Ebay To Add Another Nail To Its Coffin.

Jamesw like yourself I only sell on ebay here on the forum or whatever as a means of trade for my stamps...the money I would make on ebay would not make any changes in my paying bills,taxes etc: Its very hard to go backwards..but if we must..we may return to trading with other collectors and avoid the marketplace !!

Excerpt from recent ebay message to sellers:

'From May 2011, new minimum performance standards will apply for all ebay.com.au sellers.

About the new seller standards

The minimum performance standard requires sellers to have a low amount of 1 or 2 stars on the detailed seller ratings (DSR) score. To meet the minimum performance standard, sellers need to satisfy either one of the below requirements:

1. The minimum DSR percentage rate; or
2. The minimum DSR count

If both the DSR percentage rate and the DSR count are not meeting the minimum requirements, then the expected level of service from an ebay seller isn't being met.

Until their ratings improve, sellers who fall below the minimum standard may face a number of consequences including demotion in search and restrictions in selling activity.'

How long before ebay becomes a police state?

If you want to see my continual (and probably tiresome) ranting about ebay you have to subscribe to Delphi's Virtual Stamp Club.

I'm not sure if ranting about ebay could ever get tiresome!

I remember one thing I read that a seller said on his DelCampe introduction or story. They would go where the customers were. That is what drives business.

I like ebay because it's easy to use as a buyer (and a seller, once you trip over rules a few times) and well known (albeit sometimes not in the best lights but still).

To someone who wants to act like a business then ebay is where the customers are, more or less. It is good to keep a presence on other sites I think just to keep your name well known. You can then advertise with a flyer in your mailings to buyers about where your other stamps are. Advertising is a key thing no matter where you list your items. That includes having good titles so buyers can find you when searching and choosing correct categories.

However, for the hobbiest, it is best to go where like-minded people are. You get treated fairly and a bit of leeway is given because we all know things happen I life and we are all stamp collectors of one sort or the other. This could be ebay or or wherever feels good to you.

I have been using ebay for about 5 years and they do like to change things around from time to time. But so do all the other sites. It is just that ebay is more well known. And being well known attracts all sorts of people, good and bad. Businesses go where the money is. So do the bad guys.

Best thing you can do is educate yourself on what is reasonable or not in pricing and customer service. Then you can choose.

Demote me ! I am a slicksleeve private..what will they do put me on K.P. ?

I've been wanting to write this long-winded, if not melodramatic diatribe for some time. Thank you for providing a forum for me to express my opinions!

While there are valid complaints about the way ebay runs their universe, I must come to their defense. I also fully acknowledge that this topic has been a sticky one for years and I may not be saying anything new, but I refuse to digress :)

The philatelic market had lost all sense of reality.

Perception is a funny thing. I stopped collecting for more than a decade simply because of my perception about store-front dealers. I came to believe that all store-front dealers in my hometown were pretentious and narcissistic despots. I once brought my stock book to a shop in the hopes of trading some of my duplicates for something new and exciting. While man-handling my collection, the dealer told me to throw out all of my fillers because it made my collection look bad. I left the store disillusioned. It was at that time I concluded (right or wrong) that store-front dealers were not philatelists but were in fact day traders; buy low and sell high with no regard for whomever got in their way.

ebay destabilized the world-wide stamp market.

For years uncounted, the collector had only price catalogues, store-front dealers, stamp conventions, or NY auction houses to rely on for price and availability. This allowed for a total lack of accountability (and courtesy) by the aforementioned. After All, who are we to question the experts? This inevitably led to hording and price fixing. What remained closely echoed Darwin's theory of Natural Selection ... where only the fittest survived (read: biggest and wealthiest dealers) while small time dealers were being squeezed out. Meanwhile, the average collector was running out of options. As a result, stamp collecting as a hobby was dying.

Then philately was introduced to ebay. And soon thereafter, the long, overdue market correction occurred.

ebay re-stabilized the market.

Like a perfect storm, market forces battled it out. On one side stood the NY auction houses, store-front dealers, and stamp conventions. The other: the average collector and small time dealer. And with the help of ebay, the average collector and small time dealers won out. No more would there be a lack of accountability. Hording was no longer viable. For the first time ever, the average collector got to determine market prices!

