Should I Try Hipstamp Or Stick With Ebay?

Hi everyone,

I am a private collector (new to the forum), not a dealer, and I have not sold any stamps in many years but I have decided to start selling some of my collection. I used to sell on ebay and I have 100% positive feedback. My question is if I try hipstamp, will anyone buy high dollar stamps from me with zero feedback on my profile? Would I be better sticking with ebay because I have feedback? Would I have to sell hundreds of 99 cent stamps to get the feedback on hipstamp before selling more expensive stamps? I plan to list some pretty good stamps - for example I don't want to list a mint penny black with certificate on hipstamps and get bids to a few hundred dollars because I have zero feedback. Should I stick with ebay?

Good to hear from you.

For me eBay is it, there is nothing else but am Australia.

But with that said it would good to hear about what countries stamps you will be selling and in what form?

Might help other to answer your great questions.

Which country ebay will be using to sell?

All The Best kg5

I have a strong preference for Ebay. For cheaper European material, I may use Delcampe which appears to be more popular with continental European stamp dealers. I have bought on Hipstamp on two occasions from a reputable dealer.

Hipstamps puts me off. By the time I find a reasonable Penny Black, I have seen hundreds of them without margins amd with smudgy cancels offered as "rare very fine" at € 100, I will have started another hobby.

I sell my surplus cigarette cards, stamps, postcards etc on ebay in an amateur way. I think there'll always be a problem for the individual selling his/her swaps compared with the large professional sellers. I'm often taken aback at the prices the latter can achieve. Clearly, there are lots of buyers who only look at a small range of ebay businesses. The individual has to trust more to luck and a smaller group of devotees. For good stuff, I think you'd want to start quite high to avoid being lost in the scuffle.

Others' opnions may differ, but I check Hipstamp monthly, if that. Delcampe even less frequently. eBay... several times a day. Even when Hipstamp's eBay sync was fully functional in both directions and I sold on both platforms, my Hipstamp sales were less than 5% of my eBay sales.

If you sell internationally, you will get far more buyers looking on eBay than Hipstamp.

Also, the full integration of payments, shipping labels, refunds, etc. on eBay is far more efficient. While some balk (and I initially did too) at EMP's (eBay Managed Payments) payment delay vs. PayPal's immediate payment system, EMP has come a long way since it's initial rollout, with the ability to now schedule payouts, do immediate payouts, purchase shipping labels and send refunds from pending funds, etc. I personally like that eBay's fees come out before you even receive funds as opposed to owing a bill at the end of the month; fewer surprises... but that's personal preference.

Additionally, while this is strictly a "me thing" as much as I dislike many of eBay's policies and methodologies, I like Hipstamp's managerial approach even less. They are worse than eBay with respect to communication and transparency, let alone competence.

ebay

Build up your reputation on ebay, and the results will come.

It's been many a long year since I sold stamps on Ebay. I've never sold on Delcampe or Hipstamp.

I have purchased the occasional lot from Delcampe, but have never found anything to buy on Hipstamp. I only look at those venues occasionally (for me time isn't money, it's time) but will look at ebay maybe once or twice a day.

Given I'm really looking for just one more item for my collection, I expect it will turn up via a traditional auction house long before ebay or the like.

Agree with the sentiments above steering you towards e_bay and away from the incompetence (etc.) of HipStamp.

I have never sold on line, be it eBay, the other mentioned sites or in the APS Stamp Store.

However, all of my purchases, in no particular order, have been dealers, brick & mortar, show, mail order or their website; brick and mortar auction firms; collectors at clubs, some friends who had unwanted stamps from family and by far in terms of the number of individual purchases, eBay.

To clarify and to put a fine point on it I never ever as of yet, have used the internet to purchase from the APS Store, Delcampe nor twice raised from the ashes Hip.

As to eBay, I have purchased from the USA, Canada, UK and once German sites. IF, and a big IF, I know and trust the dealer, I have hit four figures a couple of time for a single item. Also more than once when a dealer is on both eBay and Hip but is listing an item just on Hip, I ask to make the sale on eBay. No dealer has turned down the request.

There are only two positives that I can think of to drive a buyer to Hip. One is that they do not collect sales tax, at least up until now. The second is somewhat better search capabilities. That being said I second PPG's comments and my experience closely parallels his. If I had a choice of the exact same item on Hip or Ebay, I would use Hip if the price was the same from the same seller. Especially when you start climbing in price and sales tax becomes a factor.

Oh, there is one other thing. Hip's coupon offers can be pretty substantial and I have used them twice to knock off some serious dollars from a purchase.

All of that being said I need to know the seller I am buying from regardless of platform.

Finally, feedback means nothing to me. If you look at the most notorious Ebay sellers' feedback, you will think that they are perfection personified and that is rubbish. Accounts can be purchased with lots of positive feedback, negative feedback gets removed, uninformed buyers leave shining positive feedback. Feedback is a silly marketing tool.

I think Ebay is clearly the way to go but if I had a mint Penny Black or similar item I would sell through a traditional auction house. I have over 1000 followers but I think an auction house would be a better choice.

As a retiree who is starting to sell off parts of my collection I find that selling on Hip gets more responses for USA and Canada items than eBay. For international items I get more success on eBay and very few sales on Hip. After numerous attempts over the years, I have never sold a single item on Delcampe.

Bobby - I'd like to be in the position of only needing one stamp. What's the one you're looking for?

Hi everyone - your responses are amazing and helpful. I think I will stick with ebay since I am established and I know how to use it. I am glad it is still a good venue. For those interesting in what I am selling - it is really all over the place and I don't even know where to start with it, but I'll probably first sell a France album that is prettty good, hundreds of US ducks, and then start listing thousands of lower value US and international classics. The really nice stamps I might need to expertise, but will probably post some pics on this website eventually to get opinions

Hi Geoff,

I'm actually after a postmark. I'll post in the 'wanted to buy' section so you can see. After all, it could be lurking in a collection somewhere

I've moved increasingly more into postal history over the last few years, and the NSW DLR stamps I don't have are either frightfully expensive or just won't readily turn up, despite their modest price tags in the SG catalogue.

I have been on Ebay since 1999 and EVERYTHING I list gets far fewer hits, and I sell almost nothing now. Throttling? Also they recently changed their listing page and it is nothing but a headache... listing is slow and prone to mistakes thanks to their sometimes hard to see defaults.

My 2 cents...