Question About The APS Store

"Don,

No one in this thread had even mentioned ebay until you chimed in, deciding to focus on the Evils of ebay rather than the APS Store that the OP was asking aboiut.

I've seen scare tactics like this employed before in order to sway people against using ebay, usually by people with an axe to grind.

While I wholeheartedly recommend the APS store as a venue to use, ebay is *NOT* something to be shunned or avoided. What was the purpose of railing against ebay when that wasn't even what the OP asked about?

There's a time and a place to discuss the hazards of ebay, but this isn't it."

AGREED

"All my posts include info which say there are good sellers and deals on ebay. But if anyone is arguing that ebay is a great place to send new hobbyists to build their collection; my opinion is that they are incorrect."

DISAGREED

At one time or another we were ALL new ebay users. When I first bought on ebay I made some mistakes and learned from them. (Such is LIFE in many respects) Some of these mistakes actually made me a BETTER collector.

Don I have no doubt that you believe that you know what is best for the hobby. However, I'm sure that everyone here believes they are capable of figuring out on their own what is best for the hobby - especially as pertains to their own collecting interests, methods, and philosophies. I don't think you give the membership here enough credit in this regard.

In my opinion some of the nicest things about stamp collecting are that it is a hobby in which EACH INDIVIDUAL COLLECTOR gets to decide what to collect, how to collect, how to store and display their collections, where to buy, AND they get to make THEIR OWN judgments about things like quality, condition, expertization, society memberships, and the like. I'm old enough to have learned that people in general don't like to be told what they should do, how they should do it, and especially what they should like. You may wish to consider these things as you continue banging the anti ebay drum.

Good luck with your health issues.

Columbian12: I couldn't have said this better. I'll add that it is a hobby in which almost everyone involved is ready and willing to share knowledge and experience. This forum is the greatest exemplar of that attitude.

Terry

I appreciate the input and opinions. As noted, I have always said (perhaps in every post?) that ebay is a double edge sword with both good and bad sellers. It is an basically an online flea market, there is a full range of sellers from those who know what they are doing to those who do not.

I think we are all in agreement that ebay allows many of us, who are not really dealers, to sell off our extra stock. APS store does the same thing. But APS store also offers a bit more oversight, most folks value their APS membership and avoid anything that risks it. ebay had some oversight but decided to remove it.

For new hobbyists, I like to recommend sources like APS Store so it will provide knowledge of other potential options. I would say the same, as several have in other threads, about Kenmore or Mystic. Other brick and mortar auction houses are also a great resources to learn about, it puts things into perspective to glean knowledge beyond venues like ebay. The more irons in the fire…the greater the education of the hobbyist.

But I do not consider ebay the 'end all to be all'. My ebay sales in the last 30 days were only about $1200, I am not a dealer. Perhaps my daily communications (with Stamp Smarter) with many ebay sellers has jaded me. I constantly hear justifications such as 'well, I bought it from a dealer so I'm selling it as real' or 'I don't know if it is real or not, I am just selling my grandfathers collection' with some ebay sellers.

But I have never said, "don't use ebay". I have always said, "be careful, seek out the good sellers". I thought I was promoting buyer education, not telling people what to do.
Don

The ebay stuff has been thoroughly handled by the members and a good read. True good for experienced collectors who can separate the wheat from chaff. I have seen ebay regress on stamps over 25 years, and become less friendly for novices particularly over the last five years. But agree generalizing is unfair.

On APS store, I have been a member nearly 20 years and have always had good experiences. Sometimes an item needs returned, but the process is simple. Members get a discount!

I agree with Don in this respect: ebay is not the best venue for the novice collector. When I returned to collecting and then started buying 4 years ago, I was a novice. Sure, I had collected as a child but never had any money to spend. So I was a novice at buying stamps.

I think I would have done better to use the APS Store at the outset. Not to the exclusion of ebay and bidStart but as an important part of getting oriented. But I saw the difference in prices and went with ebay and bidStart. In the long run I think I misspent enough money that way to have made up for the higher APS Store prices several times over.

This is not ebay bashing. It's a recognition of the challenge faced by the novice collector. Don and others are right to be concerned about that. Perhaps he didn't say it well but he's got a valid point. Those who accuse some of our members here of animus against ebay ought to consider whether it's possible to have an uncritical defensiveness about ebay at the other end of the spectrum. Concern about the particular needs of novice collectors is not the same as an uncritical animus against ebay.

How about we write a sticky post in the Ebay / StampWants / StampOffers / Auction Sites forum that offers a list of stamp buying sites along with perspective of what to expect? The sticky can be a collaborative effort with everyone being given some amount of time to offer edits before a moderator finally publishes. There can be a sticky in the Introduce Yourself Here forum pointing to the sticky here.

I'm not sure how well we would do but it would be very helpful for the new guys on the block.

Terry