Is It Just Me, Or Have Stamp Prices On Ebay Gotten High?

3Dadeo
I've read many posts on this thread and yours bring a new light. Thinking about the difference in price between Fine and Very Fine. Many knows there should be one but when we shop for classical stamps some forget about it. Only an experience collector is willing to pay the premium for a VF and he is quite satisfied to find one. The stamp market is diversified and has more than one guideline. For example buying a kiloware versus an expensive single stamp.

Katchem_Ash

It was an idea. I respect your opinion that you think there shouldn't be more catalogs, I agree they are already expensive and if you are a World Collector it only makes it more challenging.

Study groups and individuals alike are already publishing and sharing a bulk of information. These are the folks who know the true value of a stamp with respect to its condition and market price. Heck, there are so many threads on this forum asking for the value of a stamp and these guys would know what would be a good price to buy or sell for. When I said Catalogue, I meant more of an actual price list than a full blown out SG or Scott type catalog. Those could be used for identification but surely not for price. You can't deny that.

I'm pretty sure everyone on this forum would like a realistic estimation on the value of their collection, wouldn't you?

This is my opinion.

For me, it is less about the price of the items on ebay and more about the postage being charged. Can't get the price you want for the stamp? Then sell the stamp cheaply and charge a fortune for postage and make your money that way.

GLENN MORGAN

This is a very interesting thread. I've recently publish a catalog on Canada cinderella stamps. It's the first one, so I didn't have any clues about prices except what I saw in (mostly online) auctions. Pricing them was a real challenge, as some of these items are very seldom seen. But for the more common ones, I put in prices that reflected what the items were selling for. But there's the dilemma - should I boost the catalog values so that they are in line with these other overpriced catalogues that collectors are used to, so collectors automatically expect to get the stamp at one third its CV, or do I put in what I think is the real market value from sold items I have seen. In the end I put in the market values I had seen. The book was published nearly a year ago, and the comments I get from dealers who have seen the book is that my prices are too low. But I haven't gotten any complaints from collectors...just an observation.

Catalog's aren't meant for collectors. They are meant to be used for dealers in fair pricing.

Another factor that wasn't discuss here is that E-BAY has been around over ten years and a lot of old time collectors have sold stuff on ebay for years and people who for years sold all their unwanted collections,extra stamps and duplicates are fewer and far less .As this huge inventory of material has sold off ,its leaveing the professional sellers and those who are now buying material at auction houses to purchase new material at a much higher price ,resulting in higher asking prices .Does this make sense that the lower asking prices are getting further away and your now seeing a more professinal group selling on ebay .......bargins are being grabbed up by resellers ,who turn around and sell for a profit at a higher price .

My recent stamp purchases lately have been through Bidstart, ebay and Delcampe in that order. Primarily my interest is in European stamps so I have also been checking out ebay sites in France, Germany, Poland etc..and the prices are all over the place.In most cases I avoid auctions and am more interested in BIN.. As far as ebay.com goes..it's not so much the price of the item..but the shipping costs..to Canada.
I have found a lot of great mint stamps from sellers on Bidstart..with reasonable shipping costs, great service and packed well.

I will give "Best Offer" a try. I never thought they would negotiate much. If they do, I hope it wouldn't be like on Pawn Stars.

Particularly with pre-1904 stamps, I like to get used stamps where you can barely see the cancel. This is where I miss going to stamp stores where you can say "Give me your best Scott #263" or whatever.

On ebay and other sites, many list these stamps as "Mint NG". And they charge the Mint price! So they are hard to find on sites. Another example of the disaster of the fading number of stamp shops you can go to on concrete.


-IBFS

First everything is negotiable. Second everyone has been spoiled the last several years by the large influx of stamps and albums people sold off to raise cash. I agree they are harder to find and the situation is swinging slowly back to the dealers favor. Everyone should keep in mind what it cost to bring the stamps to your computer. It isn't an easy feat to go through an album and determine what and how to list them. Then the photos/scans, cropping re-sizing and then building the descriptions. Also remember in auctions I have to take the good with bad. I've sold some nice items with a CV of $20. go for 99 cents because they only got one bid. I've also sold some items with a CV of 40 cents for $2.50. It can get pretty wacky and I would like to make more than 50 cents an hour.

