Stamp Collecting According To Ebay

Thanks again for sharing your comments.

I spoke my piece in another thread regarding the issues that confront novice (and other) collectors as buyers. If the focus was just on taxes, fees etc. that is not good. I would expect the APS to grow a set and address things such as negative feedback removal, fakes, a useless "report it" button, the cartel etc.. I am sure that they did. They must have. Right?

Rodg If they are then it is in private, none of these issues were raised (I wanted to raise the issue of use of unwatermarked images for fraud but didnt get opportunity as the conversation got moved in other directions.)

Thanks DJ. I thought even if the APS did not bring these issues up a good seller or two might since the bad apples are almost as bad for them. Hopefully the APS will not be beholden to ebay in any collaboration since I assume it could be a boon to them as far as exposure for recruitment purposes goes. The marketplace needs a big time cleanup. If there was serious effort put into cleaning the place up I, and at the moment I loath ebay, would probably become an ebay fan and supporter.

Unknown to many posters here, ebay and the APS have a long history going back almost fifteen years. Much of it related directly to shutting down questionable ebay listings. I don't see any point in attempting to go down that road again. Those involved must know how things turned out. It is too bad that progress could not be better documented. For a while ebay took responsibility for the Enhanced Membership Reporting (EMR) program, but then their focus reportedly turned elsewhere. The program may still exist, but outside experts active in the program would be unlikely to acknowledge if it still exists or not.

It is too bad that no one at the meeting brought up issues related to Item Condition, the Condition Description or Item Specifics. When ebay changed Item Condition from strings to ID values, they stopped supporting Condition Names "Unused" and "Used" (as negotiated with the APS) in the Stamps category and sellers lost the ability to include this information at the top of the listing. While the Condition Description will display, most sellers don't know how or don't bother.

Item condition could be fixed by assigning the Condition Name "Unused" to the Condition ID 1500. (The Condition Name "Used" is assigned a Condition ID 3000. The Condition Name "New" is assigned a Condition ID of 0, that could apply to stamp packaged and sold in shrink wrap. Why is this important? Without being able to succinctly describe Item Condition or the Condition Description at the top of listings, buyers don't notice condition descriptions, from sellers who bother, buried in listings. As some may have noticed, at least one major seller places a catch all condition disclaimer in the fine print somewhere near the bottom of the description. This seller was not the first to use this form of obfuscation.

cfrphoto,

Did you go and bring up the issue?

I did not go to Columbus this year. I know the issue has been brought up in the past, but not in a public forum. How many sellers in the Stamps category understand that providing Item Condition could enhance credibility? It is also clear that ebay doesn't understand the negative impact of poorly chosen or crowd sourced Item Specifics on their credibility.

i get the impression that everything brought up in that discussion cuts across all ebay categories. I am sure ebay has heard all those complaints many times.

"... I get the impression that everything brought up in that discussion cuts across all ebay categories ..."

I would posit that ebay will always/only prioritize issues common to many categories.

I suspect that all flavors of hobbyist-dealer are but a legacy business.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

If anyone is going to play in corporate world you have to know how to be effective. There is absolutely zero value in complaining and whining; this is just white noise to a big corporation like ebay. You have to frame your input in the context of 'continual improvement' and other corporate-speak. Arguing with ebay that policy X, Y or Z sucks because it hurts your ability to sell stamps is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble-gum. You have to go in with suggestions (preferable no or low cost or at least with great ROIs) not criticisms. It really helps if you can convince them that the suggestion is really their own idea but everything certainly has to be presented as a positive.

So for example, you do not tell them that their Feedback system sucks. You tell them that the Feedback system could be greatly improved with little effort and cost; simply add meaningful metrics that they already have in hand such as return rates and actual shipping time. And I would not bother with meetings like this one, they knew upfront that that this would be old white men complaining about selling insignificant stamps. If you want to vent with a chance of getting attention, you have to vent to their shareholders. Impact their stock price by venting in venue that their shareholders use and you will get their attention.
Don

Thats it! Next week I become a majority shareholder in ebay and fix everything.

rog,
You don't have to become a majority shareholder, you only have to influence the shareholders.
Don

I don't think that the juice would be worth the squeeze for ebay. Honest and detailed feedback would bump out many sellers. Many of the biggest stamp sellers would never survive honest reporting and would not morph into more ethically pure animals. The truth can be ugly. Quite a few buyers either do not know or do not want to believe, particularly in the collectibles categories, that they are not being honest with themselves that "bargain" is wishful thinking or outright delusion. Honest reporting would mean real prices which runs contrary to the ebay bargain model. Nope, it works just fine for ebay and the majority of buyers and sellers.

If that was true, ebay would be growing at rates like Amazon or Etsy. Instead, ebay sales are almost stagnant. If I am looking for electronics or consumer goods on-line, I rarely turn to ebay. Amazon has avoided the stigma of fraud by avoiding collectibles except for their tightly controlled used book marketplace. It may be necessary for ebay to split up their marketplace into segments for electronics and appliances, consumer good and collectibles with different rules for each as they have done for vehicles. Their product-based approach should work well for electronics and appliances and consumer goods. It will not work for collectibles.

It would be ironic if collectibles ended up as ebay's fastest growth area after they recognized the need to improve the buyer experience with higher quality offerings, better descriptions, more effective seller ratings, and improved catalog number search. While fraud could be reduced, it should be recognized that even the most closely controlled sites, like APS StampStore, host many improperly described listings. Efforts to control sellers should include failure to properly describe instead of focusing only on shipping. While ebay faces strong competition in electronics, appliances and consumer goods, competition in the collectibles area is weak.

Counterfeit Royal Canadian Mint Gold Bar: https://amzn.to/2vDyxLo

I've reported it 5 times, they couldn't care less. I could get it removed in an hour on ebay. The tables are turning at least in the coins/PM category.