Miss The Old APS Stampstore

Perhaps APS doesn't add dealer members but does add general members?
Don

Regarding Zebraman's 11/15/23 examples of overpriced items in the APS Store

I sent a question via Hip about the $214.20 items in Zebraman's post.

I received this response though Hip:

Sender: APS-StampStore
Title: Re: Was this price entered correctly?

Message:
It's not a typo and the seller has been notified about their pricing.
Some items the prices have been updated and other others are being returned to the seller.

Please [ click here ] to respond to this message (do not reply directly to this email - as it will not reach the other member).

Best regards
HipStamp

Thanks DStamp. Yes, the APS has removed most of the obscenely priced items recently added by this seller on HipStamp. Thank you APS.


Sellers can price their stamps however they want. Overpriced is one thing, it is when they ask outrageously unreasonable prices it pollutes the experience and makes the seller look like a scam artist. This tarnishes the reputation of all APS sellers/members.

From the examples I posted earlier, the Scott 627 that was priced at $214.20 (hinged, with straight edge) has a catalog value of $2.25 unused, $4.00 NH.
Here is a recent sale from eBay of the same stamp with similar centering and straight edge that sold for a more realistic price of just 25 cents.


When sellers ask unreasonable prices for ordinary stamps, I tend to avoid that seller. It is not worth my time to sift through the garbage to find something I might want. As we've heard from others, some people are starting to avoid listings that have the APS logo on them and that is a bad thing.

Again I thank the APS for cleaning up the recent rash of insanity. There are still plenty of stamps listed on APS and elsewhere that I consider overpriced, but that's fine. Some will sell, most will not. If others find APS listings containing errors or prices so extreme that they only appear to be to cheat a buyer out of his hard-earned money please notify the APS and I hope they will fix them.

(But they are busy. Don't flood them with minor corrections or small amounts of overcharging. For example the $12.24 NH 627 from the same seller is still listed on HipStamp and I won't fight to get that removed. That is many multiples higher than I would pay for that stamp, but Mystic lists the #627 VF NH for $9.00, so I can't really argue that $12.24 is egregious).

Mystic Stamp prices

angore, scroll down further. The $9.00 price I quoted was for VF NH.



So, $9.00 for VF NH, $7.50 for Fine NH, and $6.00 for Fine Hinged, Mystic's base price of $5.00 must be Average, Hinged. They describe "Fine" as "centering is better than typical. Margins may touch the design."

Versus Scott CV of $4.00 for VF NH, concierge service sure has its cost.

Yes. Someone has to pay for all those mailings from Mystic.

Mystic is the H.E. Harris of the modern age. Everything is priced above Scott, but many collectors sure love them!

I don't like this "experience" with HIP stamps at all..... another one after eBay. I like StampStore before, and like when we are OWN on our two legs - that's all what I think.
To "join" HIP, and log in with HIP if I want to see what is now offered for sale is not my way of "like-or-not-like" to be a member of APS from 1997 year.
Reason why we go with "dancing" with HIP, probably because some kind of profit - even that APS is non-profit Org. (if I'm correct).
Than, something go wrong there with members service, direct email, because I made one email regarding ad in our Journal, and it go without response for two weeks - probably New Year celebration (we have it few in row) .... so, that is all.

Agreed. The old APS stampstore was superior in so many ways compared to hipstamp interface. APSstampstore allowed for precision searching.

Hipstamp is better than ebay at searching, but worse than the old APSstampstore.
APSstampstore had so many more search parameters.

I recall a lot of hunting and pecking on the old site.

I miss the old ASP StampStore too! And if there's no cost difference for members and non-members, it chips away at the benefit of being an ASP member.

Interesting discussion, but I like the APS being on hip; and I don't see why folks feel that it is hard to search for what they are looking for. In all actuality; at least from this collector's perspective nothing has changed. APS listings are rife with errors, some good and some bad. Yes, have found some $50 cat stamps for $2 several times and have also purchased some stamps clearly listed as X or Y and they were clearly not what was advertised. I understand the consignment aspect of this, but I've made some very nice/affordable purchases from the APS on both Hip and the old APS site; and have been severely disappointed in others. I just take it as the APs doing the volume they do and a lack of attention to detail as "business as usual."

Let's be honest though, most sellers are simply not willing to take the time to be as accurate as all buyers/collectors would like. That is never likely to change either.

The old APS stampstore was superior to hipstamp. Period. Seaching was much more targeted.

Or are some (many) simply looking to make stronger sales for misrepresented stamps?

Sellers like these seem to have the time to list the material as MNH when it is actually hinged, or MNH when there are serious gum issues such as stock book toning; and they have the time to figure out they want at least twice what the misrepresented stamps are actually worth. I assume then they have the time to be accurate.

That is another benefit of the APS Store - the APS will quickly reimburse for returns that were misrepresented AND they will penalize (fine and eventually ban) the sellers that are repeat offenders. That doesn't happen with ordinary sellers on eBay or HipStamp. Your only recourse is leaving Feedback, and it is risky leaving negative feedback for a seller because they can retaliate with leaving negative feedback on you the buyer.

Based on complaints that I have heard, not all, but many of the sellers that intentionally misidentify or fail to disclose faults are also the hardest to get refunds out of.
I prefer to stick with a small set of dealers that I trust, unless it is something I really want and can't find anywhere else. The APS Store does have risks and sometimes surprises with the stamps that are received, but as a vendor they are efficient and refunds are quick and easy.

Side note, if I recall correctly, when it first opened, the APS Store was the 3rd largest store on Hip Stamp, with 250K items. I just noticed that the APS Store has dropped to the 5th largest with just over 200K items. I don't know what to make of that trend, but it looks like they are moving more items than their sellers are able to replenish.