Determining A "Fair" Price For Ebay Items

Hi, I hope I am allowed to post a link to an ebay auction since I do not have 50 posts yet. I suspect this will get deleted if I am violating a forum rule.

Last night I put up my first "serious" stamp auction - by serious I mean I have some other stamps up as well but I posted them last summer and I barely knew anything at all, did sell about 10 dollars worth of stamps, these remaining auctions are not getting any action, I just keep reposting - soon I will let them drop off.

So I listed some stamps from Ceylon, one from Sri Lanka ranging in issue date from 1938 - 1972. I am having difficulty coming up with what would be a fair price to both me, the seller, and to potential buyers - I am afraid I may have over priced these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1324020694....m1555.l2649

Please let me know if you think this price is way off - I value my reputation as a good seller and a fair one. I would like to keep my 100% feedback rating, if I charge too much that is in jeopardy.

The Scott catalog I am using is from 2009, I am not sure of the value on the stamps because the catalog is not up to date. Prices can change in 8 years.

Please look at the auction and let me know if I should lower the price, I am offering free shipping, it usually cost me $2.61 to mail a piece of jewelry, not sure what mailing stamps will be, most likely less. When I have mailed stamps in the past, I put them flat in a plastic bag, and tape cardboard on both sides (not the top) and pop it into an envelope. Any feed back on normal pricing for mailing stamps would also be appreciated - I imagine it may be around a dollar?

Thanks so much for your help and feedback. Julie


<<Your post count is ok, Julie. I edited your title. KirkS>>

Your pricing is too high. Priced over catalogue value.

Thanks to both of you for your opinions - that is what I asked for. I can easily revise the price once I figure out what it should be. RedwoodRandy said:



Frankly, I always study what I am selling. I set the stamps at this price because you can always find 1 cent or 99 cent auctions in just about every category out there - I did see some that were much higher than mine in both the active listings and the completed listings, for instance:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ceylon-Pos...AOSwQcJZ85Lc

Note that the completed auction had a buyer.

Not only do I look at active listings I always look at the completed ones too to set a price.

I am trying to figure out a method for pricing - I cannot literally look up every stamp on ebay in the catalog - are you suggesting I use 2009 prices from the Scott catalog I am using from 8 years ago? I did point out that I am using a catalog from 2009 in my first post. It sounds sort of like that is what you are suggesting here:




My fault I know, that I don't have an up to date catalog, ideally that is what one would use.

It appears that you are suggesting that I should have these priced at 99 cents?

I am going to lower the price, but have to figure out to what.

Thanks so much for your feedback. I suppose I am one of those ebay sellers that you like to grouse about, pricing my stamps too high! For shame! I don't want to be that seller, really.

Thanks so much, Julie

Just lowered the price to half of what it was, I will revise downward it this is still too much. Thank you for your feedback, other than trial and error, which will take some time, I have to figure out how these should be priced.

Since I have a 2009 Scott catalog, can anyone out there tell me if the prices on the stamps have gone up since and by what percentage, even a guess is good - at least it will be some sort of guide for me.

Thanks, Julie

I would not do business with a seller who did not offer returns

I used to always offer returns, and I have returned items to any buyer who has had a problem and needed a return. I ran into a problem about 5 years ago with offering returns on jewelry - I sold an item for someone else, a gold bracelet for over a thousand dollars, don't remember the exact amount. The woman who purchased the bracelet was "window shopping", she only wanted to look at the gold charms on the bracelet - I dispensed the money to the bracelet's owner for the sale. 2 weeks later she asks for a return which I gave her, but I badly upset the person I was selling for when I asked for the money back because of the return. From that day forward I have not offered returns.

Believe it or not, I make sales despite the no returns, I was worried about it at first, but it has not affected the sales too badly as far as I can tell.

Sorry that you would not buy stamps from me, but that is how it is and is going to stay. Maybe I should just stay out of the stamp market - I am trying to do this the right way but am getting the feeling you all don't like my auction. I am on a fixed income and must sell to keep my head above water - that is the way it is for me. In the meantime I do appreciate your honest feedback - even if I don't like hearing it.

I'm sorry, but, if it were me, I simply shouldn't bother listing these on ebay. They're worth a penny or two each - fine in a large lot, but not worth trying to sell in small quantities. The catalogue value is pretty much meaningless for common stamps - there has to be a price, and each catalogue publisher will set a minimum, but, in practical terms, no-one will pay it.

Redwood Randy, have you ever sold a stamp for 1 cent and shipped it for free? lol

As others have already said always use ebay's other sellers to give you an idea on price.

But AU$27.15 mailing to Australia is bit out there.

Just had a look at your feedback and your jewelry looks to be selling very well for you.

All The Very Best.

Redwoodrandy said:



Thank you KGV Collector for looking and ascertaining that I am in fact, a seller on ebay. And thank you for your kind comment.

Redwoodrandy, I am well aware of ebay and Paypal guarantee's and return policies. Don't understand your tone and hostility. I won't post this kind of thing here anymore and will keep my auctions to myself from this point onward.

I'd like to raise this thread back out of the mud with a question along the same lines.

I rarely sell stamps unless they're extras, but occasionally I do offer things on ebay. I'm currently selling a block of 4 U.S. C76b, First Man on the Moon issue with tagging omitted error, on ebay. Scott CV is $550 per stamp giving the block a CV of $2200. I'm asking $1000 with a "buy it now" of $1500. Is this a realistic price? Would it be better to split them up into singles at say $250 each?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom y'all can provide.

I would definitively say not to split them up.....PLEASE

Walkman82,
https://www.hipstamp.com/listing/us...ged/15063811

Don

Well Redwoodrandy, you are right, it will make it more difficult for me to learn by having to keep my ebay auction activity out of forum posts. You see, I am disabled, and spend one heck of a long time sitting in front of the computer - I do move around, live on a large ranch here and take lots of walks. I have been spending a lot of time on the stamps and in the forum, I have been excited about finding something to do (stamps) while I sit here besides looking at a computer screen.

I apologize for posting while I was still emotional, I should have waited longer until I wasn't as emotional as I was, for that I do apologize.

I do understand that you were just trying to help me out, and I do appreciate it. I will consider posting information about my auctions in the future if the occasion arises to do so, I will not be going out of my way to discuss them however. I did realize that I brought everything down on myself for posting in the first place, my reaction to that realization was that if I say nothing then I am not open for the type of feedback I got here earlier today.

OK, thank you for your post Randy, I appreciate it very much, Julie