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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
1042 Posts |
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Further more 2nd month doing stamps net profit $1140 still 7 days to go. Projection $1500+ in next 30 days and growing
Who said you can't make money selling stamps? High Quantity Mixed Items Does Work For Sellers. |
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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
4031 Posts |
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Hi Duncan. I have a large amount of stock but 98% of it is in the below the $5 price range. I have about 12 items that are worth $100+ but they will not sell for me. And I have tried many times to sell them. But I do have 2 KGVs that are worth over $2,000 but they will never be sold on ebay. These two stamps if and when they are sold will be sold at a top auction house. I am so pleased for you to be able to sell lots at such prices and I hope you go from strength to strength. I am very happy with the very modest income we get from our under $5 lots. |
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Pillar Of The Community
Israel
6191 Posts |
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Quote:
Who said you can't make money selling stamps? If one puts their mind to it, one can sell anything. I have made $1,600 selling stamps between Jan 16th-March 16th and ONLY on Groups like this one. I have also sold a load of junk at Flea markets...stuff that many would throw away. [Not just stamp-related] All good fun.  Londonbus1 |
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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
1042 Posts |
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Hi KGV the low value stuff I have sells in high volume which is great, I currently sell one or two high value items a month, and there is a range of stuff that goes between $8 & $40 but it all adds up with the low value items. My customers have doubled. I follow you and I start to add several items with free postage to see how that goes. There are heaps of items being watched in my store. What gets me excited is this is just what I have been able to do in my spare time after working a full time job. Plus there is only 288 listed. When I retire in 7 days time, well what will happen when I list hundreds more? I am also very pleased you and I both are able to earn a buck doing this from our homes. Londonbus1 is another one who seems to be doing well with selling on ebay. I tell you something else I am really getting familiar with old US post marks. I start to learn all the small places in Indiana. |
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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
1042 Posts |
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Hi KGV well I am officially retired now. Next week I plan to do some serious listing. Just wanted to let you know I did $1400 this month. Things are looking up. |
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Pillar Of The Community
USA
9748 Posts |
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Duncan good for you...sounds like you are dedicated to selling..i know its a lot of work...can you e mail me and let me know your selling id..phil |
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APS 070059 Life Member International Society of Guatemala Collectors I.S.G.C. #853 |
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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
4031 Posts |
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Very Good to hear Duncan! All the best for you. Do not forget to have some time off. KGV |
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Valued Member
United States
93 Posts |
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This is an interesting discussion... I just wandered through the entire thing.
I've been buying and selling on ebay since May of 1998... an interesting set of experiences. I've sold stamps from a low of $0.01 to a high of $2,041 (and a few cents, as I recall).
My own experience has taught me a few things, over the years, and they have stood me in good stead. Please forgive any of this that may sound overly basic or redundant!
One, be a specialist. Take ONE area, and do it really, really, REALLY well. Do it SO well that it becomes largely "irrelevant" for your particular customer base to shop elsewhere. Do it SO well that you become regarded as "indispensable" to people collecting YOUR niche. My area is Scandinavia-- in particular older Denmark and Sweden. You'll make far more money being "everything" to a smaller core group of collectors than trying to be "one in a crowd" of hundreds of generalists. As a specialist, you have the advantage that you are not just selling "stamps," you're brokering "specialized knowledge." It allows you to take what looks "on the face" like a 50c stamp, describe the "rare printing" and have specialist collectors bid it up to $30.00. Or more...
Two, don't get "attached" to the prices you "must get" for individual stamps. Making money on ebay is a "game of averages." Sometimes you may end up "giving away" a stamp with a (supposed) market value of $100.00, for $10.00. But more often than not, this is offset by the TEN stamps you paid $1.00 each for, discovered had something "unusual" about them... and which you then sold for $50.00 each.
Three, quality ALWAYS sells. I have sold many, many, MANY "low value" (CV $5 and down) stamps in exceptional condition for huge multiples of catalogue value. If you take the time, you can usually find a couple of dozen of them in almost every "junk lot of thousands." What's more, the price you paid for a "mixed lot" can often be recovered by as little as 15-20 "choice" items from that lot, IF you know what you're doing.
Three-B, always BUY quality. I have made FAR more money from XF stamps bought for 60% of CV then re-sold at 200% of CV than I have selling "slightly faulty" material I picked up for 5% of CV. As an example, within the past year I bought a beautiful copy of Norway #1 from a dealer at a local stamp show. I paid $125 for it, against a catalogue value of $150.00. Not much of a resale, you might think... but two weeks later, an ebay bidder in Norway nabbed it for $371.00, after 41 bids had been placed, just because if the superb quality. It's psychology 101: It's core to the human condition that there will ALWAYS be people who will go to almost ANY lengths to only own "the very best." You don't see a lot of people getting into a bidding war to own "the average." Think about it...
Four, be fearless. That means be honest, and don't hide anything. Don't be "tricky" with your postage charges, but DO price yourself to cover the cost of postage, especially if you deal in lower value material. Envelopes and glassines and 102 cards cost MONEY. Also, even if it's a somewhat "junky" stamp you're selling, make a large clear scan and say "Has a small thin and a couple of nibbed perfs." If you develop a reputation for absolute honesty and openness, people come back to you.
