Selling Via Stamp Auction Vs. Ebay

Okay guys... last question about my early Chinese collection! I've decided not to sell the collection to the auction house outright and am considering letting it go to their auction in March instead. With getting the most money being my goal, do you think I'd make more by letting it be sold in several lots via auction (this place specializes in Asian stamps) or is it better to sell it piece by piece on ebay? Time is not an issue and I don't need cash immediately for anything. Your thoughts...?

I would avoid ebay for scarce quality material. An auction house can get you the right buyers better than an ebay auction.

Why would you bother with the hassle of ebay ...i don't get it...the auction house will list and probably picture your stamps in their auction catalog and it will go out to hundreds of SERIOUS buyers not ebay CLOWNS...put the lower value stuff on ebay the auction house will not really want it...

You might go back to my original post in the related thread. Sell off all the cheap stuff (up to $25 or so) on ebay; an auction house will be thrilled to death they don't have to deal with low-priced items. Costs them the same (except for postage) to sell a $5 stamp as a $500 stamp.

Keep in mind the auction house has the option to do with usually how they see fit. Its not uncommon for any/all to cherry pick higher values and toss remainders in a bulk lot. You mention a few hundred pcs but no one really can help unless we know what they are. Sets should stay sets in most cases unless singles are really high value. Unless you are a known seller on ebay or have higher feedback numbers I'd stay clear due to headaches especially shipping to China.

Let the auction take care of it. Do you really know all of the issues to be able to list them properly? I've had items the winner on ebay won't pay for. A lot of cultures believe the end of an auction is the beginning of negotiations. Why do you want to bother with all the problems.

Something not mentioned yet with auction houses is that you don't have to worry about the "Item not received" claim. ebay favors the buyer, not the seller so an Auction house takes the risk out of mailing expensive Stamps overseas and crossing your fingers you've attracted an honest buyer.

If what smauggie refers to as 'scarce quality material' is listed in the catalogues, it should still go for a good price on ebay. Many buyers will be interested, provided they can identify the item in their catalogues and see what the CV is. Genuinely rare items will sell for way above CV. For example, a very rare Manchukuo stamp sold for $15,000 recently.

Also, you have the Buy It Now option, so you can set your own price or agree to consider offers.

On the down side, I've had problems selling to China, mostly buyers were claiming not to have received the stamps and were therefore entitled to refunds. So I lost the stamps and the money as well. Material sent to China should therefore be sent with proof of postage or registration to solve the problem.