Bidstart + Sg, Will You Change Your Buying/Selling Habits?

I really don't think ebay even cares if bidStart exists or not. I don't see bidStart as any form of competition to ebay (stamps is such a minor fraction of the site's current business). I hope bidStart can be a safer haven for philatelists than ebay, but the monster that is ebay will not make any changes based on whatever bidStart may do. ebay's main competition is Amazon and every move ebay makes is very much like those of Amazon's. As for Delcampe - all the cheapo stamps at $1 or so and less will disappear from their website due to the new fees that will apply to every listing at the beginning of next year. A lot of dealers will be leaving that site altogether.

For a newbie, this is a thoroughly fascinating debate.
Any comments on the ebay "make an offer" ?
I have only made one, I thought reasonable,
and the reply was " we only consider offers 80% of asking price
or higher".

Rileysan, bidStart has two very effective means of filtering out those 'kiloware worthy' listings for you.

There's a quick price 'slider' so you can just show stamps from a value that interests you.

You can also click an 'x' beside a sellers id and that will add them to an exclude list so you don't see their listings. You have full control over both these options.

Doug, bidStart lets you sync any of your ebay listings to also be listed on bidStart. It allows you to have the same item listed on both sites. Whichever site sells it is where the transaction takes place.

If the item sells on ebay then bidStart automatically (and immediately) removes its listing. If it sells on bidStart, the ebay listing is closed. Commission is only paid to the site where it sold.

Here are the options you have for this feature:-

"Add Current & Keep Synced: Add current listings, and automatically add any new items you list on ebay, and remove any items on bidStart which were sold or ended on ebay, and remove items sold on bidStart from ebay (and/or update applicable quantities). Any prices changes made on ebay will also propagate to bidStart (note: any other additional changes will not be propagated).

Add Current & Do Not Sync: Just add current listings - do not sync anything.

Add Current & Sync ONCE: Add current listings ONCE and remove any items on bidStart which were sold or ended on ebay ONCE.

Add Current & Sync Remove: Add current listings ONCE and remove any items on bidStart which were sold or ended on ebay, and remove items sold on bidStart from ebay CONTINUOUSLY."

rod222, Hi from another Australian Rod.

The way I understand it is the low threshold for the "make an offer" option is set by the seller and can be varied for each sale. So it's what the seller sets as what they will consider as their lowest acceptable offer.

I've found that offering less 20% is generally accepted. I believe all the auction sites have this feature.

Hi tomiseksj, I dislike all those pesky adds on bidStart too, however it's one of their main revenue streams which allows them to have no listing fees (a big plus for sellers).

I use ABP (Add Block Plus) with my internet browser (google Chrome; also available for Firefox) and I don't see ads on ANY site. Browsing sites is also faster without ads displaying.

Hi Glenn (65170), I think you're right - the EXACT search seems to be broken. The smart search patterns appear to be interfering with the EXACT search. I'm going to report this on the bidStart site - I'll keep you informed.

Regarding listing in US$. A seller can list any item in any currency they want. For example, my ebay listings are synced/imported into BidStart as $AU as I have an Australian ebay account. However, I have all my other listings on bidStart in GBP.

Most sellers on bidStart just list in $US, I don't know why. Traditionally bidStart has been US centric (a bit like this site ), and there are still some little things that irk the international buyers like myself.

BUT: Did you know that on bidStart you can view the site in ANY language, a great feature!

I think the exact search does work, but that there are no items with "training", so it returns the next logical thing, which is an overwhelming number of "trains". Try it with "trainer" -- when I did it a little earlier today, it returned about 11 matches.

Also, to filter out a word, the syntax needs to look like this:

"training" -train
(with the quotes around exactly what needs to appear; in the example above, it was
"training -train"
with the endquote after -train)

I think the Bidstart search is actually very powerful -- it's so powerful, in fact, that I think it can be hard to use, until you get the hang of it. This is an area where I'm hoping Bidstart will invest some resources into putting together better "how to" instructions. Currently, some of the explanations seem to be written for and by people who already know how to do it, not for novices.

-- Dave

Hi Dave,

I agree with you that it's an extremely powerful search feature, but still contend that the EXACT search is broken. I tried "blocks" and get 78,401 hits being a mix of 'block' and 'blocks'.

Several hits on the first page have 'blocks' while others have 'block'. Help says you only need to enclose the search term in double quotes, no need for an exclusion parameter.

If I search for "blocks" -block then no hits are returned, but clearly there are listings with 'blocks' in the title.

That's my experience as well,
I tried searching Romania - free (franking)
nil results
Then I saw I was just in Poppe stamps area

Then I tried Romania - Revenue and had just 4 results.

I'll take a second breath, and go back for another try tomorrow.

BattleStamps wrote:-



I've already left there for that very reason. Buyers want to choose from the full price range, not just the boutique stuff.

ebay has been very good to us and is a class act. IMO

I even know the computer that runs the show. We have had lots of dealings.

But that ebay computer that runs the show, I just can not trust. It looks at me and says "one false move and you will be a pile of bones on the floor!"

No one gets special treatment as a seller on ebay all comers are treated the same.

I have only purchased a few times from BidStart and from a friend who gave me a good deal.
But they weren't Cinderellas.
Searching 'Cinderellas' brings up a good selection but not in the same class as ebay. The prices are generally quite high, especially for Exhibition material.
The choice, while varied, is not as good as ebay. I compared a number of items and the start price was better at ebay each time. [Indeed, a few were cheaper from a dealer] !

But let's see what Gibbons brings.

Londonbus1

I really hope that "Stanley Gibbons bidStart" makes a go of it so it lowers my listing fees on ebay.

But I am not holding my breath!

Just remember Stanley Gibbons is a public traded company on the stock exchange. Its corporate its all about the bottom line.
If the other two player decampe and ebay are charging higher prices to use there site, don't you think its only a matter of time before the share holders want a return on there investment of bid-start.
SG is run by accountant's and its all about the dollar/Pounds/Euro.
I sure there will we a price increase very soon.

Who charges the most for there stamps ? answer SG. The tradition will continue with there new platform

The only things I'm sure of are tax increases, there will be daylight tomorrow, and I'm going to die one day.