Perfect Example Of Problems I Experience With Ebay Sellers

There are obviously many threads here in SCF regarding collector experiences on ebay. The photo below exemplifies the problems I frequently experience with packaging. I must have a target on my back as I am returning almost 40% of what I buy on ebay.

This was shipped to me from the Netherlands. I've provided a clue in the photo as to what the problem is. What's wrong with this picture?

Tape. It's murder on stamps.

Correct

I ship a great deal of items. I try to be very careful and place stamps in a glassine which I then fold shut and tape the glassine to a larger piece of cardboard which I then insert between a folder type piece of lighter weight cardboard. If I didn't use tape to hold it in place, I risk the stamps moving to the edge of the cardboard and being damaged. All one has to do is carefully lift the glassine off the cardboard and open it to get to the stamps. Do you have a better suggestion. My stamps are never damaged and my buyers always remark how well packaged my items are.

Our stamps get put into a glassine faced black stock card then put into a display glassine sleeve then put into a folded cardboard stiffener that fits tight into a DL envelop.

If you buy 100 stamps or 1 stamp they are all treated the same!

..........No Tape......

I once purchased a classic Canada collection where the seller had made hinges out of loops of scotch tape. Took me days to save what I could.

When I mail, I mount on an approval card and seal in a Ziploc bag. Zero tape.

Stampnut's approach is reasonable. But some sellers I have purchased from

1. tape shut the flap of the glassine
2. sometimes put tape across the top of a 102 display card
and a host of things like that

The point is that reasonable precautions to avoid stamps shifting and getting damaged are essential.

But the 102 display card is designed to secure the stamp(s) and keep it(them) from shifting, if the stamps are inserted into the card all the way. A glassine with closed flap is designed to protect the stamp. Adding tape unnecessarily is what I and others get worked up about.

I've had sellers who are reusing aged glassines use tape in such a way that when pulling the tape off,the glassine tore and with it tore the stamps inside. Putting tape over the top of a 102 display card risks catching the tops of the stamps if they are not inserted well into the card.

And so on. Careful and judicious use of tape, fine. Tape-crazy, not so much.

Very true however I would still put stamps in a new glassine within the 102 card because the BOTTOM of 102 cards will sometimes being to lift along the adhesive line, exposing the stamps to adhesive. At bourses, I see frequently see stamps falling though 102 cards and getting damaged, and have received some in the mail with stamps lodged into the adhesive. I don't accept stamps in this condition as I am fearful they will become damaged when I do "surgery" to remove them.




This unfortunately has happened to me as well, totally agree.




Again, you are completely right and it happens very frequently. Absolutely inexcusable practice.

Any tape around the packaging of the stamps is dangerous, and over-taping is worst. Tape is necessary at some point for some packages, say a collection of album pages in an large envelope. But there should always be some inner core of packaging that is tape free, so that when removing the tape on the outside layer, there is absolutely no chance of tape contacting stamp through the inner layer. Further, if tape is necessary, it should be applied with the aim of simple removal.

I use a two pocket 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch approval card or a Mini safe card in a plastic sleeve. I will continue to use the larger approval card until all of the surplus cards are used up. I use a 3 1/2 inch by 6 3/8 inch piece of comic book cardboard (like illustration board) behind the card and a piece of cardboard cut to the same size in front outside the packing list which wraps the approval card. New buyers also receive an APS recruiting card in the package. The cardboard is required to meet thickness requirements for First Class Packages. The mini card requires a small piece of tape to hold the sleeve and card in position. The result is no tape or minimal tape inside the package. Because I am using #000 bubble wrap envelopes, packing tape on the outside edges to secure the label is necessary. Unfortunately with the demise of Click-N-Ship for business, I am not able to mail First Class Packages with postage stamps. I still use stamps on international non-customs mailings as well as Priority Mail and Media Mail after May 31 when tracking becomes "free".

I use a more flexible 705 card and a piece of comic book cardboard for First Class International. The cost of mailing outside the country is less than domestic because of the Quixotic ebay tracking requirement for even the lowest cost items. Go figure.

Clark
clarkphilatelics

The last time I sold some stamps, (which I don't do often), I used a 2"x2" Post-it to hold the Glassine envelope to the card instead of tape. It held just fine and Post-its release awesome.
Could be too expensive to do for a dealer or regular seller. But it worked as an alternative for my purposes.

It has gotten so that when I buy from vendors in certain countries I send the seller a message 'no tape please'. Sellers in Australia are really bad in this regard. What I am also noting is the growing numbers of sellers who do not even put a return address on their mailings. May be some security concern but how on earth are postal authorities supposed to handle if the mail address gets damaged or is incorrect? I am noting a lot of UK sellers do this for some unknown reason.

shermae - if you are returning 40% of what you buy ob ebay the problem is with more than sellers.

About two years ago I bought a stamp in the $10 price range, an early Australian definitive, from a vendor there. When his mailing arrived I thought he'd forgot to enclose it then I recalled the little piece of cardboard that had fallen out of the package, I retrieved it and found two little butty squares of cardboard with scotch tape all over and around them, the stamp apparently cocooned inside. I made a few efforts to extract the stamp and, knowing I'd damage it I sent the seller a message that I wanted to return it, no reply in a week so I just mailed it back and filed a claim. He finally replied- said I was overreacting but eventually I got my money back. have always wondered if he was able to get his stamp back- he apparently didn't care if his buyer would be able to get it out so I never lost sleep over it.

As I said, Australian sellers do this stuff every time. Must be some national obsession.

I don't know why so many sellers think secure = impregnable. One can package stamps securely without making the package difficult to open. The odds of damaging stamps while opening an over-packed shipment would seem to be a lot higher than the odds of them getting damaged while en route to me.

By coincidence I just finished a 30 minute operation opening and extracting stamps in a collection I bought from a seller in Eastern Europe. He had good feedback but what I didn't see coming was that he'd be another 'tape monkey'. There was a total of eight glassines of various sizes, tape wound around and around the glassines to the point they were a big sticky blob-which were then placed between two pieces of cardboard and then that whole thing was plastered with clear wrapping tape. What on earth was this guy trying to protect his mailing from- nuclear fission? He will get good feedback for the sale but I plan to send him a message suggesting he practices overkill on his wrapping.

Some years back I ruined a nice British cover I got from a seller in Australia. Same thing, tons of tape all over it. I really think some sellers have obsessive/compulsive disorder.