Hip Stamp?

Sometimes the original seller manages to buy back what they had sold for a higher price for much much less after the new buyer/seller fails to achieve the same level of success in the business as the original seller did.

How do you leave a review for the buyer at this place?


-IBFS

Before people jump on Mark's new bandwagon, they should be aware that the whhels are a bit woobbly as Mark and the folks at Stanley Gibbons do not see eye to eye on whether Mark had the legal right to start a competing site.

As eyeonwall correctly predicted, HipStamp currently has this notice on opening page



Being on the opening page, you think he would have run his notice through a spell checker (inconvenience?).

It is unclear to me how he could have copied the BidStart listings without approval from the sellers (even if he had the legal right to get them from BiDStart it would also require something in the original BidStart T&Cs that said sellers allowed transfer of this info).

And then given that he must have used BidStart mailing list, he will have to prove that he had rights to it. And lastly, if he had an employment contract he might have legal issues with non-compete clauses.

Obviously, one of these has become an issue. A week? Seems highly unlikely, if BidStart is seeking to mess with him than they will drag this out for months or years.
Don
APS #094826

Don,

As far as I am concerned, listing descriptions and images on ebay, BidStart, the SG site or hipStamp are my intellectual property. I take care to maintain all listings and images in a database under my exclusive control. Use of Scott catalog numbers complies with fair use. (If hipstamp survives the SG/BidStart challenge, a problem could arise regarding use of Scott catalog numbers for searching. I had an unsatisfactory discussion of this topic with Scott Publishing some years ago. Until the next shakeup, I don't expect much to happen except the see them continue to help hold the hobby back. If hipstamp (or ebay) licensed the use of Scott catalog numbers for searching, finding stamps could be more effective and efficient. It may be that because the on-line Scott Catalogs lack any useful or effective search. Many times, going to the bookshelf and opening the catalog is faster. If Scott ever figures out that searchable catalogs and licensing search could be profitable, they would probably rather deal with hipstamp than Stanley Gibbons.

Now, back to the main point. Although I would rely on ebay Sync, I would never consider porting listings from BidStart to somewhere else, because they are already corrupted enough. In any case, additional information may come to light while the New York show is in session. I am waiting for the next SG software upgrade, if it exists other than as vaporware.

Clark

:As far as I am concerned, listing descriptions and images on ebay, BidStart, the SG site or hipStamp are my intellectual property."

I agree. Sellers were asked if they wanted to join Hipstamp and most of us were so sick of the SG debacle plus being told that Bidstart was to close that we accepted. The programme to copy our listings in exactly the same way we could copy listings from ebay to Bidstart was made available to us so all it took was a single click. The only difference was that they gained new inventory numbers and feedback could not be copied.

SG brought this on themselves, in my opinion, by creating such a poor SG site then telling sellers that they had to migrate to the new site or lose their listings when Bidstart closed. The saga continues but none of this is helping the hobby and the sooner SG gets rid of its hapless board and go back to what they do well, selling high end stamps and producing catalogues, the better.

I doesn't matter how the two of you feel or how poor the SG site was, the only thing that matters is whether he was in his legal rights to do the things that he did. SG doesn't think so and is pursing the matter.

Since SG was brought up, I ordered some albums on April 30 and have heard nothing as far as shipping.

I tried to use the contact seller from the order and it does nothing.

I have sent them 2 separate emails, one directly to a staff member and another through general contact and no reply to either.

And saying they are upgrading stuff to make things better gives me no comfort considering the fiasco over the last 2 years.

I hope someone takes over their listings that knows what they are doing so SG keeps their hands off what they know nothing about.

They are doing nothing for stamp collectors or themselves and hopefully will not implode and take the catalogs with the destruction.

Even though Mark should have thought this through before doing what he did to make sure it was legal, as he seems to know a lot more than SG. All that he has done with Hipstamp is muddying the waters even more and sellers and buyers will have no idea where they should be buying or selling out of the 3.

Does this mean that the stamp I bought from HipStamp is illegal? Are they going to take me away in chains? Do I have to give it back? Do I get my two bucks back?

Or worse! Is it cursed? Haunted? Will I forever be in the grips of evil?



-IBFS

Yes, all of the above.

I respectfully disagree. One of the answers will be "no".



No.

The answers to the other questions in IBFS's post are "yes", as Timm noted.

I've been needing a good lawyer to get me out of this mess. All I have now is this stamp appraiser. Any advice?



-IBFS

Just keep quit about it!

Peter

If it goes to trial, the sales records would likely be a part of the discovery, evidence, and any remediation.
Don

Yes, but no need to keep advertising it. If anything is going to happen and they need info they should contact us?

Peter