What Happen To Ebay ?

Monthly? Too frequent. Our local show does really well, but it's annual. I think you're oversaturating your collector base.

Monthlies are few and far between. I know of one just out of St. Louis that is held monthly and supposedly does well, but that's too far for me to travel for a small show.

Thanks everybody for your input . If you have read all the different posting here ,you start to understand there are many different reasons for the problems of the stamp section on ebay . No one problem stands out but a lot of problems that ebay can fix and some that they have no control over .
Some of the big sellers like NYSTAMPS and NOBLESPIRIT seem to have their own steady clientele , who bid and support their offerings . There also seems to be a lot of dreamers who fill up the pages of listings with worthless garbage , which was mention above by a poster .Another problem is that ebay can't leave a good thing alone and trys to be in a constant need to "improve" the ebay experience . The sellers keep listing the same stuff over and over again without lowering the price ,as someone mentioned they need to do away with all the free listing garbage that's out there .

Unless the seller has a store and only listing fixed priced items, those sellers who keep relisting overpriced items again and again are NOT using hardly any free listings. They are paying listing fees and only need a few sales to make it worthwhile - sort of like an antique vendor that has to pay a high site rent thus everything is overpriced. If you bring back the scaled listing fees (the higher the starting price, the higher the listing fee) maybe then you'll see some prices drop.

rev: It is too frequent, but also they are so horrible at advertising as mentioned before. I received the reminder card for the show the day before the show. They need to place ads in the local newspapers and spread the word beyond the small group of collectors in the local clubs. The show is also on a Sunday and that doesn't help either. There's also other monthly shows run by Harry Tong in Massachusetts and Connecticut. I've never been to either, but others say they are also small shows. They are on weekdays so I don't know how they can have a decent collector base outside of those who are retired.

It is a hobby which has slowly lost interest over a period of time. It offers little in the way of competition for the X box and similar video games. It doesn't have the adrenaline rush. The current generation is more interested in the history of Superman than John Kennedy. ebay was once a way to allow the single owned business to compete against the bigger companies. You had no overhead so you could sell for less and didn't have to collect tax which helped to offset shipping costs. They now have competition from Amazon, Stamps2 Go, and other venues.

I use the free listings offers regularly - although they grow sparser in the Winter. They enable me to sell low-value cards at a better price than throwing them into a job lot. I sell around 95% of what I list at the first time of asking. If I re-list, I reduce the price. I've found sales much better during September, by the way. One problem with stamps versus cigarette cards is that there are just too many of the latter out there. If I had the mind to, I could look through a week's worth of GB card auctions - doing that for stamps would probably take the rest of the month! Which is not good news for me once I start to list stamps on ebay ...

Geoff

Pardon my ignorance. What are cigarette cards?

kcaramat- I agree shill bidding has become an issue, especially with some larger, high-volume sellers. When I was still adding to my coin collection, shill bidding was clearly RAMPANT on ebay so at some point I stopped bidding on coin auctions altogether. Buy it now with best offer can be useful at times depending on the seller and their motives.

cigarette cards are picture cards put in tobbaco so you would buy their brand to collect a set of pictures, search on ebay you will get the idea.

Thanks Jim. I was not aware of this at all.

I rarely use ebay. I find it really difficult to search for things without having to sift through a ton of other items that are either overpriced or look more than a little dodgy. Personally I find using Delcampe.net to buy stamps much easier - easy to navigate and sort listings.

sdtom

Cigarette cards were extensively issued by a range if US companies at the end of the 19th centrury before Duke consolidated a range if manufacturers in the American Tobacco Co. I think they continued to be issued after the First World War, although more cards may have appeared with non-tobacco products. In Britain, cigarette cards were killed by WWII paper shortages, and only "trade" cards (given with tea, sweets etc) now survve.. Americans may call all such inserts "trading cards", although I'm not sure.

A great hobby awaits you!

Geoff

The American Tobacco Company 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card is said to be worth in the millions of dollars.

Jack Kelley

Jack

There's a copy in the British Museum, from the collection donated to it by Edward Wharton-Tigar, legendary card collector (he bought the house adjoining his to house his collection), mining executive and sometime undercover agent. I think that visiting Americans occasionally penetrate the depths of the BM to view it.

Geoff

I've bought some items on ebay for shockingly low prices. On one hand I'm tickled pink that I have absolutely SWIPED some items, on the other hand this can't be great for the hobby.

Of course I say this and then I watch common 1860s covers to France bring 2x market value so who knows.

Sometimes I wonder.......

So I list and relist about 800 lots per week but only 150 are best sellers the others get sold every now and then.

So why do I work so hard for such dead weight?

It costs me nothing more or less no matter how much I list.

I have already culled out 700 listings per week.

My title descriptions are set out like a catalogue.