Really Disappointing Day

Quote: "I agree with you, we were also going to pick up a couple of mount sizes that we had run out of. Usually, we just order online, but since we were going, we figured we'd spend our money there. There was only one place selling mounts, on an old turning display and it was mostly empty. They had none of the sizes we needed, and we were looking for really common sizes. We placed an online order last night for what we needed instead.

For me, I wasn't rejecting stamps based on price, they had no stamps that I needed available at *ANY* price. One dealer wanted to be helpful, I gave her my topical list and she couldn't find any of it either. She said she could try to bring some of the things I wanted to the next show next month. By then, I'll have ordered it all online and won't need it anymore.

Nothing I was looking for is in short supply through online retailers. Retail only works if you have the product people want at the time they're looking to buy. Having to bring it back next month just doesn't help."

And the natural conclusion to this is that there won't be any dealers at the fair in future. Stamps are the perfect product to buy internationally. They don't have any weight so shipping is cheap and there is enormous variety available at the click of a mouse. I would have waited a month to the next show, had another day out, received some material from a dealer and enjoyed the chase and interaction.

I go out of my way to buy premium meat at my local butcher, if I want a good rib eye, some lamb cutlets or pork chop, the meat from a butcher is going to be better (and you can probably find out about the chain of farm to butcher). It is more expensive but I want to support a small business who must struggle against the might of large chains and supermarkets.

My local stamp shop has just closed to become a weekend market trader. If I needed stock sheets or stock books, I would buy from him. Sure I could get them cheaper online, but Ian usually had what I needed or could get it in within a reasonable time frame. Unfortunately, my support wasn't sufficient (and it wasn't much) to keep him open.

Inevitably, street front dealers will disappear and stamp bourses become less frequent unless we go a little out of our way to support them.

I understand it is the nature of the beast, I can sit here in the comfort of my study on a cool winter's night, Robert Plant in the headphones and see scans of stamps across the world, identify something for my collection and buy it with no fuss and an excellent chance that I am dealing with a reliable trader who will stand behind the product they sell if there is a problem.

I make sure I visit a physical stamp shop at least twice a month and I encourage you all to do this whever you can.

And join a stamp club too.

But supporting them requires that they actually have something there worth buying. If they don't, if it's a continuing case of frustration, sifting through boxes of stamps, seeking things to purchase and coming up empty over and over and over, what's the point? The next show is in about 2 weeks, I may, depending on what I have going on that day, go back to see if that dealer brought anything interesting. However, I did notice that the show is very, very insular, most of the dealers have their group of "buyer friends" who they spend all their time with and pretty much ignore anyone not in their in-group. As my wife and I sat at one table, the dealer and two other people spent the whole time we were there talking very loudly about World of Warcraft and ignoring anything else that was going on, including paying customers.

Personally, I'd much rather go to local shows and visit local shops, but they just don't seem to exist much these days. There are two shops in my general area. The first and closest is almost entirely coin-driven. They don't really care about stamps. Sure, there are some supplies here and there, you can get the most common sizes of mounts there, but anything that isn't common, they don't stock. All of the display cases are filled with coins. Stamps are an afterthought. The second, I figure it's either a front for some illicit activity or they're using it as storage for online selling. The place is a disaster. It's stuff stacked everywhere, you can't move and everyone in the place is rude. The last time I went in there, I assume he was the owner, said "what do you want?" when I walked in the door and when I said I was just looking around, he said "whatever" and never looked my way again.

When you can't get what you need and customer service is a thing of the past, how can we help but be disappointed?

A shop stacked with boxes and a less than pleasant seller, sounds like a buying opportunity to this magpie! I agree that you are not going to go out of your way to support a less than friendly retailer but I enjoy the thril of the chase.

If I come back from my UK trip with tales and pics of great bourses and super bargains, will it make you all feel better ?



I hope so.

There's only a thrill to the chase if there's something available to chase. No stamps you want = no chase, no matter how you slice it.