Ebay

When it comes to ebay..I am the One bid wonder.
I place my bid, if I win, I win

Your 99 cent cover with 1.50 shipping costs the seller .15 in listing fees, .08 in final value fees, .37 in PayPal Fees, and .42 for postage. That's already $1.02 for a 99 cent cover and doesn't even include the cost of the cover to the seller. Then there is the envelope, and about 1/3 to 1/2 of a manila folder to mail it in depending on cover size. Then there is the time to scan, upload, create listings, address, package, ship, go to the post office, answer emails. Heck, for 99 cents without the $1.50 for fees and expenses the seller would be farther ahead and save a whole lot of time by simply using some Ronsonol and burning the damn things! That's why I often soak stamps from covers. Especially if they are useful to me. It's a lot easier and less expensive.

I lost a nice set of U.S. that I would have liked to have today. A new guy/gal (0 feedback) overbid by about 20%. It's not worth it.

There's always another lot somewhere!

I tend to stay away from any auction, when I get an outbid notice, and I see that the new bidder has a 0 feedback...

Its either a newbee, that knows very little about stamp value, or a shill.

That's exactly what I did Bob'o.

I wasn't saying you were wrong in your opinion London. I just mean it wasn't worth my time to review listings. I will admit I am not an auction guy. With way too many years in farming I find every auction results in mostly over paying for most items. Just give me a price and be done with it.

This is how I treat stamps. I seldom ever buy anywhere near cat price for most stamps. In fact most of my MNH is around 60% to 70% of the cat price. Now there has been the exception when I just wanted something.

I do accept that there are people that like to bid in an auction. I have an auction barn near the farm. I sold some things there once, but found that the 30% commission was rate more than I was willing to part with. So needless to say I'm a buy it now person when the product and value matches.

I have yet to find anyone that is cash strapped. I guess there may be a few out there but at least where I live I just haven't seen it. Though I have seen more people hold back spending in fear.

You see where I live things are the same as they were 10, 20 even 30 years ago. We experience no great growth thus we experience no great down times. It may be luck also because the job market remains steady though the cost of gasoline did slow things down for a few months last year.

I have been watching one item for the past week and it generally stayed put. I was going to place a bid as I already had done my homework on the lot for what I needed and what I could recoup on the other part. Then just before closing today no less than 17 bids in a couple of dollars at a time did this guy walk the bid up until he finally got just over the other guy. Why do it? If you are going to go up anyways just put what you are willing to pay. Anyways watched as he finally got stomped by $150 over his bid. Never had a chance to place mine though as I had figured about $25 under the final bid.

E-bay can be a real tough nut, primarily due to the snipers. I have pretty much steered away to other sites/houses. One y'all might find interesting if you havn't been there is philatino.com. I have gotten very good deals on classic area lots but there are drawbacks. The material is coming out of equatorial countries so condition can be problem and you can't be in a hurry because while the vendors I have dealt with thus far have been very fair it takes some time to get delivery. I am not completely sure how the system works but somehow the lots get from South Amerfica and are reshipped from Miami. Some last minute bidding happens there but there are some controls and it is nothing like E-bay.

Bought some old GB's on ebay with a dealer in Miami. sent payment. didn't get the lots for weeks. finally got out of them that payment went to Brazil and lots came from Brazil. Need I say I didn't do that anymore? They were good buys though.

I have the 1934 UPU stamps to 200m used and 15m Mint.
Also many other Egypt if interested.

Jan-Simon was asking for Egypt too....better get to work !

Londonbus1......Left his mind in London

Great ebay just cancelled my old search page. No longer do you have a choice on using the old ebay as of Jan. 20th. All of the site goes to the new version regardless. Just a perfect business model to show a company how to fail.

Ebay %$#@

ebay is notorious for having sellers that gouge on the shipping and handling. It seems odd to pay any more than a buck for something that can easily be slipped into an envelope, or a surchage for an additional item from the same seller that can be put into the same envelope. I can understand paying a little more if it is warranted (padded envelope, or you want it to be registered), but a lot of the shipping charges there seem to be outright piracy.

The problem with eBay buyers is they don't think eBay sellers are a business. People that have no qualms at all paying Columbia House $6.95 to ship a CD that goes Media Mail and costs 96¢ squawk about $2 to ship a coin.

I used to help another eBay seller list albums and other music memorabilia. He's a platinum power seller that ships hundreds of items a day. He has a full time employee that does nothing but ship stuff 6 days a week, 8 hours a day. People leave him negatives because he charges $5 to ship an album.

Yes there are sellers that gouge, but there are far more buyers that are ridiculous in what they think is gouging.

I see what you are saying, but it would seem to me that "a platinum power seller that ships hundreds of items a day [with] a full time employee that does nothing but ship stuff 6 days a week, 8 hours a day", could likely negotiate a cheaper rate with the Post Office, just like any other business does.

The unfortunate thing is, that while some of them do, they don't pass the savings on to the customer.

He shipped bulk rate, but still had to pay someone $500 a week plus benefits to ship the product. To leave a seller a neg over $5 shipping and handling for an almost 1 pound package that requires custom packaging is completely absurd.

Quite frankly, costs on shipping and handling are none of the buyer's business. In the business world, it's a product just like a widget. If you don't believe that, ask the IRS. If the seller states a clear shipping and handling price and the buyer agrees to it there should be no squawking about it later.

Now if there are games played like changing it after the fact, that's a completely different animal.