All great view points and honestly no one can make any set rules with the ease of online auctions. Gransons can easily take grandpas collection (hopefully with permission) and toss it on ebay with 0 knowledge and make money. Only never to be seen again. Serious sellers that specialize know there market and price either according to wanted profit %'s or at what the market can bare. I also know many that do consignments that account for a large % of their inventory- No cash outlay and pretty well a guaranteed 20+% profit . Again as 1847bill said all the work involved has to somewhere be worthwhile. Some of the larger lots I reently sold on here were all scott numbered in pencil so easy to flip upside down and sort and list in proper order- Still if the stamps were free it was not worth the time invested (although I like passing deals on to members) .
Does anyone use the new feature on ebays home page that shows you all new relevant material within a few search parameters? I forget what its called but I went through this about 3hrs last night and found many items of interest with low to exceptionaly low starting (and a few BIN's) - I'm watching about 30-40 items to see where they go from selers with 1000's of feedback to just 30's . My thought is the nicer items from sellers with lower feedback should sell at bargain/ better prices but we will see if this holds any water.

65170: Yes, there are those on any website that gouge the buyer with postage, but many actually do not. A lot of us charge only what the USPS charges. Unfortunately, the USPS raised rates back in January and it really raised rates in items heavier than 3.5 ounces. You want to mail an item that weighs 4 ounces to Canada, it will cost $7.35. How about the UK, that will be $9.45. Nothing you can do about it. Also ebay does take a percentage of a seller's shipping costs so that has prevented some sellers from gouging on shipping. Despite the rising postage costs in the U.S., others outside the U.S. says it's still less than many other countries (except China PRC..I hear rumors of subsidies, but uncertain).

Side note: people will pay more for shipping than an item's cost - I've sold to thousands who have. Paying $2.25 for 2 oz. shipping overseas on a $1 item is probably still the cheaper opportunity cost (time and money) than spening gas money to travel to a show that may or may not have what you are looking for after searching through many boxes, albums, etc.

As with any venue may it be ebay, Delcampe, other website, stamp shows, store etc. - seller's vary far and wide to what prices they set on stamps and covers for a multitude of reasons. You, the buyer have the option of shopping around till you find those you like - those with fair prices and great service. You can't paintbrush any one venue as being "too high", "too much for shipping" etc. etc. as again it always comes down to the individual who sets their own terms. There's always another seller if you don't like a particular one you come across. Example - I visit a local monthly stamp show - there's a couple of dealer's I wouldn't touch their wares with a 10 foot pole because they are grossly overpriced, but their are the others who I buy from. I'm a regular happy buyer as they are nice and have good deals.

There still are great deals to be found on ebay. Yes, there are much more buy-it-nows some at ridiculous prices for the condition of the items. But these are easy to filter out - the key is to learn to use the filter combinations and save searches.

For the most part, I find shipping reasonable. I don't see how ebay charging commission on shipping prevents sellers from over-charging. If a seller charges $10 to ship but uses $1 in postage, $9 profit less the small ebay commission. He would make no profit by charging $1, and a very small profit charging $2.

Very nice point made by Battlestamps.

You have the choice to buy it or not. Be it from ebay, Delcampe or a dealer.

I guess it boils down to 2 things:

1. How bad you want it
2. Do you have the moolah :D

BeeSee: I guess it probably won't stop overcharging, but the reason why some sellers did it in the first place was to avoid ebay fees. Now ebay will get their cut no matter what. If I saw a seller who charged too much, I just wouldn't buy from them. Like you said, filters.

Exactly Battlestamps. So ebay is the big winner when sellers overcharge - bigger commission!