Can Dealers Compete With Ebay?

dan - check out delcampe.net as well. Especially if you have interest in Continental European stamps and their colonies, you can find some great items fairly cheap (even with shipping from Europe) because of the strength of the US$ currently against the Euro.

I think the stamp market has always operated on two or three tiers - just as now there have always been collectors with pockets deeper than the Marianas Trench - Count Ferrary, Colonel Green and of course George V and Franklin Roosevelt among many others (Herman Herst has some great stories about some of these characters in his "Nassau Street" book, a fun read!). There may have been a bit of a narrowing in the postwar era as the size of the Middle Class grew to be a majority of the population in most Western nations, but even then there were still tiers determined by disposable income available for the hobby, and with widening income gaps in the West in the past twenty years this tiering has simply been reinforced.

What is different today is that the stamps that were most likely to be purchased by the "middle tier" of collectors are now available in a much wider marketplace than existed before the rise of the internet, and therefore prices for the items that the "middle tier" traditionally has focused attention on have declined or remained stagnant, as the supply in the marketplace has grown faster than the demand for many of these items.

For new collectors, or collectors returning to the hobby after an extended absence like myself, this is probably one of the best times in the past several decades to start stamp collecting as a hobby. For those who formed their collections in the postwar years and are now looking at disposing their collections, it is not so good from a financial point of view unless one was fortunate enough to collect an area that was not popular back then but has gained popularity now (Malaya area for example, my father built his collection of the Malaya-Borneo area in the 1960s when prices were cheap as there was little demand. When he sold off his collection in the early 2000s demand for these stamps was much greater, and he made a nice profit as a result. But that was more a matter of luck in choosing his collecting focus rather than any planned strategy. He collected Malaya-Borneo because the stamps appealed to him in terms of design and history, rather than for any sense they might be a good investment for the future. Very few in the 1960s and early 1970s would have predicted the economic success of Singapore or Malaysia that has happened in the last thirty years.)

So in the end I think it really depends on what stage of the collecting cycle you are in that will determine whether you think the arrival of the internet era has been a good or bad thing for the hobby as a whole. The one thing I am sure of is that there is no turning back to the old days, the technological revolution in communications since the early 1990s has changed the playing field for collectors forever.

nick777, sounds like you and I are both happy actively collecting right now because we are taking advantage of the added benefits of the Internet Online Stamp Market.

However, your point regarding timing is right on the money (no pun intended).

A close friend laments not having sold his MLH set of US Zeps. These always popular airmails evidently have dropped a significant % over the past 20 or so years. So while I am happy cashing in on well-priced online items, I assume many long-term collectors have seen the value of their oldest holdings drop from previous highs set when demand outstripped supply.

Like the stock market motto, "buy low; sell high" can make the fortunate person profitable. Maybe I'll be one of the luck ones whose collection holds its value when I sell my US collection. My want list for US Classics is fast getting beyond my budget range, so in the next year or two I'll likely start up another geographic collection; perhaps British Commonwealth.

DJCMHOH, I have spent very little time on Delcampe or bidstart but will likely increase that now that I've retired and have more time. I expect in the next year I'll very likely reduce my focus on US Classics and switch emphasis on British Commonwealth or other area. More and more I'm now missing relatively scarcer more expensive US stamps, so there will come a time when I'll trade quality for quantity so to speak.

I will likely start up my next regional or geographic collection via some live auction purchases of old albums and larger lots -- which is a great way to jump start a collection's foundation. I'll ceratinly take your advice to check out delcampe soon. Thanks!

Dan

I suspect that dealers (not all of them, of course, but many) buy a lot on ebay. Collections would be an obvious target, but also they might be able to pick up some choice individual items that they know they can flip to a client right away. Just as they shouldn't overlook ebay as a venue for selling, they shouldn't overlook it as a source of inventory, either.

You guys sound like your in the real estate business trying to flip houses.

I disagree.....

Collections on ebay are not FOR dealers...
they are made BY dealers.

I remove the name of the Stamp Auction firm ,but the message that they put in their catalog is timely and important that I feel wouldn't be the same if I said it in my words .

I would like to add that ebay has been around for 15 years and maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of all people who would sell their own collection or their duplicates on-line have already done so ,what we are seeing now is the new generation of dealers who buy to sell on ebay ,that is what the posting above this is claiming .

20 years actually. Also I disagree with the assertion that "50-75% of all people who would sell their own collection or their duplicates have already done so". While I certainly do a lot of repeat buying from certain sellers, the majority of purchases are from sellers who I've never purchased from before, and likely never will again: non-dealer sellers.

floortrader.....you are correct.
I frequent the auction house you are refering to.
K&K K can attest to my purchases.

Besides Birmingham, who else in the midwest liquidated their stock?

Floortrader, thanks for sharing that great dealer message.
Their experience sums up the transition of the stamp market in the digital age.

While each collector has relied on different dealers, auctions, shows, mailing lists, stamp clubs, approvals services, etc., our entire hobby has morphed from brick & mortar + postal mail to mostly online. No great surprise here. EVERYTHING in commerce and marketing has been changed by the digital age.

However, I agree that it is primarily dealers who are selling online.

After Collectors who buy online, it appears ebay consists of several types of stamp sellers:

1) Major volume dealers who sell hundreds or thousands of albums, lots and singles per year -- I've purchased great material from CKstamps and NY Stamps; both offer a ton of material on ebay and their online stores.

2) Sometime dealers who sell a few items from time to time as they break up estate purchases.

3) Collectors like me who offer duplicates from time to time.

4) Stamp collection novices; inheritors or estate liquidators who know little to nothing about stamps but hope to sell a one-shot deal.

shermae if the auction house is the one I think it is, then it was the stock of long-time Columbus Brick & Mortar shop Link Stamp Company, the owner of which, Jim Linker, passed away earlier this year and the auction of his stock happened about, what, three months ago. Linker had just celebrated his business' 50th anniversary at the start of 2015, and his inventory was HUGE and about as varied as anything you could ever imagine.

Ah, thank you so much!