Selling On The Internet , Has Changed

Several years ago I decided to build a 19th C US collection. I decided to only collect used stamps and avoid all the gum questions ie. OG, NG, regum, LH, and MNH. My goal was to build a collection in which EVERY stamp was eye catching, This evolved to having a theme for each issue. All my banknotes had NYFM cancels, I looked for star cancels on the Colombians, some issues were all geometric cancels and others were clear CDS etc. As to condition I could overlook a nibbled perf or a corner crease if I liked the stamp and I would always accept a straight edge stamp.


For about 3 years I prowled ebay looking for candidates and was able to built a collection that I really enjoyed. The point of this story is that for building a collection like this ebay was a great resource, I wasn't buying 100J stamps or MNH $ Colombians or expensive coils, but for the mid level? stamps I wanted ebay was a goldmine. I had no problem with any of my purchases, everything was received in good order and just what I expected. Now for the best part.

When I got to the point I didn't want to continue the collection because the stamps I needed were too expensive I decided to sell it. Over the next couple months I sold the stamps on ebay and in the end sold the collection for almost exactly what I paid to build it. You can't beat that!


I think every stamp collector should learn to sell on ebay, it's a valuable skill. When you buy a stamp you learn what it costs, when you sell a stamp you learn what it's worth.

As for the original question, on my statistics page ebay reports that sales in the Worldwide Collections category are down 10% year to year but my sales are up 70% in the same period. The principal reason my sales are up so much is that I was able to buy 4 very strong Big Blue collections in the last 6 months. Much to my surprise I recently bought an excellent collection from Noblespirit. My sales are excellent with strong bidding and I average 40% new customers each month.

Thanks, Ken. I'm concerned that the problems faced or found by some collectors who collect relatively expensive stamps are being used to construct a universal worst case around ebay. The fact is that most of us will regularly buy and sell on ebay without encountering problems, because most sellers aren't crooks and most buyers aren't difficult customers- and most of us are very glad that it's there.

Fixed :P

Experienced people will, of course, have an easier time picking through the listings on ebay. But experienced people are already involved in the hobby. The biggest number of forum readers here are NOT highly experienced (although many who actively post are experienced). Speaking for only myself, I tell the less experience folks that the first priority is to figure out the names of the good sellers and build a relationship with them. I do not encourage them to simply throw caution to the wind and deal with random sellers.

Another classification of 'buyers in danger' are the 40-50 year-olds who are getting back into stamps. Many of these folks know just enough to be dangerous and are shopping for some of the key stamps in a series. Again, I recommend that these folks do not randomly buy higher value stamps without knowing who they are dealing with. And lastly there are certain groups of highly altered/faked stamp and covers which a collector can certainly benefit from the guidance of a quality dealer.
Don

If one is going to purchase a high value stamp, why not insist on buying only those with certificates or contingent upon certification? The biggest problems I've seen with this hobby are established dealers selling overgraded stamps.

Overgrading may be common but that you can usually see from an image. Overall condition is important - thins, repairs, regums, altered, etc.

I look for a cert to offer an opinion on authenticity for what is being sold as. Dealers do not always know themselves or just reselling what they get as described to them (not excusing that either).