Miss The Old APS Stampstore

Curious what others have experienced from the APS Stampstore on Hipstamp. I recently sent a message about a Stampstore offering and never got an answer back. It recall that when they were independant, questions were answered usually the next day. How has it been for you?

StampStore is still independent. Our staff manages scanning, posting, fulfillment, and questions that go through the store platform. Occasionally, a buyer contacts HipStamp, not StampStore, about an item. Those messages are sent to our team to manage.

I'd like to get our staff to investigate what happened here and follow up with you. My email address is ***Removed by Mod, see link added below for contact info***. If you would contact me and we can address it.

A performance note: In the nearly three months since we started, sales have increased by more than 40 percent. We have more international purchasers and more non-APS members buying.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Scott

*** Scott's contact info https://stamps.org/contact/aps-directory ***

A few notes:
1. Would be useful to search/sort by the actual seller within APS store.
2. Unlike other hipstamp stores, best offers and sales/discounts don't seem to be used/allowed. I understand why, but I think sales are lost without them.
3. Pictures, descriptions are still lacking (mnh, no gum, hinged, used, creases, tears, certificates, pictures of backs of mint or grilled stamps, etc.....

I think it will take some time to recreate the same level of features that the APS store used to have (member discount, integrated expertization), as well as improve the imaging... at least I hope they do and don't get complacent just because sales have increased in the short term due to increased exposure.

If they don't, the sales will wane. Right now, for the buyer, the new APS store is a step backwards from the previous iteration.

Thanks Scott for the quick followup. Someone from APS has contacted me and answered my question.

You can search for a specific seller in StampStore / HipStamp ... on HipStamp main page - follow the ribbon (small text across the top where countries are listed) to the far right and click on "Stores" ... APS StampStore is conveniently located on that first page ... click on APS StampStore and then search via the number of your favorite StampStore seller - it should pop up everything that person is selling

I can follow that until the last step. I can get to the StampStore lead page bu I can't see a way to search by "number of your favorite StampStore setller". The search at top or side menus don't show a way to pick certain seller(s). Maybe I'm missing where to look.

For me, when I get to that last step, the search box is now limited to "in this store" and I type in the APS Seller ID number (which is shown in each of that seller's listings), and it returns all stamps listed with that Seller ID.

The two sellers I checked had thousands and thousands of listings so I obviously didn't check every returned listing, but I skipped through a few different pages of results and it seemed to work in each instance.

Ah, I see now. I get the actual seller # by looking in "Details" under the lising then put that in the search bar under APS store. Thanks to all for clarifying.

Unfortunately, one of the sellers I tested had quite a few interesting cancels, so this could cost me some time and money.

I am not seeing a way to search for ALL countries, 1840-1940, listed this week.

The date range search is not available until a "country" is selected.

Is there a workaround?

Is there still a 10% discount for APS members?

When StampStore was created, the idea was to create a member discount. The solution was to impose a non-member surcharge. So members paid the asking price and non-members paid a premium. So the member discount is not quite what people believe it is.

Right now there is no differential in pricing. With member badging we will determine some member benefits through Hip. We will, however, be transparent with what those benefits are.

Scott

From the member-seller's perspective, that protects their final sale price. Discounts obviously shouldn't now be funded out of the treasury.

Hate to say it...this makes sense.

Thanks Scott, it worked on me, It was fun while it lasted!

I purchased through Hipstamp twice recently, worked fine, but basically no different from any other vendor on the Platform. Shipping is more unless you buy a lot to offset the cost. No discount yet. Stamps arrive the same way they used to, in a cardboard mailer.