps are already gone. Good luck.

I don't disagree with you on the cherry-picking of stamps from albums on eBay. I have a rule that if I see stuff missing, I don't buy it. I will go with the assumption there isn't anything good in the album.

Sometimes I've bought an album where only specific things were removed (like all the USA stamps), which I don't care about because I'm not into USA stamps and don't know much about them.

I did get some good Queen Victoria from random lots people had up that didn't get bids. I got some Lagos stamps earlier this year for $14. I separated the mint from used, added other mint and used items to make two lots and resold them for $60.

There's a seller in the Netherlands that had British Commonwealth albums up last Christmas and I won a couple of them which included a bunch of Victoria era stamps (they didn't have Victoria on them, but it was the right period... Barbados and Trinidad). I haven't finished packing them to resell. There were many copies, so I grabbed a few each time I did up a lot to make it attractive on eBay.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎12-09-2020

@timesgoneby2018 wrote:
Confused by statement
@sin-n-dex wrote:
I've been told by many I shouldn't buy my collections on eBay to resell on eBay.
As a collector and seller...I find many things on and mostly off eBay (Local auctions, estate sales etc) ....not sure of your point. Sell what you own and the goal is to somehow make a profit.

A poster told me earlier this year that if I buy on eBay (at auction) I'm bidding against my customers, to resell to my customers at a profit. But not everyone is looking and buying at the same time, so I get lucky sometimes, sit on it, and sell it later.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎12-09-2020

@mozartbach1971 wrote:
I'd like to sell stamps, however there are so many different kinds of stamps out there it's hard to tell which are valuable and which are not. Does it take a long time to know all the different values?

It does, but I don't pretend to know the values, I just go by guidelines...

- I buy stuff that's popular because it's easy to resell (colonial stamps, mostly British)

- Mint is better than used

- Most good stuff is at least 70 years old

- High face value stamps are worth more (like a 10 cent Canada QV as opposed to a 1 cent Canada QV)

With that in mind, which is my very limited knowledge of stamps, and the rest of my knowledge is because I know a lot about history, I use the information to put lots together for listing. I have some repeat business, but they haven't been shopping in the past month. Hopefully they return. The repeat customers buy most of my stamps.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎12-09-2020

@reallynicestamps wrote:
but they are all Canada corner blocks in Mint Condition.
If they are QEII they are postage. I sell them on dotCA at 80% of face including shipping. You can imagine what DH pays.
Except for the Regiments-- but every collector knows that.
One useful question to ask while shopping is if they have any back issues of Canadian Stamp News. It's a sister to Canadian Coin News.
You don't want them-- but if a collector has some, or even knows what it is he is slightly more serious than most you have run across.
And watch out for 21st century volumes of Scott. Even 20 year old catalogs can be useful. But of course the newer the better.
If you are offered an estate, ask if they have a Scott Classic.

stamp collecting in the US is a dying hobby with virtually no young collectors.
I disagree.
When we had our shop we helped with material for school clubs. Interestingly these were usually organized by the kids.
And the kids were girls, not boys.
It's my experience that kids collect for a very short time, a few months, perhaps a couple of years, then discover the joys of puberty instead.
Then when they have collected a spouse and a few kids, they may return to the hobby, using the kids as an excuse.
The largest contingent is seniors-- but guess how old the Baby Boom is now?
EBay and other online venues gave philately a huge boost, just as stamp stores and many other small businesses started to disappear.

Yeah they are QEII and I think she had something like 25 in total, but she wanted $160 with a comment "no low ballers". I stopped collecting those corner blocks 20 years ago because they weren't appreciating at all and at that time (in 1999) people were using stamps from the 1950's as postage to mail packages. (I think I bought some of that "postage" in your store when you were on Sparks St in Ottawa).

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎12-09-2020

@duncanvr wrote:
I doubt stamp collecting is a dying hobby in US. I have many buyers there and tons of buyers in the UK all collecting QV stamps. I am seeing quiet a few younger people collecting as well. Stamp collecting seems very big in parts of Asia, I have regulars in Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and China collecting. It maybe down to what type of stamps you sell as to if there is much of an audience. Had a new buyer in from Malta today.

I unblocked some countries yesterday to try and increase my customer base. So Australia, New Zealand, UK, some of continental Europe (places that I haven't had problems shipping), Japan, Hong Kong and Singpapore. The thing is, if they're unblocked, they can buy anything, so I need to be comfortable if a buyer from one of these places spends $100 on a coin.

C.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-09-2020

I can beat the stamps from the 50s.

When we were first married, DH (Ian) let me use his mint Newfoundland stamps to mail bills.

That sly Joey Smallwood persuaded the Canadians who wanted NF to join Confederation to allow Newfies to continue using NF stamps at face, even though the Colony was dead broke and the currency effectively worthless. Did he persuade them to allow NF currency too?