Ebay Precancel & Perfins

I note that there are many very common US precancels and perfins, which were valued at .01 to .05 cents, being offered for $1.00 plus shipping on ebay, has the value of these stamps increased that much in the last few years.

Like anything else, ebay sellers can ask anything they want for an item. It is the prospective purchaser that needs to determine whether the price is fair before bidding. You also have to consider the costs involved in marketing, providing and shipping the stamp(s) to an interested buyer.

Precancels and perfin collecting are both specialties and unlike non-precanceled stamps, there are some collectors who would pay a premium for a particular precancel town or type just to complete a collection.

I don't think the value of common precancels or perfins have dramatically increased in value lately, however the days of any stamp being valued at $0.01 to $0.05 have gone by; as any stamp -- even the most common ones -- are valued higher these days for the very reasons recited above.

Of course, in a package of kiloware these stamps are still probably valued at a penny or less, but if one has a need for a specific item, some collectors would be willing to pay a premium to get it.

What has increased are seller fees on ebay to the point that selling any single stamp of minimum value for under $1 you're losing money. The reason that almost all single stamps, new or used are .99¢ is the seller has to mail it which costs .46¢ domestic first class and $1.10 if it goes to Canada. Plus you need to use some sort of packaging piece to hold the Stamp in transit inside the envelope so there's another .05¢ - .10¢ and the cost on an envelope + time. You're not getting rich selling stamps for $1.50 on ebay.

Gone are the days when you could buy a perfin for 25 cents.

The cheapest 'starting bid' is 99 cents, but that is a real gamble of you can get it at that price. Many, many perfins are in the $5.00 to $30.00 region on cover and some singly are between $5.00 - $20.00 by themselves too. For a theme that was once considered 'junk' by some philatelist, it has sure come a long way. Too pricey in some cases.

Chimo

Bujutsu

The other major problem is paypal charged me 30 cents ++ %. If they only charged a % then I would sell more low cost items. I look at selling anything under $5 as advertising. As for cheaper stamps when I sold on ebay some of the buyers used cheques then I would discount it for them. For example someone mailed me a $10 chq so no paypal fee and I made the items free shipping. I hope everyone moves to using chq's if this happened them the stamps would be 50c. So basically you are paying paypal fee's and getting a stamp for free.

joe

That 30 cent fee (among others) really killed the .99 cent free shipping stamp sales. (on the stamps that won't sell for much more than .99, of course)

PayPal used to offer a reduced fee package for sellers with sales of $10 or less, but I don't see it anymore.

My response to ebay is to create my own website and sell stamps directly to collectors (currently limited to Canadian, but additional countries will be added soon). Many are listed below 10 cents!

http://www.stamporator.com

- stamporator -

stamporator - wow, nice site... I predict most of your Canada precancels will sell out as there is noplace else online with such a good presentation of material - and the prices are excellent value.

I need one item Z0155516, please reserve it for me. I have an advanced collection and that is the last item I needed that catalog's less than 15.00 CDN.

Thanks 'chasa' for your positive comments.

The ID# you provided has 1-digit too long. I believe that you added an extra '5'. If so, then that results is it being Scott 105dxx a King George V "Admiral" Issue, 1¢ yellow, Die II, Precancel: Hamilton #1-105d, which is listed for $0.53.

I have placed a hold on this item for you. I would recommend that you look through the other 30,000+ items as the cost to mail it too you makes this single purchase increase in price dramatically!

- stamporator -