For Those Who Use Bidstart

I received this this morning in a long awaited email reply from bidStart...

"Any updates to bidStart will no longer be taking effect as the site is set to close around the Christmas period and be moved to the Stanley Gibbons Marketplace, the new Marketplace is evolving to meet User's expectations using personal feedback to give the best possible experience for Buyer's and Sellers which means your feedback is appreciated and will be noted for future updates."

I will be dubiously curious of what comes out of this.


-IBFS

I've used BidStart frequently in the past for cheap singles, but pickings are getting slim for the items currently in my want list. In other words, I've bottom-fed my fill. I do hope Gibbons doesn't completely run it into the ground, though. Its search feature for stamps is light-years ahead of ebay's, so I'd like to hold out hope that Gibbons can actually improve it, get more sellers on board, etc. Not that I'm holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

I've tried selling on Bidstart and the sales are minimal. More like (1) to (40) I get on ebay. I've spoken with The creator of Bidstart and he feels the SG marketplace will be better but I have serious doubts considering the direction SG has indicated in press releases. In addition, the payment system whereby buyers pay SG and SG pays the seller down the road leaves much to be desired among other vastly different "micro management" concepts. Selling on both sites is a must for me...and perhaps I'll be breaking away from Bidstart all together come December.

I too am concerned with this news. Recently bidStart has provided me with many low cost individual precancels that fill holes without having to buy tons of extras in lots. I'm still bottom-feeding and having a good time with little hassle. I hope things don't get more complicated.
We'll have to wait and see.

Also sorry to hear this. I was just considering doing some listings on BidStart, now I think maybe I will wait until 2016.

bidStart will not exist in 2016. It is being absorbed by SG Marketplace.

Another interesting little detail....

Stanley Gibbons does not recognize PayPal, only credit and debit cards.
That's not a big deal, just more paperwork at some point.

I'd be wary of leaving sale funds with SG. The business is performing poorly, this may be a cheap way for them to fund their working capital in a angerous period. Much safer for sellers to deal direct with the buyer and pay SG a fee for each transaction.

Why would SG want to admin headache?

I wouldn't trust keeping my credit card details on SG's servers, so I won't buy anything until they accept Paypal.

They'd better begin to, when they Pac Man bidStart. bidStart's Volume isn't that great now. No PayPal might virtually shut bidStart down.


-IBFS

Stamps 2 Go is better.

redwood... is this site good for US stamps also?


-IBFS

213,977 U.S. stamps to choose from. I have had excellent results.

I will investigate this. Thanks ...randy!


-IBFS

I find it interesting that as we enter the final month of 2015, there has been absolutely no formal announcement regarding a timetable for migration to SG and the closing of Bidstart.

SG is a complete fustercluck of a company.

I looked at the first page of revenues on Stamps 2 Go, and most of them were fakes. Trimmed stamps pretending to be imperfs or part perfs. I will look some more, but I am far from impressed at first glance.