Has Ebay Gone Quiet?

Only a month or two ago, ebay was overflowing with items I wished to bid for. It took me ages to decide what to bid on because there was a real abundance of offerings. Now I can barely find anything worth bidding on. It seems to me that ebay has entered a relatively quiet phase in the last month.

Does anyone else have the same impression?

Here in Australia, the weather has gotten significantly warmer in the past few weeks and it's possible that that has had an influence. But I get the feeling that the level of stamp activity on ebay is down everywhere. If so, what could possibly account for it?

hello jimjam, depends on where you are and where you are looking I think.

Some people leave ebay for greener pastures they feel or after too much 'guiding' by ebay but I feel the business isn't elsewhere. Go where the customers are or advertise the heck out of it.

I think up here in the frozen North it is just warming up on ebay. Stamp season stamps in September when the clubs get back from Summer vacation and the Expositions start up again.

Do you look on 'dot com' or 'dot com dot au' ?

Besides looking on dot ca as I usually do (which shows most but not all of dot com) I have started looking at dot fr (France) and dot de (Germany) for a change also. There are lots of different eBays around the world.

Some sellers have gone or also use Delcampe, Bisstart, Wensy, and other sites here and worldwide and then you have to learn how to use those sites.

I think for searching for what you want, that it is a good idea to let others know what you are interested in and then to tell you about what they see anywhere. Then it is up to you to decide of course. And you do the same for those others.

You can't see everything all the time everywhere, no matter how hard you try. Some things are in the wrong categories, the wrong countries, the wrong sites, not listed, in private hands, etc, etc, etc.

Of course everyone also has their own way of searching and buying that they feel better with for various reasons. But it is nice to get a heads up on some thing you might have missed sometimes.

I started looking for stuff I know one collector here looks for and I found one thing in two years that he wanted. It is interesting for me as I look at and study other things than what I am focusing on for myself so it widens my viewpoint and I see things I might have missed otherwise. I learn.


It could also be people selling off a lot of stuff in the first bad economic downturn and the aftermath of that, recovering, rethinking, replanning, going at it again, having to sell more now, stopping, seeing how the market is flooded at times, waiting, waiting for the correct moment to sell (years ago) and then selling.

Could be they read SCF too much and then just go buy anything on ebay to clear their head of all the jibber jabber (do I do that?) on here at times. I feel that sometimes I am supporting the stamp economy myself, ha, which of course I am not, but who else is crazy like me and buys stuff they don't collect and can't sell again just to see it in person?

Maybe you are using the wrong search terms or not searching and just using the categories?

I've been finding it hot and cold lately and it appears that the selling of personal collections has slowed down. It seems to me that the only 2 sellers I see (I really only look at US material) are NY Stamps & CK Stamps that seem do be doing the Lions share of selling. While they are both reputable sellers and I have purchased from both and been very satisfied with both, they also have a loyal following which usually means you are bidding against 10 other people...and that does not fare well for someone like me looking for a steal.

Hmmm, I wonder if there is an auction house cycle at the bottom of it.

Puzzler, I've tried using ebay.de in the past, but ran into problems because they don't use Paypal much in Germany. They prefer direct deposit to their bank accounts, which cannot easily be done from Australia. When the seller does accept Paypal, there is invariably a 3% Paypal 'tax.'

Well I did my bit today and listed 158 lots of KGV's.

There is definitely a shortage of reasonably priced quality material on ebay. Plenty of cheap junk on there at the moment, as well as material priced at retail or even higher prices.

The good stuff is keenly pursued. I have been pleasantly surprised at the prices realised for some items I have offered on ebay.

Fine honing your search techniques can make a big difference though. Clever use of the saved search tool regularly turns up nice items for me, and you don't even have to go looking for them.

41 Photos.

This P&H cost is outrageous, the Seller couldn't be a full Quid. Have a guess before checking out the link - 10 Euros-no, 50 Euros-no, 80 Euros-no.

The 'Hats on and off man' (fromdownunder) in another place brought this to Collectors attention.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/un-bon-clas...em2eb8cef71d

The assumptions about this lot made "in another place" may be false.

Check the postage within France for the item listed. Not outrageous at all - €9.95

Has anybody bothered to ask the seller if an error has been made in the listed overseas shipping cost? Missed a decimal point perhaps, as one of the posters "in another place" suggested.

An all-too-common characteristic of "another place" is attacking everything and everyone without having grasp of all the facts.

It would be a shame if that approach was adopted here.

Plateflaw, it may be the case that the Seller meant Euros 2.51 for P&H and Euros 1690.00 for the 41 photos.

Legally, the way it's written could the Seller insist the Buyer pay the P&H amount clearly shown and successfully bid on, regardless of fairness.

Cheaper to take a flight to go France and have it shipped to your hotel room, must be a error

The easiest thing to if you suspect a mistake has been made is to email the seller for clarification. You can tell a lot about a seller from the way in which they answer any questions, I've found.

For French buyers the seller provided free local pick up as an option. That may explain the two bids...

The €1690 has to be an error - unless the seller intends hand delivering the item, and the buyer is paying the airfare!

Yes, it does seem to be quiet on ebay lately. I tried to compare a price on a set of stamps and could not find them on ebay. So I went over to both bidstart and delcampe and found them. Also noticed alot more kiloware on delcampe then on ebay along with postage and lots.

Yes, it does seem to be quiet on ebay lately. I tried to compare a price on a set of stamps and could not find them on ebay. So I went over to both bidstart and delcampe and found them. Also noticed alot more kiloware on delcampe then on ebay along with postage and lots.

He'd still be making a huge profit even after the air fare had been paid !

This is the REPLY from 'Collectionsdumonde' on ebay to my question regarding his 'possible' mistake of 1690.00 Euros P&H cost for 41 unseen photos in a regular Album.

"Bonjour monsieur je ne comprend pos votre question ?????".

So far no alterations to that ebay sale, 8hrs after the reply.