Stanley Gibbons E-Commerce Review - Bidstart Going Away?

Announced today, July 15, 2016, by Stanley Gibbons, Tax Restructuring and Board Update

"...the Company is undertaking a full review of its E-Commerce strategy which will refocus resources upon selling its own proprietary assets of high class collectibles and world renowned publications. The Board continues to believe there is an opportunity to grow online revenues and, at the same time materially reducing the monthly cash outflow;"

Will BidStart and the SG Marketplace be thrown under the bus?

SG has been swimming in debt, I assume the restructuring is an attempt to appease the shareholders that 'something is being done'. http://www.fool.co.uk/investing/201...s-group-plc/

Note "At the same time, cost savings from acquisitions have been smaller than expected. The group has also continued to plough money into developing its own eBay-like online marketplace."
Don

Interesting choice:

- develop your own branded marketplace to sell only your own stuff (of which there is, after all, a lot);

- develop your own branded marketplace open to all sellers, so as to build traffic, and then compete;

- throw money at a continuously re-targeted target.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I received not 1 but 2 invoices today seeking the same payment... sounds like they have a cash flow problem or the software is messed up or both.

Bob

The countdown has started. Some posts on Facebook suggest that BidStart and the SG site have about eight more weeks to live. Confirmation will come if the US based development team in Raleigh is laid off.

The Hipstamp suspension message is gone as of today.

Received this email today from Mark Rosenberg: and... We're Back!

Hi,

I'm happy to report that HipStamp.com is now back open for business! Buyers can once again purchase items through HipStamp.com, and we'll begin re-starting marketing efforts shortly.

I can also now confirm, per a joint Press Release issued by Stanley Gibbons and myself earlier today, that I will be purchasing bidStart - with the deal scheduled to close on or before August 1.

As you know, I started HipStamp to pick-up where we all left off together with bidStart, and since then, I've been working with Sellers like you, to not only build the best online marketplace for stamps - but the future of stamp collecting online. This mission will continue with HipStamp, and I'm looking forward to working on our future together. With that in mind, for the time being, bidStart will continue to operate independently (mostly as-is).

With regards to our automatic bidStart sync on HipStamp, we'll be restarting this feature shortly. If you were using this feature, and you've since made changes to your listings directly on HipStamp, and no longer want your listings to be synced from bidStart, please turn off this feature from the Members Area > Selling > Seller Tools > bidStart Sync page on HipStamp.

I'm sure there will be many questions, and I'm looking forward to providing more detailed and exciting updates soon! In the interim, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me directly; and thank you again for all of your support - it's been incredibly helpful to myself and my family these past few months.

Best Regards,
Mark Rosenberg
CEO & Founder - Hip eCommerce / HipStamp

The press release:

https://www.hipstamp.com/blog/press...ley-gibbons/

Is Bidstart going to become Hipstamp or visa-versa?

I like Bidstart the way it is but it needs some of the technical issues fixed.

Timm, I have used Hipstart a couple of times and it is very similar.

Peter

It is now official from Stanley Gibbons:

Dear Seller,

It has been some time since we last updated you, please accept our apologies if you have felt left in the dark.

As you may be aware, over the past 18 months Stanley Gibbons has been through very challenging times. As a result we have reviewed our strategy and concluded that we will no longer provide a marketplace for collectibles. Therefore, with deep regret, we are announcing the closure of the Stanley Gibbons Marketplace.

This is not a decision that has been taken lightly and we appreciate the effort many of you have put in to growing your stores.

So what's next? The Stanley Gibbons website will remain open but the Stanley Gibbons Marketplace will be closed for sales at 12pm EST/4pm GMT on the 5th of August 2016. The site will remain open for the following 4 weeks until the 1st September 2016 to enable you to close out any outstanding transactions. During this 4 week period orders cannot be placed.

If you're a bidStart seller and your store is synced with the Marketplace, please note that the sync has now been disabled. Your inventory will remain on both bidStart and the Marketplace, but you will need to manually adjust your items on both sites, in line with sales and stock adjustments.

Please find attached a document detailing the full process for store close down:

Marketplace store close down PDF

Should you require additional support please contact:

Email: support@stanleygibbons.com
Tel intl: +44 1425 472 363
Tel: 01425 472363

Our offices are open from 9.00 - 16.30 GMT time. Alternatively, please request a call back via email.
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Here is the link to the PDF closure information.

http://blog.stanleygibbons.com/wp-c...urstore2.pdf

If any one has stuff on the market place, it may be a good time to start removing what you need now and remember, the sync with bidstart will be gone asap