Stanley Gibbons Marketplace 'Soft Relaunch' Email

I assume a few of us have received it. This is my response to the email, I will keep you posted on their response.

I received your email about the soft launch of Stanley Gibbons marketplace with great interest.

You have dedicated some detail to your buyer guarantee, please provide me some information on your seller protection?

ebay is awash with professional thieves who claim non-receipt of items whose word is taken as gospel at the expense of the honest seller.

In 15 years of internet trading, I have only had two items go astray, one stolen (thankfully insured) in the Canadian mail system and the other torn to shreds in a sorting machine in Manchester.

I have zero history of non-receipt, either as a seller or a buyer.


• Are you going to ban buyers who continually claim non-receipt?
• Will you use source computer Ids to prevent buyers registering multiple identities from one computer?
• Do you hold residential address details for all participants so that, in the event of fraudulent activity, better details can be provided to each party for problem resolution (.i.e. if someone knows where you live, you may be less inclined to commit a fraudulent act)
• Are you going to be actively engaged in problem resolution or will you just say, "We provide a marketplace, what happens there is not our problem"?

I look forward to your response.


John

Ha! I posted the note above and then hit send on the email to seller@stanleygibbons.com.

The email bounced.

So great to see they have their tech issues sorted.

Great letter.

Perhaps they (?) will see it here and join SCF and respond here to a knowledgeable and aware marketplace, the people on Stamp Community here?

That would be friendly and responsive and aware of them also.
Perhaps they a trifle busy at present though.

Interesting! I look forward to a response to these questions as well.

Based on Gibbons' track record regarding Bidtstart and other ventures, I have ZERO faith that this will end in anything other than a complete disaster.

Rather than being a guinea pig, I will wait a year or two and see what shakes out. I'm willing to bet that there are many aspects of this that they have not thought through...

I posted the text of my original post on their website forum yesterday to receive this response:

Hi John,

Great Questions!

Seller protection is very important to us, and we employ many of the items you've noted, as well as many more. We have an internal team who monitors this activity, as well as a few outside services and specialists we use just for this very purpose.

If issues arise, we have a full dispute resolution center, where buyers and sellers can interact with one another, and our Customer Service and Trust and Safety team can weigh in as well. While individual transaction are between the buyer and seller, as we provide a payment service, we do act as an agent for the buyer and sellers, and will help to resolve issues, and protect our members.

Most importantly, as a seller, you can work directly with our Seller Account Management team, who can help you with any issues you have, including issues with transactions. If you'd like me to put you in touch with them. Just let me know!

glad you got a response

Well, at least they've got their spin team ready.

A lot of heads have rolled at BidStart in the past few days.

Is Gibbons Marketplace the same thing as bidStart? I'm confused.

Yes, SG bought bidStart a while back.
Don

I know SG bought bidStart--it's proclaimed loudly on the site. My question is whether Gibbons Marketplace is something new, different from, alongside bidStart or not. I had the impression it was different. But in this thread it seems to be assumed that they are identical. Hence my question.

At some point BidStart/SG Marketplace will no longer accept paypal (or AMEX).