Clueless Idiots Running Hipstamp

I thought Mark Rosenberg was a forum member here.

Maybe he'll read this and offer an explanation or clarification.

I know UK and other sellers who have/are moving to hip from eBay because of lower fees. You get what you pay for, which is not much from either of them in terms of service, but clearly good exposure of your items giving a chance of a sale despite the idiosyncratic nature of the sites!

You forgot 'clueless'. Completely unaware of cause and effect. Does not understand one's position within a larger organization, nor the ramifications of one's actions wrt the larger whole.

The problem though (beyond the current technological issues and staffing) is that the buyer traffic on hipstamp is a tiny fraction of what it is on eBay, especially if as a seller you are courting buyers of niche/specialized/esoteric material or do a lot of international sales.

For better or worse, eBay is where the buyers are.

I've done thousands of transactions on Hipstamp, so I'm glad there isn't more traffic (competition).

This situation is becoming ubiquitous.

Aussie biggest Telco Telstra, cannot offer recharge my phone,
I make a complaint, desire email contact.

I just get an SMS asking me to reply,
How can I reply, when my phone is not charged?

Last time I tried Phone contact, 3.5 hrs wait failed to get an operator.

The people who use "idiot" in this thread are not sufficiently in control of their emotions to be posting anything -- and yet one even has the gall to fire back rather than apologize for poorly chosen words. If you want to ruin a website, here's how you do it.

If anything is 'going to ruin a website' it is when people publicly post critiques of other people.

I think that philatelic debates are fine, having a different view or opinion from another person is to be expected and should not generate much high drama. If anyone feels any forum rules have been violated, please use the Send Note To Staff link on any page. Please also rely upon the forum staff to maintain forum etiquette, if there is an issue this is best handled under the radar via private messaging.

Everyone here has a browser 'Back ' button and no one has a browser which forces them to read any thread. The title of this thread clearly communicated Dan's frustration and no one should have been surprised that his opinion was strong. If this offended anyone's sensibilities, then simply move over the thread. Folks should consider not having to read every post and thread a 'positive'; you do not have to invest your time and can navigate away from that particular discussion.

I like to consider the forum like a small town with soap boxes spread around the town square. Everything works well when folks wander around listening to each other, offering their own opinions on a topic back to the speaker and listeners. But when folks start shouting back their opinion about each other, drama is created and things can go off the rails.

The community will suffer if it is being moderated by everyone in it; trust that the Staff is watching for rules violations and is minding the forum etiquette.
Don

Based upon impressions from an interview with the owner of hipstamp, it is not a large company with a huge IT staff and have multiple priorities beyond stamps. There are other software makers that seem to be incredibly slow at what I think are simple programming fixes. It can be frustrating.

Looks like they may be outsourcing things to save money. This can sometimes be detrimental to the smooth operation of a company. Both sellers and buyers can get turned off by this and take their business somewhere else.

I think that most of the opinions expressed on this thread come from sellers. I can only comment on Hipstamp from a buyer's viewpoint, but I will say unequivocally, I much prefer Hipstamp over eBay. The search features on Hipstamp are much, much superior to eBay's - you can actually find what you're looking for without scanning through hundreds of irrelevant listings. There may be fewer sellers on Hipstamp, but I have the impression that they are steadily growing.

My biggest complaint with both eBay and Hipstamp is that won't disclose, full identification of the seller. I guess eBay may be a little better in how much information they allow dealers to reveal at the seller's "store", but it is inconsistent. I understand that both eBay and Hipstamp want to be sure that they earn their commission for delivering the customer, but there has to be a better way to achieve that. It's hard for me to build trust with a dealer that I can never talk to directly. The anonymity of the sellers that the platforms maintain is a factor that also nearly invites those inclined to dishonest sales' practices.

widglo46 -

To know your sellers, you might try what I do.

I keep a series of Excel spreadsheets that inventory (1) each of my albums (2) details of each of my purchases by date and (3) a cumulative list of sellers I buy from. Every time I get a shipment from a new seller, I enter their name and address from the return address and/or shipping document, plus their phone number, email address, and/or website, if given, into Excel (3). That way, if I want to contact them outside of the eBay/hipStamp message system, I have what I need.

I also keep track of any "issues" I had with any of them. Over time, I've learned who is trustworthy and those whose ethics I doubt a bit or who are known to be disreputable or less than honest.

My seller's list includes sellers from ALL sources - eBay, hipStamp, auction houses, private dealers, etc.

@widglo46 - eBay, Hipstamp don't like to do that since it leads to private sales - and then the platform doesn't get its cut... Hipstamp will actually reject any message sent in their messaging system that has the word "Delcampe" in it, which is pretty funny. On the other hand, Delcampe doesn't seem to have issues about putting contact info or competitor names in their messages.

In any event, I put my business card in with all orders for new customers, exactly to give buyers a way to contact me outside of the in-house messaging systems.

I also do what @uboatnut does - tracking all that info has saved me at least once from buying again from a unsatisfactory seller on eBay after a couple years.

~Greg

Of course the whole point of eBay keeping buyer/seller contact information as anonymous as possible is to thwart outside sales for which they don't collect their fees. They have nothing to gain through fuller information.

If Hipstamp is small and has limited traffic, then how much IT support can they provide?