David Vs. Goliath

Recently I mentioned I have started experimenting with selling on ebay wheras I had for years been selling on a chat/auction board which is free to buy and sell....i have fun on the free chat board and have a couple of friends who purchase from me..but the work vs. return is terrible...where on ebay..yes they charge a fee..but the market is huge..its amazing as the time on an auction listing winds down the bids do come in..and they compete..i could list 40 things on the free board and possibly not geta bid..i have 11 items on ebay and there is competitive bids on 3 of them already..comments appreciated !!

Hi Phil....


Post a link !!.......and I agree, even with the fees, ebay has created a marketplace for any collector to buy & sell worldwide. I think it has given the hobby the "shot in the arm" that it has needed for a long time.

Excellent post Philby. I agree too. We have instant access to material that previously took years to find. And we can sell our unwanted items or duplicates to help pay for our purchases.

People can complain all they want about ebay fees, but the simple fact is that after the fees, you still get far more money than you would if you walked into a dealer and sold them there, especially for moderate to inexpensive material.

ebay also has great tools to invoice, track sales and ship, which does not cost anything extra.

I've been an ebay user for at least 10 years. I primarily buy and have only sold a couple of times. I think that most of the fees are reasonable. It does offer a huge market which can be good or bad.

However, sometimes the s & h fees some sellers charge are way off. Especially, when they send something 1st class mail that weighs under 1 ounce for $0.44 and charge $2.00 or more. That is my only complaint right now.

Phil, I would agree with you that there are advantages selling online with ebay, Delcampe or other site. The number of potential buyers is huge, so almost any stamp will attract a buyer from somewhere. But I personally do not list low value items as singles. For these, ebay fees will wipe out any profit unless the seller has ridiculously high s & h to absorb listing, PayPal and item sold fees.

marty

Marty I was just logging on to say exactly the same thing...for the stamps that I sell for 30 to 90 cents apiece I have to go with the No Fee board....Stamperdude..my wife made me charge at least 1.00 for shipping..she likes to remind me that I "Lose my shirt" in busines transactions !!

Tom, I believe it was Jubilee that posted a link for me..if I can only find it I will type it again ..the userid is philandjopie !

Http://shop.ebay.com/philandjopie/m.html? dmd=1

did I do something wrong...theres a link under the topic world covers that Jubilee typed in for me..that one works !!

Hi Phil....

Here's a link for you.....
http://shop.ebay.com/philandjopie/m..._sop=1&_sc=1

My wife is selling Disney Pins on Fee bay... She did around 900 bucks
for the month of February...


http://shop.ebay.com/cellyg/m.html?...op=12&_rdc=1

Thanks Nr_notrare !

You're welcome Phil.

Phil - IMHO there is nothing wrong with using ebay, StampsWants, StampOffers or any other auction site as long as all parties know what the rules are going in.

Will the big boys tick us off on occasion? You betcha. Will we and moan about ebay? You betcha. The bottom line is that we have the freedom to go somewhere else if we don't like where we are (if our wives will let us, that is) so I'd say have fun Phil.

Now that you've got me started . . .

I haven't had a lot of luck selling and for me it's just way too much trouble for the money. So I've decided I'm just going to keep everything that comes my way, or give it away to my SCF friends, the Boy Scouts and the like.

good so as your dear friend you can unload all your mnh here long live eaby oops I meant laswabbie :)