Create My Own Stamp Company

A bit more detail on our how. For the last 10 years I have been buying heavily at auction. Half our funds goes to stamps and the other half goes to investments. The investments win by a long way. With the auctions I have done very well over all our stock on paper is extremely high. In 10 years we have 36 stock books with 32 pages and 9 64 page stock books nearly full of aust KGVs.Have 18 32 p stockbooks and 6 64 p books full of aust decimal and approx 350 kg of aust Dec stamps on paper plus 50 kg of dec off paper. The off paper is what I sort. We have had 90% of this stock before trying to sell so our set up cost is really only effort. Our sites cost nothing and are a class act. So to set up selling decision was very easy. I think this stock amount is way, way over the top but that is the way we collect. My wife cheered when I said I would like to sell. Still married KGV

The super hard part about a web business is getting your site noticed and ranking in the search engines. It seems like more and more, the search engines are relying on the age of a site to determine it's ranking with all other considerations secondary. So, if you are going to try to make a go of something like this, your best bet is to buy a site that has been around a while with a decent domain name.

-Allen

kgv how did you build a first class site that costs nothing?

There are site-building sites that are absolutely free. I built my business site with one. Allen, I can't agree with your point about buying an old site. I just ran a trial on a potential new site I am building with a few friends. I put a teaser ad on a competitor to Google Adwords. I got 1,500 hits in two weeks, just by hinting that a new site was coming. Do your SEO properly, and, if you build it, they will come.

Well, ok, if you're going to spend money on Adwords to get people there, that's a whole different ball of wax. I can tell you that it's taken a whole lot of SEO and patience to get my site into just the top 20 for some of the keywords. Others take only days... It depends on the competition...

I should add more to this, otherwise it won't make much sense... If you are running a business and it makes sense to spend money on advertising, then placing ads on Adwords and other services like that does make good sense. The problem is, the minute that you stop spending money on that, the traffic goes away.

In order to get permanent ranking on the search engines and get free traffic to your site on a regular basis, it takes a whole lot more SEO and patience. Buying a site with ranking already will shorten the wait a bit. So, for a business, it might make sense to buy a site or spend money on advertising, or both depending on your budget.

In my case, I don't have physical product to sell, so spending money on advertising or buying a site with ranking already didn't make sense.

-Allen

Why 2 years? It is advertising, I believe it is all about the search engines it is the best way I can think of in this digital world of ours. With this in mind our reg business name is Australian KGV used stamps and trading as Australian decimal stamps and an info site Australian KGV stamps explained they are all linked together plus with other key words it is starting to work. Advertising on SCF is nice but a very small number of people and a smaller amount again interested in what I sell. So 10 people would be attracted?

Can anyone recommend any free websites that are good out there. Its better to ask for personal experience then do a google search and receive those that are paid for their opinions. Also what kind of auctions are there that have low prices?
And once again thanks to all for your input. Its alot to review and digest. Ray

There are site-building sites that are absolutely free. I built my business site with one. Allen, I can't agree with your point about buying an old site. I just ran a trial on a potential new site I am building with a few friends. I put a teaser ad on a competitor to Google Adwords. I got 1,500 hits in two weeks, just by hinting that a new site was coming. Do your SEO properly, and, if you build it, they will come.


er please elaborate my spices business is in bankruptcy almost this might salvage it.

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

this is serious so kindly elaborate

Here is one way to get going


http://cgi.ebay.com/15-Million-Cat-...uy_W0QQitemZ380173763512QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item58841f43b8

A little out of my price range

Jaw hits ground with loud thump. OK let me get my check book. So those stamps were never used by South Arabia? And were then sold to a collector for a big discount. Were any used for postage or just for collectors?

I haven't seen any of those "South Arabia" on covers. They are pretty much wallpaper. I think they are listed in Michel and some topical collectors will buy them, but I cannot see how anyone can get any value out of that many stamps. Your children's children's children's childen would still have plenty of stock when they passed away.
Will

Hi raywrio!

In Australia the stamp industry is very small & I know it well enough to understand the postal & public auctions & the larger stamp dealers that are friendly & honest. On the down side of the stamp industry in Australia is the snobbery. The people that will have nothing to do with you if you do not quote Stanley Gibbons cat numbers, do not belong to a stamp club or worse still use words in stamping that are not in the old in~the~know traditional descriptions of stamps etc.

A lot of stamp dealers that are very successful are well known by all, have entered stamp display competitions, written stamping books or worked in a stamp business for a long time etc.

A lot of people in the stamp industry that are snobs hate to see others that are not well known become stamp dealers, no matter how small. A sad but very real issue.

I do not know how it works in the USA but it's worth thinking about.


What are your strengths in stamping? Where is your knowledge?

It does not take a lot of stock to start but it must be good stuff. What are popular stamps is important. Research your buying sources etc. Hope I have been helpful. KGV

KGV,
Yes you have been very helpful and thank you for sharing all you knowledge.