HipStamp And The American Philatelic Society Announce Strategic Partnership

I appreciate the added information Scott. I've been a member of APS for about 10 years, which would make me one of the younger members. ;) I started buying stamps on the stamp store in the last two years and maybe made a dozen or so purchases. I've been pleased with each one and I feel like folks selling on APS know their stuff so I was kind of buying in part because of the name, kind of like what Rodcam was saying. Ebay for stamps was just a little bit too wild west for me. I don't know much about HipStamp, but I've seen their ads to win a Penny Black.

The main reason I would use APS is to offload the work of posting, selling, and shipping and not because it was intended for APS members, etc.

Would any of the ebay/hipstamp sellers here provide a similar service where they take a 20 to 25% take of the proceeds to do this work?

(Edited for inaccuracy)

I think the APS also needs to be extremely clear in its messaging to membership from a transparency perspective. What was entirely inhouse is now partially outsourced to a commercial third party, so does that mean that Hipstamp now has access to and use of APS member data for their own marketing purposes?

Yes, I realize that the APS provides member data to any number of outside organizations. I just happen to have concerns about THIS company, its owner, and its business practices...




No, but I don't have the manpower... nor would I want the liability.


I do have a mechanics/logistics question: if everything now routes through Hipstamp's ecommerce platform, ignoring their flouting of law with respect to sales tax collection for the moment, does this mean that individual sellers could now receive a federal Form 1099-K from PayPal for APS sales through Hipstamp, or is the APS the transactional seller of record and it's business as usual with respect to IRS reporting?

Or is it a completely separate portal/interface from the commercial Hipstamp operation and there's no comingling of transactional or customer data across the two systems?

If you re-read my initial post, you will see that ALL of the work continues to be done by APS staff at the APS. There is no transfer of information or data from the APS to HipStamp.

You are correct; I should have said "partially outsourced". I've revised my post. While the physical processes remain inhouse, the storefront and (some?) transactional processing has been outsourced.

I'm still unclear as to what goes on "under the hood" with respect to APS orders and payments on Hipstamp vs. non-APS. For example, can you have both APS and non-APS items in your cart and check out or are they two separate systems entirely? Or is APS just another Hipstamp seller-mechanism-wise, no different from any other, meaning that all other aspects of APS-seller-related processes and policies remain unchanged?

If the latter, does this mean that Hipstamp promotions may now apply to APS items, etc.?

The Match Match Factory decision could have had dire financial consequences if APS/APRL could not pay the loans and initial amount was just doing partial renovations and in the end the Match Factory cost millions to complete. It was an election issue and many well known members were against it (Let Reason Prevail crowd). The APS had lost a lot of their reserve in the stock market so were not swimming in cash.

I actually favored having it located in a more accessible location such as western Virginia or Maryland. That is, it was not in a major urban area but closer to more airports and near transportation routes.

1. I think it's great. I don't have to go look at both websites any more. And the APS search screen was terrible.

2. If anyone thinks that stamp collecting isn't dominated by old white guys they must not be looking in the mirror enough. Not sure how much that matters; pointing it out is just stating facts, it isn't necessarily negative. My other hobby, model trains, is quite similar.

What the heck does "old white guys" have to do with the issue at hand AT ALL? FFS.

Angore- WVA is more accessible than Bellefonte? For whom besides, perhaps Wheeling and Pittsburgh residents?

"Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Strength, the last few years, has been in Southeast Asia due to demand from China, India and to some extend Singapore and Thailand. Where more traditional countries have shown a firm base or even some strength, much of the demand also came from that part of the world.

The last time I checked, Southeast Asia was not populated by old white guys. And in that region they are not solely old people that collect stamps.

I always appreciate the stamps used by the APS when they send out the orders. With neat cancels too.

Western Virginia like Charlottesville or Roanoke not West Virginia state.

The relocation crowd was not organized for the very reason everyone had a different idea where it should be located. Some of the anti-MF crowd would have been happy with some industrial warehouse. I have not been to the MF but it is an impressive place.

I still have a concern about the MF being in a flood zone. We are having many 1 in 100 - 1000 year weather events so if that happens I hope the good stuff is several feet above the ground.

Dennis Gilson posted the APS Store's 'test page' on another board:

https://www.hipstamp.com/store/aps-...p-store/?t=1