Selling Stamps

i am a regular seller on e-bay . But it is for fun rather than for gain . E-bay costs are high and unless you are prepared to sell at very low prices your item will not sell ...but as I said it is for fun . Is there any other site for selling where the costs are not so high but the chances of selling are good ?

Get to 50 posts and I'll let you in to a secret !

but you need to be a supporter, which I think is a crock of oh never mind

ok working towards the 50 mark

will join the SUPPORTERS CLUB at 50 . this looks like the way to go . looking forward to dealing with a few of you guys out there . Hope some of you collect Europe...or are you all USA only

We have many who collect worldwide, or some abridged version of it (for me, GB, Br. Commonwealth, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Panama, Mexico, Canal Zone, Colombia, Argentina).

A wide selection , especially commonwealth . I collect western europe only ..gb , ireland , france, italy, greece,sweden, netherlands, switzerland, spain, portugal , belgium, germany, austria and finland.......i do not collect anything post 1970

RUNNERBRADY---------I would like to answer the questions you posted in your first posting above ...........now these are my opinions ,so don't get crazy over them ,because im not going to change my opinions .
First have you seen or understand advertiseing rates in other mediums to sell stamps ,do you realize that the huge marketplace that E-BAY has built on their own,they found and developed their market place,and trust me they study it all the time to determine what their fees would make them a profit and maintain their place in the on-line retail market.
Second it sounds like you buy the most common low price material floating around the philatelic market place and are upset your not selling it at higher{and profitable } prices.Im a buyer of stamps but I buy stamps every month and if its not unusal and rare ,I have no interest in purchasing common low value stuff that is flooding E-BAY.Yea I will pay up and even exceed catalog pricing but it better be rare and only on the market once every few years.
Buying low catalog junk and trying to double your money on e-bay ,those days are over .

Hi floortrader , thanks for your detailed and interesting reply . What I have found on e-bay sales is that collections and lots sell much better than single items .
My sales are usually duplicates from my collection or material from countries that I do not collect . My aim in sales is to get rid of unwanted material not to make money . If I could exchange that would be my preference but have found that exchanging is difficult since other collectors do not have the material that I want or vica-versa .

RUNNERBRAY------Years ago I did what your doing ,selling off unwanted duplicates.I had ads in the major philatelic newspapers and magzines.I sold thousands of boxes of worldwide mixture lots ,first at $8.00 a box then it kept going up until $18.00 a box with a few hundred stamps with pre-1940,MNH sets and other stuff. When E-BAY came along ,I listed a few boxes ,most sold around $25.00 and a few with pictures in the advertiseing sold for as much as $65.00. ,which surprised me .Then I started a contractor business and didn't have the time to sell stamps .So over the past 14 years I just purchased for my collection and spend too much money .But always knowing I can get my money back thru E-BAY.

ebay is better-suited to the part-time dealer and/or store operator.

What folks fail to realize is that it's the cheapest advertising in the world. For a pittance (and sometimes free) you can post an ad (er, I mean LIST an item) with 12 pictures for a week, with a virtually unlimited text write-up, and the potential exists for tens of thousands of dealers and collectors to see it. What dealer could ask for more?

ebay also gives you "free" appraisals of oddball items. List such an item with an outrageous Reserve (again for a pittance) and study where the bids cluster; that's where to re-run the listing without a Reserve. If it happens to sell above that lofty Reserve, you know that despite your best efforts, you underpriced it.

BidStart and Delcampe run different versions of this strategy, and I'll save them for another time.

If you are the same name on ebay which I just looked at you could change your titles a bit to attract more lookers and potential buyers (they have to look first).

Try using the words mixture, selection, lot in your lots. You could even use the word nice as in nice mix or nice mixture, etc.

Don't capitalize the whole title. I know some people say to do it to stand out from the crown and all that but it is hard to read and yelling and not friendly seeming. Impressions count. You can capitalize the first letter of words.

I've just learned something, people search for the word 'page' as your listings with that word in the title attracted buyers. Of course it could be the stamps too!

For single stamps and small lots using the year issued in the title always is good. A description of the stamp or stamps, what is on them, the more detailed the better, is good. People collecting topics look for such things. Example, instead of just Sports say Cross Country Skiing or whatever the word is for the Olympic sport that includes that.

Also it is nice and good you combine shipping but also say that in those terms. Be clear in what you are saying. If you are vague in any ways readers / buyers will have the chance to be confused and turn / click away. Make them want to stay.

Each marketplace has it's own ways about it. Bay ha it's ways, Delcampe has it's own ways, Bidstart has it's , etc.

I want the book that Floortrader is writing about ebay!

Thanks for all the advise . Will stick with e-bay and enjoying buying and selling unwanted material .

For me the best website is www.delcampe.net

Regards,

ebay costs are high, but it is indeed a market place. Selling is fun and even buying or winning an auction is great feeling on ebay.

warm wishes.