Can Dealers Compete With Ebay?

Agree with EYEONWALL , most collections at stamp auctions goes to dealers and ebay sellers but the cream of collections that are being auctioned still go to those collectors who can beat most resellers because they are buying for enjoyment and pleasure .

Regarding the literacy level (or lack there of) of current stampers...


Two thoughts:

1. Many in the broad SC Forum have lamented the old days when stamping was all the rage and the hobby was far more popular and mainstream. Using my own experience I must say that when I was a kid my collecting knowledge and skills was rudimentary at best. Coming back to stamping in my 60's has made me a far better serious student. Not sure that the level of philatelic knowledge has gone down at all.

2. But one way to directly address the aging of stamp collecting and expanding the knowledge of next generation collectors would be developing a creative outreach platform to reach young kids and engage them with stamping that catches their attention. Succeed at that, and many will return to collecting in adulthood.

#2 above is no easy task, however if we are concerned about the state of the stamp market, and maintaining a healthy long-term stamp hobby, we, today's collectors and business marketers need to address the stark reality -- in 2015 stamp collecting is enjoyed by old people.

An APS survey in 2007 found 70% of all members were 60 years or older. That was 8 years ago!
At the time only 2% of APS members were under 40 years of age.

FYI, a team of SC members is forming to address this issue. Maybe you would like to consider plugging in your skills as well?

https://goscf.com/t/46963

If we don't attract more adults under 65 into the hobby, there isn't going to be a hobby for taday's kids to come back to whenn they are adults.

For survive it will have to been an establish business with a good inventory, a web site where you can order stamps, so it will need a lot of work to build it and maintain it, the owner need to build the website himself or else he will probably not afford it. Arpin on the south shore of Montreal have this type of website, but the price are high. On the other end a very well establish brick and motor in Montreal is dying, the website is old not updated since years. I purchased many Minkus and Scott albums many years ago with many stamps in them including souvenirs sheets, now they just have trash album mainly print from computer.

I see from another post that you want to start in the business, from your posts I can see that you don't have inventory, so how do you expect compete ebay with no inventory in your store.

eyeonwall -- you may be right.

70% of APS membership was 60 years or older 8 years ago.
But I am among those who collected as a kid, stopped, and returned seriously late in life. So I am researching the hobby's efforts to make stamping relevant with kids.

This year I have participated in many SCF threads to better understand the markets, the direction the hobby has taken since I was a kid, and a bit about the market makers -- ebay, Amos, Gibbons, Mystic, the auction houses, APS, etc.

From what I can see, stamping is doing fine with men in their 50's, 60's and 70's. And with retired folks and very wealthy investors who support the cream rarities. But where are the women collectors (what maybe 5% of SCF)? And it's pretty clear very few girls and boys are interested to collect stamps.

But when I look for stamping info online, our hobby LOOKS and SOUNDS like a hobby for old retired folks who do nothing more exciting than rummage through musty books of paper stamps.

When I look at the world in 2015, I am certain my 19-year old daughter would be bored with the APS "Youth" web pages. Please!

I for one think we can bring Topical Stamp Collecting to a much more exciting and interesting level that SOME kids would appreciate. I hope a small team of SCF members will help us clarify if this is an opportunity worth pursuing.

We have two separate headings or chapters about Kids and stamps on the general discussion division active right now - DO WE NEED IT HERE ....under ebay and dealers too?

I like ebay and stamps2go. I've gotten some good lots on E-bay wherein I've only kept a couple of the stamps for my collection and flipped the rest. Stamps2go is great for individual purchases.

There's one point being missed, I think (this is a long thread). When it comes to buying collections and not needing everything, I'm fortunate to live in a metro area with a thriving philatelic library (Denver). I've been donating some of my unneeded items to the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library the past several years and taking a tax write-off. Two years ago, I donated a few items from the APS Stamp Store that had not sold in a year, and took another tax write-off. Thus, "flipping" comes in different forms.

Flipping is becoming a new buzz word

I hate those people , they show up at stamp auctions all the time . After two or three calls by the auctioneer they drop the bid card . Flippers are buying what collectors do not want and usually fight over lots with ebay sellers ,but a flipper can't bid up a lot like a ebay seller , I meet ebay sellers who over pay just because they need to have something . All the stamp lots that I sold three weeks ago where design and packaged for the ebay seller crowd ,just like the many lots that the auction houses own and are making themselves from the vast inventories they purchase .

I don't consider what I do flipping. I am not buying the lot simply to resell. I am buying because I need items from the lot for my collection. But, then I end up with a bunch of stuff I don't need as well most of the time. I used to let it stack up in my stamp room until I took it to a show and sold it to a dealer. Now, I find that I am way better off listing it on E-bay. For example, I just bought a lot on E-bay that came on 26 blank Lindner-T pages for $33. I bought it for the pages, since I need some to add to my album. If I were to buy the pages new from someone selling supplies, they cost about $3.30 a sheet, plus shipping ($33 for a pack of 10). 26 pages would have cost me upwards of $80, I got them for $33. Now, what do I do with the stamps on the pages? They will end up right back on E-bay, and I will try and get my $33 back. Any money I get back for the stamps is a bonus, since I consider them freebies that came with the pages. Of course, the original seller probably considered the pages free, since he was selling the stamps.

adaplan describes the nightmare for true dealers; collectors like us who factor in the 'fun' value of what we buy. When we do this is drives prices down; we have no overhead costs and we simply considering it as offsetting the fun we are having!
Don

Exactly. And that is why dealers are going to find it impossible to compete with E-bay. Someone is going to see me listing stamps at a few bucks, and letting the market set the final price, and compare it to an offering by a dealer at some significant fraction of catalog, and which re they going to buy? Now, if the catalogs reflected the true fair market value of the items, it wouldn't make a difference. But, since the catalogs don't into account what item's really sell for on e-bay, the dealer will sit with his unsold stamps for a long time.

What? WHAT???!! Stinking "collectors" DARING to wade into waters reserved for true dealers?! How DARE they! Off with their heads! Don't these unwashed collectors understand their place? They need to leave the real bargains for the few, the proud, the DEALERS!

rev don't you know that collectors are evil - particularly at auctions? Why they're even worse than ebay dealers