Selling Collection Through Noblespirit Consignment. Ship Tomorrow..

i have accepted that I have reached my limit for turning my grandfathers stamp collection into as much cash as I can on my own and its time to make use of a large seller with a comparative advantage in selling stamps. I can get back to doing my laundry and watch items list and sell and sit back and collect my share. assuming that all goes as advertised. I am pretty sure noblespirit is legit, but I am also embarassingly gullible. so I just want to make sure I dont ship everything I've got and find out it was all a hoax.. and someone up in new hampshire disappears with out a trace. has anyone had experience selling stamps on consignment? through noblespirit?? in general to all members and in particular scf pillars what are your impressions of this company?

thank you!!

They're legit. Big ebay seller for many years.

I had made a small purchase or two from them over the years without incident. Can't speak to their consignment services, other than I know they do it alot. Others will chime in with direct experiences.

If you search this board, you'll find the usual collection of folks complaining about them - mis-identified items; over-stated catalog values/condition issue etc. In my opinion, they're much better than most of the big ebay sellers, but not perfect & not as good as they should be. Tough on large lots/large volume.

My only suggestion would be to do your homework thoroughly - read all of the fine print / conditions / terms & most importantly, understand the numbers & what they will take for their services.

I would personally hold off and consider selling through a 'bricks and mortar' auction. Could you give us some idea of what you're selling please?

Based on what you've previously shown, I'd echo Bobby's suggestion, although Noble Spirit does at least take a lot of pictures, which traditional auctioneers don't. From your pictures, the value from your pictures seems to lie in some of the US and perhaps some of the postcards. How does Noble Spirit's commission rate compare with that of an auction house?

I'd be very curious about the commission rate too. You have to be careful and make sure the commission is charged on the gross sale price and not after a deduction for selling costs. My friend fell for a commission schedule that left him with 15% of the sales price.

Did you have input into how the material would be sold? I know you mentioned you didn't want to sell it as 1 lot. I disagree with the 1st 2 comments, I think you can get more through ebay if the material is presented correctly by the right seller. Please keep us informed regarding the results. Questions of how to dispose of an inheritance often arise and we could use some real world data.

Ken

Ken - I don't think that Bobby or I were recommending an auction house - simply consideration of one. An auctioneer's commission will be about 20%. My impression is that an ebay consignment organisation may charge 30-40%. The benefit is the wider exposure and the range of scans/photographs, which an auction house or an individual ebay seller can't offer. Either may also offer a cash price - hard to know which might be higher, if either. Lotting is a bit of a problem with either route, unless one has clearly defined or better material.

Excellent point. I haven't sold through ebay for a long time but still move surplus material through traditional auctions houses from time to time. I write up the descriptions myself and often see it quoted verbatim when the catalogue arrives.

I consider it vital to have 'skin the game' when it comes to selling.

I would ask two questions:

1. Would I buy from this seller?
2. Are the seller auctions competitive?

If the answer to the first question is no, is it because you don't trust them?

If the answer to the second question is yes, are prices realized often above what you would pay?

If the company sells on ebay or the web, checking old web sites like www.scads.org could be helpful. If a seller was mentioned in a bad light ten or fifteen years ago, has anything changed?

Also, does the seller offer uncertified stamps that that have no value without a certificate?