Unofficial Survey Of "Good" Online Sellers. Who Do You Say Makes The Cut?

There has been a lot of debate and discussion about bad, negligent, ignorant, or manipulative sellers. There has also been disagreement about what we consider a seller's "responsibility" to the accuracy of the stamps they sell.

In light of that, I'm curious to hear from you all what dealers/sellers--online, at shows, on ebay, etc--that you consider good, trustworthy, and worth buying from without losing sleep. Who would you recommend to someone entering the hobby who wanted quality stamps? I understand this is anecdotal, but even sellers I had considered "good" have come under the gun here.

Rupp Brothers

Clark Frazier (cfrphoto on ebay)

Rupp Brothers are the best but not on ebay

I've sold to Rupp :) They wanted to submit the item for a PF cert and since I know what I sell, I gladly allowed the extension. I never heard back from them and assumed the item got a good cert. Have never looked for the cert until today. It is cert #518344. It was one of those times that I actually enjoyed selling on ebay.

Always a pleasure dealing with Rupp whether buying of selling. They are not for the bargain hunting NYStamp crowd however.

I bought many items from Christopher Rupp.
They were all very nice, and no problems. Bring money

Add to this list of on-line dealers:

James Lee

Patricia Kaufmann

Eric Jackson (he's also on ebay)

From ebay, I've never had a problem with:

Southwest Stamps (gsquared7)

Dan Ryan (dryan)

Gary Haynes (ghaynesalaska)

Steve Levine (slwarking)

Ken Srail (srailkb)

Tom Aquila (tdaquila5thw)

and, of course, myself...if I can ever find the time to list some of this stuff

There are a lot of decent people selling stamps on-line, in the few remaining shops and at shows. You're right; we've spent far too much time denigrating those dealers who rightfully deserve it, and perhaps a couple who might not have. I'm glad to see this thread pop up.

Reading this thread made me look at some of my purchase history.

I have had fifty-two purchase transactions with Winston Sinclair and have never had an issue. I highly recommend him as a seller. I am looking forward to his next offerings!

I am certain that what I did buy was as described.

Not much to add except a very strong endorsement for the first two mentioned ... Rupp Brothers & Clark Frazier.

When I "came back" to stamp collecting in the mid-80's, most of my new purchases were with Rupp Brothers. After several years they seemed to disappear, then came back, but not with material that was as strong as before. He seems to be getting more and more material and back to the previous level as before. My real go to guy is Century Stamps (Ed Reiser) who trades on ebay as emr47. I would highly recommend both.

rlm, Thank you. I am going to start listing some stuff very soon.

stampman, just let me know when you are ready to sell that #26 position 1R12 :)

Christopher Rupp is a terrific dealer. And yes his items are pricey and mostly certified. But he will work with you to find something in your price range.

Echo everything that has been said here. I also have had a lot of experience buying from Chris Rupp, but back in the late 1980's an 1990's when he sent a retail price list and before the Internet took off and before the grading craze. At that time he was working with Allen Cohen who also has an online presence but I am not sure about ebay. I am not sure why the two of them split apart. I always enjoyed working with them and can highly recommend both not only for the material they offer but their way of conducting business and professional demeanor. Allan, maybe a little more than chris, has bought into the grading phenomenon. This is just a statement not a criticism. If you look at his retail lists for unused 19th century US you will find the occasional unused stunner in the very earlies ( a #33 comes to mind) but the offerings get more numerous with an after the pictorials. Neither Allen nor Chris generally offer a classic without a cert when it is clear that a cert is expected or required.

Another dealer, again on line I think but not on ebay that I would like to mention is Allen Katz of Ventura. His material and manner of dealing with customers has also been exemplary in my experience.

The 'trouble' with sellers like Winston and other good dealers is that they know quality and they know their material. The 'trouble' with some buyers is they want to treasure hunt. In general, the chances of finding an unidentified treasure from a high quality seller much lower than a clueless seller. So one person might classify a good seller as one from whom they have had some great finds while another person classifies a good seller as having high quality material and very experienced.

I think this differentiation also marks the delineation between 'fun' collecting and 'investment grade' collecting. A seller who makes the cut for a 'fun' collector might not make the cut for a 'investment grade' collector.
Don

Stumbled onto this old thread. . .I have several dealers I have had great interactions with:

Ed Reiser / Century Stamps - one of my favorites - tons of quality inventory refreshed quarterly, sells online and through his "phone book" quarterly catalog. I buy over the Internet or phone with him.

Larry Volovski - top quality material, super friendly, brings his big friendly dog to shows.

Stuart Katz - online only for me

Craig Selig - online only for me

David Alex - 1st stamp-show dealer I met - he has no Internet sales (nor even an email address)

Warren Manning - bourse dealer

Jim Bardo - online and at shows - great with modern stamps (varieties and errors) too

Gary Posner & Bobby Prager (mostly dealt with Bobby Prager) - online and at shows, good buyers if you have good stuff too.

Steve Malack - online only for me

Dave Cobb / Newport Harbor Stamps - bought from him at stamp shows

George Enstrom - no internet - but always has a couple of boxes of great stuff at the Chicago-area shows.

Stanley Pillar - interesting stuff, but a thin inventory (at least at shows), also a philatelic legend.

Erik Jackson - online and at shows

Irving Miller - online only for me

Bob Tracy - West coast dealer - have not seen him in a while, don't know if he is online.

Jack Nalbandian - online only for me

Guy Gasser - bourse dealer - not sure if he sells online.

James Lee - local to me, very knowledgeable and helpful - especially on proofs & essays

Denny Peoples - see him at shows, only sells covers, very helpful

Charles DiComo - I think he's more of a collector, but he sells lots of 1851 stamp/cover varieties on ebay

Frank Bachenheimer - US possessions - only dealer I ever did "approvals" with. I send him a monthly budget and he sent me stamps on my want list for maybe 9 months.

John Kimbrough - confederate stamps, only bought online from him - he also was helpful in identifying confederate stamps I bought elsewhere.

I've had multiple positive interactions with all of these dealers, and no issues that were not quickly and professionally resolved.

I'm surprised that I've never bought a thing from Christopher Rupp.