Can Dealers Compete With Ebay?

Is there a way to search the stamps store for sold listings? I can always search active listings, of course, but before I send the APS a bunch of stamps to sell, I'd like to get an idea of what various items are actually selling at. Any stamps I send would probably be in the sub-$20 or sub-$10 range, which means there's probably at least several items up at any given time. I'd also be interested to see if some of the material sells at all, lest I just assume that having the lowest price will get me the sale.

battlestamps wrote: "Many ebay sellers charge the buyers for shipping, so that's not really a downside." That isn't what I was referring to as a downside. It's the actual physical labor involved in preparing the shipped orders; hauling them to the post office; etc. I have toyed off & on over the years with selling packets of stamps through Linn's (obviously before the advent of internet dealers). Never did it because of all the extra work involved.

I applaud those who make decent money off these sites. But it also seems to me that once "everybody" starts doing it, that profits can come down.

I read the comments and to me all I hear is money money money.

Not that I am aware of. I made that suggestion about a year ago but never heard back.

You cannot see it on the store page, but if instead of clicking "visit store", you click "see other items", there you can check the case: show only "Completed listings "

???

I cannot find what you are referring to.

P.S. We're talking about the APS Stamp Store website, not ebay.

Climber Steve: You can lower your labor if you have a good organized system and a decent local post office. I've never found shipping to be a big deal. Maybe the different is in that I deal with covers primarily rather than stamps. Covers are so much easier to organize, sort and ship than stamps. Also it doesn't matter how many people are doing it when it comes to postal history as you can always find items to sell that are unique regardless of value.

Revenue- there is a simpler way to search completed listings. If you want to find specific items from multiple dealers simply use "advanced" search, which is a tiny little link located at the far upper right just under your notification and ebay cart icons. See the screenshots below.

Once there, you can put in your search term and make sure to check "completed listings." You can also search for the keywords of interest from just one seller.

Since apparently more than one person missed it... WE WERE NOT TALKING ABOUT ebay.

REPEAT: NOT ebay.

The APS Stamp Store at http://www.stampstore.org

I say again... NOT [CENSORED] ebay!

revenuecollector.....maybe this will help.

So back to the original question -----CAN DEALERS COMPETE WITH ebay"------there are two postings that answer the question . First ADCAPLAN says "dealers need to change their business model , or go out of business" The second is The ArtfulHinger "Collectors who just wants to get money, ebay makes it easy for individual collectors and part time dealers " so with dealers it is a difficult situation .
What we have now is a "Race to the Bottom " collectors lowing their prices to unload material and dealers trying to fiqure out this new market place .Collectors are sitting back more and more looking to see who is offering the lowest prices and deciding if it is low enough ,than wait a week or so for a better price . This is creating a market of bottom feeders and turning the hobby into a sewer of 100 stamps for 99 cents .

I certainly don't see it this way. It might be worthwhile for you to read some of the topics on this forum to learn why this conclusion is so wrong.

Your right on the conclusion it is not 99 cents it is $1.99 for 100 stamp , I just checked ebay .

Like Jenny2U I don't see it that way either. ebay is everything from the causal to serious collector, the flea market seller, the smallest dealer to the largest dealer including ASDA members. Eric Jackson is even on ebay. A good chunk of ebay's sellers are the regular dealers that you see at you local and larger regional shows - ebay is just another tool/venue for them to sell not necessary to compete with. Some people just don't like a democratic marketplace it seems.

Just to add that buying 100 stamps for $1.99 is just as acceptable in our hobby as buying a large auction lot for thousands. Snobbery by grumpy collectors does more harm than bottom feeders.