Make Money Selling Stamps

Hi KGV and others to be honest I lost to much money selling stamps on their own on ebay so migrated to covers with and with out stamps. These seem to break even for me but sadly many good ones still loose a lot of $$ and it is tough because I have to cover the big monthly ebay bill. I do try to list daily but I notice bidders seem to be not buying as much since xmas. Theres not much extra cash about for me since I am retired with no income only what ebay brings. I am not in a position to donate like many others here but I won't post any link again now that I know about that. Thanks for pointing that out. I encourage those who can afford to donate to the site to do so.

When it comes to selling! The big thing to do!

Take $100 and find an auction house. If you can go in person it is best but I never have. Look for lots to bid on that will turn the $100 into $500. It is the only way that selling on ebay is going to work.

KGV's did not work for me to sell so I used 5 x $100 and bid on different areas of Australia stamps and after 3 years I can say that it has worked very well for us and we have a huge amount of stock.

My latest adventure into buying with $100 is 60c kiloware and started Oct-Nov last year and pulled all the mint no gum out while sorting and it has more than payed for its self alone. Just today we have finished taking 60c stamps off paper. Huge job but we have got there. Now it is time to put it all into stock books and prepare the lots for listing next Monday week.Before we start selling the stamps off paper there is $250 to buy more 60c kiloware. So the bidding is going up market after a lot of time searching and asking heaps of question from auction houses.

Duncan I will email you. I know of a great auction house to buy covers from but the best time to buy from them is after the auction is finished. Great way to do your shopping.

Always Happy Stamping.KGV

How do you know that your $100 will turn into $500 is to check out your competition on ebay. Buy nothing until you know what your competition is doing and that the profit margin is sound and not a dream.

Thanks John I have replied to your email I will look up that auction house. Enjoy the long weekend. happy Australia day

Yes I agree.

The $2 to $15 lot value, single, stamp sets , M/S or S/S are strong areas for us.

95% of our auction listings sell at the listed price. No 99c listings for us accept for some popular large sets and we start a string of them at $1.99

High value or high denomination Australia stamps from 2000 to now would make up 75% of our sales. It is a very strong market for us.

But it is interesting because someone else could list what sells strongly for us and it fails for them and what sells strongly for them fails for us. I am finding it takes about 3 to 6 month before we will get a following in a new selling area.

Our new selling area for this year will be packets of 100 to 500 stamps different Predec & Dec. Kiloware on & off paper, Predec & Dec.
All these listings will be "buy it now".

A good following is key and it does take time to build one up. Typically I get several viewers in under a minute of listing a new item which means those viewers know what time of the day I list and view as I list. I then find items being watched if it interests them. I have others who wait till the last minute before bidding probably a snipe bid but the main thing is 85% are repeat buyers. A store newsletter is a must and categories help to. KGV you mention what sells strongly for you does not for someone else. I have found this to for my store I still managed to sell when others sellers had no bidders at all. I guess buyers have their favourite sellers. Its tricky to add new type of stamps into your store they may not sell immediately as someone else may have been selling them for a while alrady. So as you said takes 3 months + to be noticed & followed for newer types of items.

"Typically I get several viewers in under a minute of listing a new item which means those viewers know what time of the day I list and view as I list"

Good guess, but wrong. I get the same couple of viewers right away, but I do not have a regular listing time. What is happening is some people do their viewing in most recently listed order and they view the first item in the list because that then marks the link nfor the first item as having been viewd - then the next time they view they know exactly where to stop.

Hi eyeonwall thanks for the reply this original posting is quiet a while ago nearly 2 year I think 2012. Amazing that its still getting replies. Anyway now days I get 3 viewers after 30 seconds on every item I list no matter what time of the day it is. Your probably correct that they are looking at the newly listed items they will be doing it by catgory no doubt but I find it amazing that its 3 viewers every time on every item within 30 seconds. Postal history is a big collecting area and I find a lot of regular ebayers coming back for more. I feel its the same 3 bidders viewing so quickly and they know my ebsy store. In any case they sure are quick at finding the new items.

I've noticed that too and I think it's too much of a coincidence that every listing gets looked at almost immediately. My theory was that ebay is looking at the listing content, to check for whatever indiscretions we've managed to try sneaking in. Call me paranoid.

If it were ebay staff viewing the listings they would have to be viewing it quicker than you can click the link to the new item. I once sold a buy it now in 3 minutes so they have to be real bidders viewing so quickly. ebay is world wide so could be different viewers randomly searching but I have my doubts as postal history is for a certain type of collector and I think all have bought from me at some point so in my case it has to be all the same viewers watching my listings like a hawke. Or the counter is not accurate.

I think it's probably an ebay software bot that checks them out for prohibited items. For me, it's always 2 viewers - never more, never less - and it doesn't matter what item, category, time of day, etc. I've sold items almost immediately as well (not in the stamp category) and I think that was a case of someone using a software agent to automatically buy an item if it one was listed below a certain price. While I'm pretty sure that those 2 viewers are likely ebay bots, I wouldn't swear by it on the quick sale I was talking about. Spend enoug time there buying and selling and once in awhile you'll just happen to cross paths with someone who's looking for what you're selling at that exact moment.