Is Anybody Familiar With This Ebay Seller?

I have noticed a seller, PAVSTAMPS, on ebay. They seem to sell primarily remainder collections, and from their feedback and frequency of listings, apparently quite a bit of it. What has caught my attention is the aggressive prices they seem to get for what look like ordinary remainder albums. Do they have a reputation for leaving good material in, and/or not checking for varieties? If anybody has any insight on this seller, please share it. I have found their material really tough to buy. I seemingly always get "out-sniped" at the last second.

Personally I don't buy from them any more. Last item I bid on I was outbid in the last 3 seconds which is not abnormal.

What was abnormal I got an email that the high bidder backed out and I could purchase at the same price, not my bid if the high bidder never bid.

Personally it was garbage and told him so and they did not care.

I do not trust any of their bids any more.

Others may have different opinions.

Yes, their prices are very high and I will always wonder if they are legit or not after my experience.

I assume that they acquire their material at the traditional auctions. I always cut out the middleman and simply purchase my material at those auctions. I have never understood purchasing these types of lots on ebay given that it is unlikely that it is material that walks in the sellers doorway. Most of them do not have a doorway to walk through as far as I can tell. This is not meant to disrespect sellers that are forum members and that break down collections for resale. Their is a niche for that. It satisfies the needs of those that wish to narrow their focus to a particular Country although I must say that most auction houses sell excellent single Country/area lots. My two cents. My apologies for not answering more directly to your question regarding PAVSTAMPS.

They are a high-volume ebay seller with a big following.

I bought one lot from them - an old international album - many years ago - and was very disappointed. I have purposely not bid on anything from them since.

They are not cherry-picking. Unfortunately, they are not looking very closely either.

The album I got was a mess. Stamps stuck down on pages. Wildly mis-described.

I've looked at alot of their listings. They don't strike me as collectors/philatelists/experts at all. Rather just a 'churn-em & burn-em' type establishment. They take whatever comes in the door & sell it as they got it, without 5 min of even bothering to check it. If they get a few bucks more than they paid, they're happy...

Not for the high-end collector. For someone looking to acquire alot of low-quality material - cheap, when you consider the volume - they are as good as many other ebay sellers.

They are honest & a well-run operation. Just not a 'stamp dealer' per se...

I picked up a rather nice lot of early (19th century) postal stationery entires. When done, I'd paid about 14$ of catalog and filled a good many holes in the inventory of UPSS numbered entires.

Actually, I was looking to buy a run-of-the-mill Ryuku Islands collection from PAVSTAMPS, as I recently started on my Trust Territories collection. After completing Guam, I went on to Canal Zone and Hawaii (both 90-95% complete) and eventually Ryuku....Any way, I am a bass-ackwards collector, and usually buy the key material on the front end. What I need from Ryuku are quite a bit of the lower-value moderns, and this particular collection had just about all of them. The problem was that the collection was probably only worth $200+ (it was stuck at the $40-$70 range for the entire auction. I thought by bidding $288, I would secure it, but mysteriously was outbid at the last second. Prior to my bid, the highest under-bid was $120, which like mine, was a last-second, snipe bid. I had a similar thing happen with another low-value Marshall Islands/Micronesia remainder collection that I tried to buy from this seller (ironically for my same album). I am not a bottom-feeder type buyer, so it seemed a little strange that I got shut out by this seller....oh well, I guess anything can happen.

I think Rogdcam has the right approach, and I will just start trolling SAN for these type of remainder lots instead of ebay.

I will go contrarian. With Peter Billis International (pavstamps on ebay), it pays to bide your time and look for sleepers, which do occur. A key benefit of their listings is that they always include images of every page of the album or collection. Not all SAN auction houses do this. This ability to see what you are buying has been important to me.

In 2010 when I was returning to the hobby after 30 years, from pavstamps I bought a meticulously prepared, extremely clean, highly complete US collection in 4 bright, clean, newer Scott National binders with slipcases and all pages. The collector had used a perfectly cut black mount for every stamp and marked all those that were MNH with small yellow dot labels. Were there hidden gems? No. There were some varieties that the collector had sought, which were visible in the images but not mentioned in the description. The lot was carefully packed and arrived promptly after the sale closed. It was a terrific jump-start to my US collection. I did the same a couple of years later with Italy and Ireland and I maintain those collections to this day. So I would say hang in there and value all the images they provide.

I know Peter from Dutch Country Auctions. He dominates the 4th session "Worldwide Collections & Box Lots". He buys many many lots and I don't think he reviews them in advance. I buy 1 or 2 collections and that lasts me 2 months and he probably buys 50 boxes or collections, so he's kind of a hero to me. I don't know how he can sell so much. He seems like a good guy to me and is a lot younger than most of us in attendance (which is a good thing)

I've looked at his auctions and I never bid, he is just too popular and often gets 40-50 bids. He has nearly 3000 followers which accounts for some of his popularity.


When an item is unsold a seller can make a 2nd Chance offer. The seller can make the offer to any of the underbidders but can only offer it at that bidders highest bid. There is no option to offer it for less.

I buy things occassionally from Pete and he has always been responsive, pleasant and accomodating. He gets some really unique items and collections from time to time and has a lot of followers watching and bidding on his auctions. Best to wait till last few seconds to bid on something you are interested in. It is an auction and that is just how it goes some times. I get outbid all the time at the last minute - but some days I catch it just right.

Valuable information, and thank you all. I knew I could depend on SCF for an informative response.

I have purchased from the seller in the past, but am bumping this thread for the illustrated item shown below. It is an uncommon item as are all domestic Registered Fourth Class tend to be. Registration of domestic 4th class, then named Parcel Post, could not longer be normally registered, only insured, when Parcel Post began 1-1-1913. Registration on international parcel post (4th class) continued on and after 1-1-1913 until Insurance Service was commenced with a country.

Peter was responsive, pleasant and accommodating as noted above during our conversation.