Treasure Hunting On Ebay?

The other thing that ebay treasure hunting demands is a substantial amount of time. Yes, I've found some good cards on ebay (I don't look for stamps there), usually because of an inadequate or misspelt title. But do I want to spend hours of my day ploughing through masses of junk? Not really - I have books to read, cigarettes to smoke, wine to dribble ...

Like others, I have found some good stuff in large auction lots. Yes, they're usually well picked over, but now and again I find the goodie in the midst of the junk. Plus you get the general fun of the sort, which is lacking on single ebay items.

Should have known that "treasure hunting" has a very negative connotation. It's a dirty word in academic circles as well.

Ignore all the negative nellies.

If you have the experience and expertise, the time, and you enjoy "treasure hunting" (or "dumpster diving" as I call it), then go for it.

I too enjoy the thrill of the chase; the pursuit and finding being in many cases more satisfying than the owning.

I probably spend 1-2 hours per day on ebay. Have I bought clunkers? You betcha. If you go to the plate enough times, you're going to strike out on occasion. That said, I have acquired some amazing pieces for my collection by scrounging through all the dreck on ebay.

If you enjoy it, don't let anyone try to dissuade you from it.

I buy underpriced items on ebay every day, usually a few a day. Lots of that has to do with image quality and proper description, so I can earn a return on material by properly writing it up. But runaway "jackpot" purchases are uncommon.

My best was a roughly 80-piece cover lot that I paid about a dollar a cover for. I consigned two of the covers to Rumsey and they sold for over $20,000.

The OP said he was new, the last two posters have decades and decades of experience.
Don

Don is right that I should have noted my experience (which is that I am a 25 year APS member, a 21-year ebay user, a very experienced postal historian, and a part-time dealer). Anybody with the knowledge can find interesting and undervalued things (be it ebay or at a stamp show or a stamp auction), but the knowledge is a key qualifying factor. It's not "easy".

appletonco




This, and your remark about arbitrage, tell me you have an education in economics. So you will undoubtedly be familiar with the concept of transaction costs. Yes, you can find undervalued philatelic material on ebay. But it is not common, and as Don has pointed out, those that are successful at it have decades of knowledge and experience. You've got to factor in the cost of acquiring that kind of knowledge and experience into the economic return you get when you do score a "treasure." When that's said and done, the market will come out looking a lot more efficient than you think. After all, arbitrage traders are what make markets efficient. But their skill and expertise is not costless.

Some of the advice you are getting comes from years of experience confronting people who, when they get grandpa's collection, think there's gotta be a windfall in it somewhere. Most of the time there isn't, and several times a year we find ourselves dealing with newbs who think we're trying to scam them telling them this.

As long as you know what you are up against, if you want to "treasure hunt," go for it. But we generally discourage that, and try to encourage people to collect philatelic material for other reasons.

Basil

I agree with revenuecollector and others, there are definitely treasures to be found on ebay -- and you'll always learn something along the way. I know I have.
Go for it.

Good Luck and have fun.
Hal

I love treasure hunting on ebay!

I look through bulk stamp sales, sure, I have been burnt but I have had some wins too.

For example, this I got in a bulk lot I paid AU$2.00 and AU$1.00 postage!

First you need to acquire the knowledge. Then you need to put in the time looking at many lots. And you have to realize you are hardly the only person looking at the lots.

Indeed. I've made five very nice scores on ebay in recent months just like that. I knew what to look for and where to look, but I still had to sift through thousands of listings. It's like panning for gold — but the "gold" that I'm usually looking for, even though it's a treasure to me, isn't necessarily something that would have a high catalog or resale value.

For what it's worth, as a beginner, I think the focus should be on having fun and learning everything you can. Making finds will come, eventually. When I was first starting out collecting, EVERY stamp I could get my hands on I considered a treasure.

To look for bargains due to spelling errors, try the FatFingers website http://fatfingers.com/Default.aspx

My brother collects American Indian pottery and baskets. Amazing how many ways to spell Sioux.

@ddaann javascript:insertsmilie('')
@Spain. I totally agree, and you don't have to be a raw beginner to recapture the fun of being a beginner. I just started on British Colonies after many decades on U.S. only - and am having a ball!javascript:insertsmilie('')

Yes I have looked at huge amounts of stamps and found with perfs that if you measure them with a stamp that you know what its perf count is the stamp will tell you exactly very, very quickly what perf it is.

So many ways to get those huge jobs under control. I could go on with easy ways to make hard jobs with stamp easy. I had to learn the hard way but love every minute of it.