Five, be fearless, part two. For the past six years (or so) I have started 90% of my auctions at 1 cent. Period. Case closed. Before that, it was 99 cents. I TRUST the collector market. What's more, I only list "really good" stuff, with 1 cent opening bids. The other 10% is stuff SO specialized I can't rely on two or more potential bidders checking ebay this week... so that stuff goes directly into my store. I can't remember the last time I actually sold a stamp for 1c. I can't remember the last time I ended up with any "unsolds."
Six, keep it simple. Picture the STAMP, talk about the STAMP. People are there to look at STAMPS, not your 43-page treatise in 7 different fonts in 14 different colors about who you are, how you ship, your postage, what color envelopes you use, what societies you belong to, your dog's name, your daughter's birthday party and where you went on holiday... and then waaaaaaay down at the bottom, buried in an ocean of technicolor text, the sum total of your "description" reads "see scan." If you MUST write about those things, put it all BELOW where you show and write about the STAMP. But for Pete's sake, SAY something ABOUT the stamp!
Seven, make SENSE. Collectors are not stupid. "Please see my other listings!" and "Save on postage with multiple purchases!" generally don't make SENSE if your listings consist of two used classics from Ceylon, three mint modern from Germany, three covers from WWII GB, five Swedish booklets, two Australian FDCs and so on. If you want to "hook" people with "please see my other items," offer a serious selection of whatever it was that got them to CLICK on that link, in the first place. Typically, I NEVER list fewer than 60-75 items from the same area, at the same time.
Seven-B, make SENSE, again. Although sniping software is increasingly common, a LOT of people still enjoy "the process of online bidding." As a seller, it's also part of how you create a "last minute bidding frenzy." So... make your auctions conducive to being "interactive, like a REAL stamp auction." List your related (see "Seven," above) items to close one or two minutes apart, not ALL at the SAME time! That way you can enable bidders to bid "live" on multiple lots. That simple trick alone can be worth $100.00s per auction "session."
Eight, maximize your potential results. This may be elementary, but I'm amazed at how many sellers MISS this... think about your buyers! If you are running auctions for classic GERMANY, take the time to make the "closing times" of your auctions friendly to people in GERMANY... since MANY of your bidders will be from there. Just because it's convenient for YOU to do your listings at night (your local time) doesn't mean THEY are going to get up at 4:00am (THEIR local time) to bid on your stuff when it closes.
Nine, be a savvy buyer. I buy 95% of my material from brick-and-mortar auctions, not ebay. Yes, most have web sites and online bidding. Part of "wise" buying is in WHERE you buy... buy stamps where they are NOT collected. For example, I buy Danish stamps in the the US, and Australian stamps in Denmark... where VERY few specialists will have picked through "lots." Then I offer the results for sale with the intended "target buyer" being in the "home" country, where demand is highest. Also, as someone else pointned out, stamp collecting has its "seasons." Buy low, sell high.
Those are just a few things that come to mind, on first glance.
I'm by no means a "full time" seller and selling stamps is NOT my day job, but I have tracked "how much I make," from time to time, and it's a LOT more than I would make from flipping burgers (a comparison I've seen brought up a few times!). Most of the time it seems like I take in $1000-1200 on a lot/collection/accumulation I spent $200-300 to buy, and then invested about 20-25 hours of working time in. After expenses/fees that works out somewhere around $17-20/hr for my time. Beats flipping burgers... BUT, I'm only doing this to fund the expansion of my own collections... not to make a living. Perhaps I'd grow bored with it, if I had to do it full-time.
Cheers,
Peter |
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| Edited by Scanstamps - 04/07/2012 7:47 pm |
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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
1042 Posts |
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Hi Peter, thanks for those points. Can you list the link to your store, I'd like to check it out? I am in agreement with the postage thing. Free postage for combination purchase makes sense. I am now offering this to all multiple Item buyers. Also thinking of doing that for my regulars to. This weekend buyers must be very happy as I have sold a lot in the past few days. Customers seem to keep coming back to my store which is really good. |
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Rest in Peace
Canada
6750 Posts |
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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
1042 Posts |
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Hi KGV I don't know how your sales went during Easter weekend but mine were out of control, I lost count. A good sign |
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Valued Member
United States
495 Posts |
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I occasionally sell duplicates on ebay. What is the best time to end an auction? When is there the most stamp related traffic? |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
8431 Posts |
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PETER/SCANSTAMPS-----Thanks for that posting,very interesting and with some good advice.Someday I hope to sell online but still tied up buying stamps.
I just got the Kelleher auction catalog which has collections ,stocks and accumulations in a seperate book,so I will be bidding on a few large lots. |
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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
4031 Posts |
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Hi Duncan. Nice to hear things are going well for you.  Nobody would believe what is happening to us. Not even I believe it!  |
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Pillar Of The Community
Australia
1042 Posts |
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Replies: 208 / Views: 33,194 |
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Posted 03/23/2012 03:52 am