This was when and why I returned to philately.

ebay restored my passion for stamp collecting.

ebay has made available to me, and countless collectors worldwide, items I never would have dreamed I would see or own. We now have a worldwide philatelic convention at our fingertips. Literally anything and everything is available to collectors and it happened almost overnight.

Additionally, ebay has provided the small time dealers and collectors a place to sell their philatelic items at a fair, market price and do so from the comfort of their own homes; something that was impossible just 15 years ago!

To sum everything up, I believe that ebay has single-handedly saved philately; allowing the collector to determine market prices, providing them with unlimited inventory, and providing dealers with a world-wide market. And for the time being, has postponed the total failure of postal services worldwide (a different topic altogether).

Epilogue:

I don't begrudge a dealer's desire to make a living. They obviously have to pay the bills and like most everyone out there, they want to have something in the bank at the end of the month. I also acknowledge the risk they took by starting up their respective businesses to serve the needs of the philatelic community. But you must be ready to change business models when the market dictates. And this market change wasn't just dictated ... it was mandated.

I'm also not so naive as to believe that ebay or any other online auction site is perfect. ebay has made a great many errors along the way - some big, some small - but you have to keep in mind just how short a time they've been around. There have been, and will continue to be, growing pains.

And selfishly, I just can't help smiling just a little bit knowing that the aforementioned store-front dealer who told me to throw out my fillers no longer has a store-front. He did, in fact cause his own demise. After All, you can't treat your customers like crap forever :)

Brian Riley

I've been selling on ebay for ten years. This will end the relationship for me. I will NOT pay fees on postage.

My postage charges cover necessary expenses only, no mark-up, no profit. If I sell two stamps that cost $2.20 to post overseas, that's one thing. However, if I sell a catalogue that costs $10-$30 to post, that's quite another.

I'm sick and tired of ebay constantly moving the goalposts. I note that of my ten or so favourite sellers on ebay, all but one have no items for sale.

Perhaps ebay will get the point before it's too late. But then again, I somehow doubt it, as they have never listened to their customers before, so why start now?

I have a mental image of a room full of graduate accountants working for ebay, locked in a room and told to find ways to gouge more money from their customer base. Surely it can't be mature, intelligent, street-wise humans making these farcical decisions???

Off to Delcampe I go.

I remember back 1999 I used to hear the dealers at stamp shows guffawing about ebay..."i haven't got time to list stamps" " ebay is junk" etc etc:...guess what? these same guys now have their wives and sons working for them...on ebay !!

I only have five items left listed on ebay. I'll decide if I want to list more until April, or pull the pin now.

More power to Monsieur Seb Delcampe

'I'm sick and tired of ebay constantly moving the goalposts.'

That's a big part of the problem. More and more rules, always.

You should only ever be obliged to conform with the rules that applied when you signed up.

I'm working on an auction for ebay now and trying to get it up before ebay's changes and the USPS ups postage costs. We'll see what happens. I'll probably never completely abandon ebay as others have mentioned it does have a greater audience - for certain items. For U.S., Asian, Latin American material sure ebay is probably still best, but Delcampe has gained ground on many European countries and elsewhere. I now divide may material into two groups - ebay and Delcampe and the latter is getting bigger.

Rileysan: I agree with many of your points. I use to hear old dealers dismiss ebay as a fad. ebay shook the stamp world and turned it upside down. I'm one of those small part-time dealers/collectors who would never have been able to compete with the old big dealers. Now, the world is our market instead of some hotel convention room.

I just wish ebay didn't act like a typical giant corporation that treats it's "employees" and "customers" poorly. And it is a big corporation now with shareholders, grossly paid CEO, etc etc. and it feels like the sellers are "down in the coal mine". But like many civilizations and empires, it can also fall. Delcampe, Bidstart and others are the Germanic tribes at their gates. It's just a matter of time. The good news is, the systematic structure and ebay's contribution to the philatelic world will continue to live on through the other websites and those to come.
Will

Thanks for writing it. Very well put viewpoint.




Jubilee, do you know where they went, if they went anywhere?

Nope. I presume they may be on Delcampe, but I know many sellers with different ID's on every site, so it's not always easy to track them down.

They may have gone to the stamp room in the sky I suppose, so I may be off the mark entirely!

'it feels like the sellers are "down in the coal mine".'

LOL. Not too long ago someone asked me what I do for a living. I said - jokingly of course - 'I work for ebay.'

But sometimes it almost does seem like that!!