Tempted? Save Your Money!

Would you be tempted to buy this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3750/311405177671


Can anyone tell why I would suggest you should save your money?

Seller has been notified.

Besides the fact it's being sold by NYstamps?

This is a Continental printing (Scott 162) with "special mark" - VERY easily identified by even the most inexperienced of collectors.

Brian

Scott 162. Secret mark in the "2" and I sent him a message a couple days ago.

It's an A50a secret mark?

For the sake of future reference, here are pictures of the stamp in question. Notice how small the scan of the back is compared to the front. Why is he trying to hide the aleged grill?

Right on all counts, and yet,

there are 7 unique bidders on this, four of whom are above the $7.00 level. I cannot imagine what those people are thinking.

Blindly trusting ANY dealer you don't know personally is like jumping out of the barn window onto a mattress lying on top of a pile of straw. Anyone can make a mistake. (Now where did I put that pitchfork?)

**Actually, Charles Skinner, the guy who applied them, called them "secret marks"

Brian, I don't think it's a matter of hiding anything. I think it is just a standardized operation that churns them out and doesn't look back.

The folks at Rasdales told me his turnover rate is > $30,000 PER DAY! His staff is told to churn it out and don't look back. It's not like you and me and a guy in his kitchen. More like H.E. Harris in the 30s.

essayk, I think you are absolutely correct about this dealer's business plan. What I find annoying about this lot (and many others on ebay) is that the photo which should be providing potential buyers with crucial information is turned into a sideshow distraction. There is no need in the photo for a white piece of paper with an alleged catalog # and cat. value. A large, clear image of the back of stamp should have been provided.

B.T. Barnum was right.

Essayk... for my 2 cents... even if the stamp (were) a 140, it's too
trashy for any discerning collector to own... if a collector wanted
a real one so badly, there's many available, including a few certed
copies right on ebay... starting at around the $1400 mark...

Interestingly, "NY" has a few 162's listed... now, wouldn't be ironic
if one of them were a 140... (karma, anyone?)...

$30K a day is easily believable with this seller as they have around 500 auctions per day. $30K would average out to $60 per auction. And "don't look back" is right on the money with these guys. I've sometimes seen misidentified stamps in the other direction, wrong category, bad misspellings, etc. I always think they'll notice and go back and fix it, but they never do. You can sometimes find bargains from them in those situations.

And what percentage of the $30k per day are incorrectly identified items, fake coils, or 'expertly repaired' material? Typically higher volume sellers would be a 'good' thing for philately. But in this case it might mean something else.

I am not so sure that I buy into the 'the volume makes it difficult to do a better job'. This seller has a huge amount of 'repaired' material. In my opinion if a seller has the time to 'repair' a large volume of stamps than he has the time to list using larger back images and write appropriate listing descriptions.
Don

I doubt he is repairing them. He has long bought a huge volume of large lots at auction, and he just puts it all out there. I doubt he knows how to find most repairs.

There was a chap who traded on ebay UK a few years ago as the tenoclockshow (or something similar). Same kind of business model, buying cards, stamps and coins in large volumes at auction, then having some more expert employees split them up and do the listings. On the credit side, I picked up some excellent cards cheaply simply becuase of the knock-them-out-quick approach - as Artful mentions with these people.

I think the "repairs" that Don is talking about are the many stamps that are listed by nystamps with what appears to be Elmer's glue applied to the back, likely concealing thins and tears for the most part. I have bought one of their "repaired" stamps so I speak with a little experience. I don't think there is any chance that anybody else is doing the work and considering the number of "repairs", a lot of labor is put into them on cumulative basis.

I agree that he is personally not repairing stamp. But without question he as a very large amount of listings that contain 'expertly repaired' stamps. I know of at least 75 in the last few months; and I doubt that is inclusive.

Given this I will change the verbiage of other post. If he has the motivation and resources to hire someone to 'expertly repair' stamps, then he should have the motivation and resources to improve his listings.

I admit that properly listing material is not easy or inexpensive. It could be that some sellers underestimate the actual cost of listing material and take many short cuts on this important process. But the listing is everything when selling online, buyers cannot put their eyes on the actual material. Buying a book, software, DVD, or some other mass produced merchandise online is fairly straight forward and normally a much lower risk than a product which can vary greatly item to item. So for things like stamps and coins doing a good job with the listing becomes critically important.

In my opinion buyers should avoid sellers who obviously do not invest time and resources into quality listings. Blurry images, depending upon a image instead of bothering to actually bothering to write any description, photochopping, large amount of market puffery, not bothering to use a back image, or simply declaring 'as is' are all warning signs of being disappointed when you receive the purchase.

It is one thing for a hobbyist to make a simple mistake in identifying a stamp or not developing a great listing. But I cut true dealers less slack; for many the listing is the sole interface between them and the customer. Would we support a local stamp shop that would only be willing to flash the front of a stamp did not supply any additional information on it? Would we support a local dealer if he would not show us the back of the stamp? Or if he showed us only a small image of the stamp back? It is my opinion that the quality of listings should be paramount in the minds of dealers, not treated like a low priority task which can be used to save time. But truth is probably that they are not at fault; WE (hobbyists and buyers) are the ones who 'reward' these dealers by buying from them. NYStamps epitomizes this. He has been very successful using his current methodology of cutting corners on the quality of his listings. The formula is simple; mix in plenty of lower quality material, 'expertly repairs' whatever needs to be done, develop low cost listings by using one full image and one small back image, add broad brush stoke T&C's which state "All stamps are shown front and back, so any faults present would be easily visible. Some stamps could be expertly restored, regum, or repaired.", and then start the listing at 0.01.

He has tapped into the ego and greed of many buyers who look at the stated catalog value and then make incorrect assumptions about the value of what is actually listed. And the sad part of this is that this usually ends in one of two ways. First, the material is simply absorbed into collections and the actual value is never understood with the hobbyist who now thinks himself a great bargain hunter but his family one day finds out the truth. Or the mistake is realized and the material is reoffered in another online listing with the justification that 'I bought this from a renown dealer'. Neither is healthy for our hobby.
Don