Is All This Ebay Sellers Stuff That Rare?

I don't see anything particularly wrong with this sellers material. It's not my area but the material looks good quality and completed prices are not out of this world. The seller seems to have some following and perhaps his customers are finding unique cancels or frankings on the slightly more expensive items.

Generally I dislike over-hyping of items, but I don't know that some of these covers are not "rare". At least this seller descriptions are not as bad as some and all the items appear to be selling.

The return address is in Marseilles France, and postmark of Marseilles and Paris why the Great Britain Stamps

if I read well the 28 it was in Paris ( 2 different postmark ) , the 29 in Marseilles

so if that thing is real it was may be send from UK, to the return address by mistake and then may be redirect to Naples but nothing to show it.


http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1861-GREAT-B...-&rmvSB=true


The 3 postmarks are align

Nope.
Sent from London and cancelled with London "45" obliterator. Sender's handstamp is at left.

Notation at the top says "P[er] Steamer via Marseilles." These were routing instructions. Different routes and carriers would have had different postage rates and different expectations for the length of time required. The sender specified that it should go via French Mail through Marseilles (by train from Calais to Paris to Marseilles).

The black vertical "1" through the sender's handstamp designates that the French checked and determined that this was a single-rate letter (under 7.5 grams - the French used ~1/4 oz. weight increments where most of the rest of the world used 1/2 oz. increments).

French "AMB[ulant] CALAIS" transit postmark applied on the mail train, along with red "PD" means that the French checked and determined that it was sufficiently Paid to the Destination - no postage collect from recipient ("PP" would have meant that it was paid to the border of the other country and the local postage would have been collect from addressee).

I would expect to see some combination of London, Paris, Marseilles, and Napoli datestamps on the back, though Paris and Marseilles may not be needed, as the French recorded the cover in Calais. (edited to add: Just looked at the lot on ebay - all 4 markings are on the back, verifying routing)

Nice, standard French Mail cover from London to Naples with proper markings for this transit.

Regardless of what you might think about the descriptive abilities of this vendor, the low starting price allows the market, rather than the vendor, determine the value.

There are many people that shill. Would be nice if ebay would do something about the people who have nefarious activities on their auctions...can't be too hard to trace. I would say we should a list of sellers that are dishonest, but that would be too long to be productive. Maybe a list of honest sellers trusted by the mentors on this forum would be a good way to go. I use the Members on ebay link, but would not take their word for it on a "Rare" item because just anyone can join this forum. I imagine that they wouldn't stay members too long if caught by someone with power on the forum, but yet a fleecing is quick.

"Many"?

I think that's overstating the problem considerably. Also, the implication that the majority of sellers are dishonest is not only inaccurate, but offensive.

As with anything else on the Interwebz, people don't speak out when they are content or satisfued. It's only when something goes wrong are people motivated to post, thus giving the implication that a problem is much more severe than it actually is.

People are buying and selling stamps by the thousands daily on ebay, the vast majority on both sides happy with the results.

Thanks chipg, one if not the best reply I have seen up to now on this forum.

Now that I know that "P[er] Steamer via Marseilles." is not a return address it make all senses. ( I should have use questions mark as I was intrigued and I'm mostly a Mint Engraved stamps collector so I don't see post mark often )

And the worst in my mistake was that first I tough it was Calais not Paris, the same date on Calais and Paris confuse me and I tough I misread

UK- port of Calais- Paris- port of Marseilles - Napoli

May be I should try to buy this cover, what can be the value of this cover? I just ask because I know already what I would like to pay for it and I will not be foul be all the wordings of the seller. But it's just a may be, I don't really want to spread collecting in all directions or else after it will be revenues, Back Notes and everything engraved.

Hi area66 a good price for a cover like this is $20-40. There are many others like it going from London to various other countries from various sellers on ebay with various qv franking. On cover the qv stamps look great.

revenuecollector, I apologize if I offended you, but yes there are many. The majority of sellers are fine, but even a handful of bad sellers is too "many". I did not ever say anything about the majority of sellers being dishonest....but I have made more than a few purchases that were bad; not necessarily stamps, but a bad seller is a bad seller. Many shillers will open an account, sell for a bit and move onto a new account.

Thanks for the info Duncan, it's very reasonable price




Yes but this one make me discover something; Routing instructions

No doubt that ebay makes me nervous. I have a specific set of guidelines that I use when considering a purchase. Just as important as the stamp I'm looking at is the seller. In fact, I check the seller before I even bother looking more deeply at the stamp.

If a seller has less that 99.0% positive feedback, a red flag goes up. I look at every negative and neutral feedback and go from there.
I always check to see if the seller has a store and that makes me feel better about the situation as well.

Money back guarantees are always a plus. It seems to be working so far. I have made some purchase (several expensive for me) and have been happy so far.

hope this helps.
wp62

Almost impossible unless the seller is REALLY stupid.

Totally agree with KRelyea- private listings are a huge red flag on ebay. What is the purpose of a private listing anyway? To protect the identities of bidders? We can't see the bidders names/handles anyway!! So the only info being protected is whether there are shill bidders or not. No thanks.