Beginner At Delcampe Questions

Hey
1st of all I am a beginner in the stamps collecting thing and reading about them these days but I have some questions :)
1-which site you recommend for me to sell old stamps or buying(I have account at delcampe and I discovered bidstart today)

2-I Found that delcampe charges 0.18 USD per sold item so I need further explanations does that mean if I will sell a group of stamps together they will charge me 0.18 per stamp or just once to all the collection (I hope that my question is clear)

Hello abouaf, welcome to Stamp Community!

From Delcampe (roughly):


The 'per item' means per item listed on Delcampe's web site. Thus, an item or listing could be one stamp or a group of stamps, from 2 tp as many as you wish at one time on one listing item.

This Hard ruling (really not) is to discourage listing items cheaply and clogging up the site and items for purchase with small penny items.

You probably could, rather, list your stamps as groups that will allow you to pay Delcampe the 18c plus also pay PayPal or Skrill feees and whatever else is to be included, in an attempt to cover your costs involved.

thanks for the reply was really helpful,I still find he 0.18 per sold item is a weird thing they could add a percentage based on the price of the item instead
I think not everyone interested in buying a group of stamps that I am offering together they might be interested in a single stamp from the group

"...I think not everyone interested in buying a group of stamps that I am offering together they might be interested in a single stamp from the group..."

Unfortunately, you can't have it both ways, and the choice depends on what the sets are. Letting a bidder buy one stamp, breaking your set, leaves you with a difficult remainder to sell. On the other hand, if "most" collectors need that one stamp (and have the rest), they will balk at buying duplicates. Tough call.

From Delcampe's point of view, listing your stamps incurs both fixed costs and variable costs, so the percentage + flat rate makes sense. The fixed cost portion might cover bandwidth, for instance - a listing for a $2 stamp costs them the same as a listing for a $2000 stamp. The percentage charge, as you point out, discourages a lot of low-value nuisance listings, and provides their basic profit. For the exposure to the European market, they are far cheaper than ebay, although you sometimes have a language problem, and European collectors seem to prefer fixed-price listings, not auctions, which means you have to KNOW the European market to avoid over- or under-pricing. Sebastian, the owner-manager, is a serious collector, and often answers complaints and questions himself, an admirable policy.

thanks for replying
I meant they should make a percentage depends on the final price of the auction or fixed price things and the way they are doing it like that they are encouraging buyers and sellers by contacting each other to change the collection to make it suits the buyer in-order not to buy stamps that he doesn't need,or they could make the 0.18 price fixed if the buyer bought various stamps from the seller same time.(I think I didn't explain my point well but I hope that you understand it)
I have no idea how ebay estimates the charge on selling objects or auctions and I am a beginner at stamps but I find prices for auctions are pretty weird(I find same stuff much cheaper in many other sites)

ebay is, at present, free insertion for the firts 50 listings per month, and then 30c each after that, except for some exceptions like books. There is a 10^ final value fee charged on the sold item price and shipping when the item sells.

Delcampe is free insertion for any and all, and then 18c per sold item listing when they sell, with a 5.5% final value fee, decreases with more money made per month.

BidStart is free insertion for first 50 per month, then 2c each after that, with 1c + 8% final value fees when sold, decreases with a higher sold price.

thanks for reply just a couple more questions :)
1-how does ebay estimate the shipping price or this info provided by the seller?
2-do insertions mean list of the products that the seller offer? and will the unsold things count in the insertions of the next month or what?

According to Puzzler's info, delcampe is ultamitely cheaper. (thanks for that comparison Puzzler) figuring a person does 100 us in sales. an insertion is the same as listing; its what they call putting the listing on the ebay site. You 50 listings OR "insertions" per month.
ebay does so well because due to it being a household name. However, as a buyer I can get better deals on delcampe and bidstart, because the sellers are selling mass volumes per month and get the low listing rates.
As a seller, I sell on ebay because people have a habit of outbidding each other there.

ebay or any site does Not estimate the shipping. Amazon's site does I think.

The shipping and associated handling is stated by the seller, usually in the Listing form or page from ebay or in the description, preferably both I think.

As Guy says, insertions mean the same as a listing. Your listing page is inserted into the list of ebay's auction or for slale items when you choose to send it to ebay or list it on ebay.

great info thanks all :)

http://stamps.delcampe.net/page/ite...guage,E.html
I am just curious why would some one list a stamp cheaper than delcampe fees like the one in the link

Delcampe recently changed their fee structure and some sellers are probably still used to and comfortable with the old one where 18c was not charged.

The above mentioned auction sale had this for shipping though: '2.60 for one item + 0.20 for each additional item', which some sellers do and some do not, so that may cover the 18c charged perhaps. Smart move by the seller.


This has been going on on ebay for years before now when they charged 15c for a basic minimum listing of below 99c, so sellers always had to absorb the extra charge(s) somehow, whether through shippiung / handling or the price of the stamp(s).

Another option is that a seller may use such lower priced items to attract buyers to jis store.

oh so you meant some sellers try to get the profit from the shipping prices too but I doubt that shipping would cost liss than 2.60 anyways(I never used shipping with post)

It depends on where the seller gets his stamps used for postage from also. Buying at less than cost is possible on ebay and online, and there are always business rates, etc.

As a more or less full-time seller I would think a person would try to cover his costs.

well sorry for that but one more question :)
in some auctions on ebay I see free shipping like in the first pic but when I go to the item details I see the price of shipping!
so what is going on and why they mentioned free shipping !
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Either the seller didn't properly fill out the listing correctly or it's only free domestic shipping. It could be ebay is not working properly as well. Contact the seller to verify.