Finding Values Through Ebay

I've seen several times where people say to use ebay as a guide for valuing on your stamps. Why is it the same stamp can sell for 100.00 on one post and 5.00 on another ?? Is it the stamp or the seller ?? To me- the untrained eye, they look the same. What are you seeing that I am not? Examples would be stamps 294-299.

Welcome Betty.

I don't know what others would say, but I would have to expand what you have been told just a bit.

Firstly, I have seen greater price differences than that. For e.g. a seller may sell stamps in only superb condition, or stamps certified superb. In this case I have seen a lot of sellers use this as "an excuse" to price them sometimes ridiculously high compared to what they should be. This is where I see those differences mostly. Taking advantage of stamp condition is unfortunately common for some sellers. And the cost to certify a stamp is not as much as the hundreds of dollars that are added to the price. When you have wealthy buyers and you add the old saying "there's a sucker born every minute", warm, stir well and serve, these sellers do sell their stamps.

Secondly, the only way to use sites like ebay to determine the actual value of a stamp is to use several auction sites and, keeping in mind the above, look at the closed auctions at these sites and see what the stamp actually sold for at the different stamp conditions you see. You will then not only get a feel for what the range is for a particular stamp, but you will be able to spot those higher sold prices easier for there will be fewer of them in the closed auctions than in the active auctions.

It is a bit of work, but we have to be careful during the thrill of the hunt!

Hope this helps.


-IBFS

Thanks, I haven't found the closed auction sites yet, but will start looking.

Remember, its the closing price that matters, not the offering price. I'm a big ebay addict (buy and sell) and have to add that timing is everything. An item can spend on week on there with no bids, no sale. The same item can go up a week later and have multiple bids and a high sale. I've been there on the selling side many times, and this still amazes me.

To value a stamp, check out advanced search for completed auctions of what you are looking for. This will give you a ballpark number.