Are These Perforations Possible?

Artful,

I agree that ebay has transformed the stamp marketplace in a big way, but have you ever tried buying at auction via the Stamp Auction Network?

I heard a stat a couple of weeks ago from a full time auction agent that the folks at Regency don't mess with live bidding via SAN because the total volume of material they sell via online auction venues is just a small portion of what they sell in a given sale. A local dealer also mentioned to be that one of the buying trends these days is for whole collections rather than individual stamps. Apparently a lot of that wholesale business is happening via other venues besides being online.

I don't know how much of that is for sure and how much is blowing smoke, but maybe others can comment on that.

essayk....
I was at the Rasdale Sale about 2 weeks ago....
They have never had a online auction....all sales
were live auction, mail, agent, phone bids...etc.
Now...the next sale they will auction all individual
items online live....collections/accumulations are
still the "old fashion way" for now.
More of a internet presence for them.

The listing policy is effectively useless, which is why we need Stamp Smarter. The listing policy permits a seller to defend known omissions merely by saying they didn't know the information; how can you prove they did? The listing policy doesn't require scans, just "clear pictures," which is a loose definition. The listing policy requires disclosure of non-visible flaws or alterations, but again, the seller can simply say "I didn't see that flaw" and use its refund policy as a hedge, or say that the fault was unknown to the seller. The listing policy prohibits false or misleading claims of sales scarcity, value, condition or investment potential, but there is plenty of room in that rule for puffery, or the defense that the seller didn't know of the falsity or didn't intend to mislead.

In short, every item in the listing policy is capable of knowing evasion with no way for the buyer to prove it was done. One side of the present debate says, buyers deserve more than that, in the interest of improving the integrity of the hobby.

I've come to this thread very late, so I'm going to be replying to some old posts.

"In my opinion buyers are foolish if they buy under their terms and conditions which clearly state, "Some stamps could be expertly restored, regum, or repaired." "

The fake perfs in the case of the post that started this thread are hardly "expert". They are so bad that his people should have no problem spotting that they are fake.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's about at the point where one could still make a profit on resale even if one openly acknowledged the faults??"

On wonders if it isn't destined for a second, better reperfing job?

Translation: "A lot of stamp collectors are dying and their collections are coming up for sale. Bringing all those individual stamps to market will simply depress prices, so we will try to keep them off the market by facilitating the movement of collections from dead collectors to live collectors. Of course, if it contains choice lots, we reserve the right to do things differently."

"High volume sellers like this are buying collections and flipping what they can to the market as fast as they can."

True

"Wanna bet that they are relying on the numbers associated with a stamp in the albums they are buying?"

That MAY be true, but that doesn't make it right.

"But is it immoral if they are simply trusting the opinions of the previous owners of the material to offer it for sale as what that owner said, without challenging it? If that is how they approach the task of stripping an album, how does one assail their integrity?"

When you sell as many stamps as they have, you have either A) developed enough knowledge to know how to properly ID stamps or B) are imcompetant.

"What is happening is clear to me. They are doing large amounts of consignment."

I'm far from sure that is true. Ji (nystamps) is hands down the biggest buyer of collections at US auctions all around the country.

"I've got to agree with Bill regarding the excuse of 'they have high volume'. We have not been talking about lots or collections. We haven't been talking about the practice of offering a higher value stamp singularly, getting called out on it, so then pulling it from sale only to have it become part of another "lot" where it is still misidentified. Mostly we have been talking about selling individual stamps called out by Scott number. If you have time to pull out stamps and sell them singularly, then you have the time to properly ID and described them. If they have such high volume than they should be able to purchase the required resources to do the job right. You train people"

Completely agree. I've seen the same "high volume" used to excuse a certain other big dealer too. Doesn't hold water.

"This seller buys tons of large lots, most of his business is in Asia, an area he knows well and the US listed on ebay is only a small part of his business."

I don't think he does as much business in Asia as he used to.

"Have dealers responded to you? Clearly. It makes good business sense to respond. To appease you. To give the impression they care & are trying to do the 'right' thing"

One of our more ethically challenged dealers can turn on the charm when he has to. Makes him more dangerous.

"Aside from a couple of operations in the United States and at least one in the UK still active, most of the altered stamps in the stamp marketplace are from collections."

There are a couple of brothers in the US who have a reputation, but people continue to sell them things they suspect will get altered.

"Any dealer with the ability to recognize altered stamps has a business problem competing with dealers who are not capable or do not want to carefully describe their stamps. Eventually, at the local level, careful dealers will become known to more discriminating buyers. Unfortunately, collectors who buy on price will continue to buy from less careful dealers. The problem as it relates to some of the larger ebay sellers is that less careful sellers can pay more for collections knowing that they can sell everything making their profit on altered or damaged stamps."

Sad but true.

ok, getting dizzy up here on my high horse. Time to get down.