Ebay Postal History Auctions - What Direction Should I Take?

Hey All,
Many of you have seen my ebay auctions before. In the last few years I've mainly been selling postcards, philatelic type covers and postal stationery with only a few offerings of postal history (stamped, meter or stampless). I've been stockpiling for the last few years and in that time it's grown to be quite a horde. I have one more big auction to go of the former set for late May or June, but then I get venture into the postal history.

My main question is would it best for me to work with one country/region at a time or choose an assortment of covers from numerous countries and regions? I can run an auction of 1000+ U.S. or German covers or have an equally large one that's a hodge-podge of places and covers types. As for the buyer, I guess it depends where the one's collecting interests are at and some are rather narrow and other collect a little of everything. I think it might be best to go broad across the collections rather than deep into one country/region as I don't want to neglect those who only collect very specific areas. If I go deep in something like French covers, that would be beneficial those who collect them, but who knows when I get to something like the Canal Zone covers. There's pros and cons to each direction. I'm prone to go broad, but would like to read any views from other sellers and buyers. I'm looking forward to working more and more with postal history as the research side is more interesting.

Could you provide a link to your auctions on ebay? Broad array is fine.

I'd say go broad. Although I tend to focus on US postal history York, Pa cancels, I also look for covers or postcards with mildly to elaborate scroll like penmanship by the sender. Elaborate penmanship can, of course, be on a cover from any country.

smauggie: I don't have anything up now, but hopefully before the end of June I'll have a few thousand plus items up and running. I'll post a message on here to announce it. I'm still typing the conditions and need to paste it all into TurtleLister. Some of the used postal stationery count as postal history too.

quigngt: True, by going broad I would still hit upon topical collecting interests again an again like penmanship and others - airmail, registered, cancel types, meters, military, censor, etc etc.

Broad. A buyer who is interested in a particular area may have a spending limit for a particular time period but may buy more in several purchases than in one big one. Give a buyer that shows interest in an area a heads up when you will be listing that type item again.

I am glad to see that someone else holds to the same rigorous standard I've applied when collecting cards & covers over the years: "okay, yeah, that appeals to to me".

I love other people's beautiful penmanship.

Maybe we should start a thread?

Exceptional Penmanship On Otherwise Unexceptional Things

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

kehess: Good point about spending limits! I know I have my own when it comes to finding new material. Unfortunately, not many buyers tell me outright what they are looking for. A few do, but it's a small minority. I usually try to notify folks about new auctions through here and Facebook as there's too many to notify on an individual basis. I usually send an email to all buyers about upcoming auctions when I confirm shipment. It's usually pretty general without a specific date as life has a way of making things take longer than needed or requires my attention.

There are a couple of threads out there regarding handwriting on stamps and covers.

Love those old post cards with old ink. I kinda like reading what people would talk about when that was the only form of communication.

I think auctions are best when there is a variety of items to choose from. In addition, you might get better prices if buyers only see a small selection of your covers each time instead of thousands at once (you also don't want to lower prices by "flooding the market").

I agree with the consensus of going broad. A good variety will attract "casual" shoppers who like to browse for whatever seems appealing at the moment (like me, often), and your exceptional titles and descriptions will attract "specialist" shoppers who will be able to find your items through searches.

Will,
I have bought from you before. You fair pricing and excellent service will bring sales whether you try a broad appeal or specialize. You know that many of us that collect postal history collect in many areas. If I am allowed to be selfish I would say go broad. I know you put up a lot of items at one time and my only disappointment is that you list more than my budget allows

Thanks all for your views. Broad it is. One thing that won't change is my commitment to service and descriptions. I take great satisfaction in both. pjsstamps: The future size of my auctions may vary in size. My regular archaeology job is still a variable since it doesn't allow me to have regular smaller auctions due to time constraints, but I'm thinking of ditching archaeology altogether and work at home full-time. It would allow for smaller, but more frequent auctions. ebay's actions are also a wild card since there's little notice about free listing days and the usual changing dynamics of ebay policies.

I do a mix of postal history items but mainly GB pre-stamp and qv covers in auctions and I throw in a few American stampless ones to. I try to start auctions as cheap as possible. Maritime and transatlantic letters also are popular. If your selling PH try a bit of everything and see what your followers want and get more similar of what they want. Start price as cheap as possible and cheap postage to. Buyers I find love the cheap starts and cheap postage.

Hi Battlestamps!

I know you are switched on for listing when it is an ebay free listing offer so I might be out of step...

I list a different type of Australia each day.

Monday: Letter rate sets

Tuesday: Set with high values in them.

Wednesday: All high denomination singles.

A lot of my buyers have got very use to this listing approach.

You always have wonderful stuff on your auctions and you do a great job of describing all your wares so I think that you'll do just fine no matter what you choose to do! If you want suggestions- Maybe do them by country then organize oldest to newest? I would agree with you on keep the Canal Zone separate though.