Ebay Prices

It never fails to amaze me! Some of the pricing claims on ebay are insane. Amongst many others, someone is offering this :

Sg599, ½d orange-red, UNMOUNTED MINT. Cat £230. PHOSPHOR GRAPHITE-LINED.
This item is being sold by ebay Top rated seller.
Never hinged, fresh ORIGINAL gum, no faults. There are lots of gb and commonwealth stamps to suit all levels of stamp collecting.
17d 21h 53m left
£2.99
Buy it now

If the catalogue value is 230 British pounds, would it not be more profitable to sell it to a legitimate dealer? Do people actually fall for this?

Could just be a typo.

As the catalogue value is around £4 then it's more likely bullcrap than a typo !

My thoughts exactly, but I wonder how many people actually fall for this?

Prices...supply and demand...but not always.
Also: delusion. Both from some buyers and some sellers.

and thats whay I have been buying from bidstart sellers.

With bidstart it amazed me that a seller could have near to 5,000 stamps lots listed.

I told the seller in a bidstart forum that his store looked more like an on line stamp collection and not somewhere to buy a stamp!

Much heated comments followed from many........and I closed my store. Sad to see all my work and not one sale in 8 weeks.

Bidstart over the last couple of months has sent me a lot of promotional emails so I nuked them!

Sorry about my ignorance, folks.

David, I am not familiar with that stamp, so please explain what is wrong with the ebay listing.

KGV - I am not sure what you are saying. Were you upset that someone had 5,000 listings? Seems like a lot, but if there is no limit I guess it would be OK. And why did you have a heated discussion? What was the basis for said disagreement. And, you closed your store because you had no business or because of this debate you had?

I am not trying to be difficult; just to get a clear understanding.

I don't get any junk from bidstart, since I turned those options off. I did try to sell there but, likewise nothing moved. I was probably priced too high. But then I am terrible at selling anyway. Im so much better at buying. I dont go to the bidstart forums so I have no comment there. I have done most of my stamp purchases(singles) from bidstart sellers. They have always communicated well and the shipping price was right. last time it .63 cents to have the 40+ stamps shipped. Helped me replace a lot of used with mint in my US.

I buy from US sellers on ebay and though I have a list of preferred sellers I occasionally buy from new (to me) sellers. I have very few complaints and generally find good value, fair pricing and equally fair shipping charges. There are exceptions. The latest being asked to pay Global Shipping of $10.28 and prepay UK duty of $12.60 (I would not have had to pay duty), a total of $22.88 to ship a single stamp costing $40.

Is this Global shipping a scam? Don't know, but that pales by comparison with (not stamps, I know) the two boxes of pencils I wanted to buy. Well I did until I checked the shipping to UK cost. $100 for the first box of 12 pencils then an extra $80 for the second box. I have previously bought similar packets from the US at a combined shipping cost of $12. What is going on? Don't ebay have any control over this shipping ripoff? Don't they realise it deters buyers and loses them commission? And probably puts people off ever buying on ebay at all.

Terry

Terry: Global shipping is something ebay has been pushing for awhile "to increase" internationals sales. It's a complete rip-off, but not by the seller, but by ebay and Pitney-Bowes. A number of sellers have been tricked into signing up for the Global Shipping Program (GSP) by either when they sign up as recent new sellers or by blindly accepting an updated user agreement. Some sellers didn't even realize they signed up for it until it was too late and their listings were up. Turning it off was even harder for some - either no option to do so and ebay had steps for sellers to close their account completely instead. Hopefully, that has changed and sellers can turn if off. If you see any sellers with the GSP turned out message them and ask them to turn if off and you won't accept it. Hopefully they can, but like I said before this is ebay's doing.

Sorry for being unclear centerstage98

Yes I was telling the seller on bidstart with 5,000 listings he had an on line stamp collection and nothing for sale because there are no buyers.

I also said to have 5,000 listings adds up to a lot of spare time and no sales. The store owner did not like my comments!

If I was to buy lot number 1,089 would he be able to find that item?

Yes I left because of no sales and no traffic. A total waist of time!

After listening to someone saying how great bidstart was I opened up a store. Total waist of time!

Hi Battlestamps,

Yes, I have done just what you recommended. I spoke to the seller of the stamp I was interested in and he told me much what you did. And having gone along with it he was charged an extra 9% commission by ebay (not clear if this was on the shipping cost or the whole sale). He also said that he could not see what Global were charging when he looked at his listings, and that ebay would not tell him what it was. He seemed genuinely horrified when I told him I was being asked for $22.88 including duty I would not have been liable to pay anyway. (Is it legal for a non authoritarian body, UK or foreign, to collect UK duty and taxes?}. He has since told me that after a bit of a wrangle with ebay, in which they threatened to withdraw his top seller status if he pulled out, that they have said he can cancel his Global Shipping 'arrangement' without penalty. If ebay think this nonsense will increase international sales they might just find the opposite happening.

Terry

I have tried reporting ebay listings with faulty CV's in them, but INCREDIBLY there is no category you can select in the report item feature that allows you to report that an item is misrepresented or falsely described. The only way you can report that is if you first BUY the item, and THEN report that it was falsely represented.

I get particularly peeved when I see horrendously off-centered copies of stamps being listed as having the VF grade CV. The problem is flagrant and widespread.

The guy that wanted $180 to airmail 2 boxes of 12 pencils from the US to the Uk replied to tell me that "I should be aware that it costs more to ship overseas than within the USA." Well, yes. but not $180! I bought from another US seller in Texas and he charged me $7.25 airmail to UK. Arrived within a week in good order.

Terry

Why would anybody care if a clueless seller starts a lot at 100 times fair value on ebay? Those sellers keep ebay in business. Once in a while they start a lot at 1/100 of fair value. We should all love clueless sellers.