Do People Really Spend Big $ On Ebay For Stamps Without Cert

We often talk about this but I have to admit I've always been a little skeptical, so I decided to do a little research.

In the last 3 months about 520 US stamp lots over $1000 have been sold on ebay. "19th C. Unused" was the biggest category and the category for which a cert is probably most necessary because of gum issues, so I concentrated on this category.

There were 185 $1000+ sales but 1 was an accumulation so 184 lots, I did include stamp pages. Of these 26 had certs mentioned in the Title. I looked at many items and didn't find any that had certs not mentioned in the title. The highest priced item was a gorgeous 15c Colombian that sold for $14,500 and no cert mentioned. I checked "US only" as a criteria and it showed 169 of the 184 were from the US. However when I looked at the individual sellers their ebay location was drastically different. In the table below I detail sales of $1000 stamps by Userid and the number of certs and location. I was surprised by the results.





I didn't attempt to determine if any of the 184 stamps had been sold more than once in the 3 month period. I looked at many auctions and I didn't see any seller mention giving an extension for obtaining a cert. I also did not check the location of the sellers with only 1 or 2 sales.

Thoughts and comments are requested.

KRelyea, that is a nice piece of research, and I thank you for it. In looking at what you found, I can only say I must be missing something since I would never bid on items from most of those sellers.(My stamp budget wouldn't like it anyway). I am kind of surprised that "Noblespirit" is not on the list of sellers.



regards, Theron.

Ken,
All of the 'Great Britain' sellers are thought to be the same person. This 'British cartel' person has previously had listings where a cert was known for one of the stamps but it was not being mentioned since it would nullify the substantial alteration that the stamp had received.

But I think your point is interesting. Statistically it seems difficult to deal in a large number of higher dollar stamps over time and not have some percentage that came with certs. And then one most ask one self, why would a dealer not go and get certs for many of these, knowing that they would seller quicker and at a higher price if there was a cert attached?

I admit that I do not fully understand why you are filtering with stamps 'that have been sold' as opposed to all listings. I have seen a handful of listings from the British seller which do indeed have a cert although I do not recall if they sold. But what is obvious and can be stated as fact is that either these sellers are all the same person or the material is moving between them in some kind of relationship. This has been proven without a doubt. Also proven are some listings from this seller which were originally sold in hinged state in Spiegel auctions but later popped up on ebay as 'mint, never hinged'.

It would be interesting to see if all of the 'sold' items went to buyers in the same country. If, for example, there are a lot of buyers who are willing to plunk down that kind of money for a cert-less stamp, you would think that they would be looking for possible recourse paths if the transactions go bad. Having the seller in another country certainly is NOT helpful if legal recourse is called for.

And lastly, it would also e interesting to see how many of these dealers are recognized as being members of a major philatelic organization(s). Again, you would think that buyers would be more likely to support those sellers which were members of APS or ASDA or some other organization when trading in higher dollar material.
Don

For the sake of those of us who have not had the pleasure ...

Q/ Broadly speaking, what might be a typical onesy-twosy cost-of-certification for this (U$D >1k) class of stamps?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I just purchased a $800 catalog valued stamp from the APS Store. At time of purchase I requested a cert for $25. It looks like the cost of cert rises with the catalog value, yet the APS store charges a flat $25 fee at purchase.