How To Help A New Seller?

I noticed this unrated new seller with a huge lot of stamps.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/old-us-sta...x:rk:13:pf:0

This looks like a massive lot of stamps and the way it is listed I don't know if the seller is going to make anything near what he expects to get for his huge lot.
Are there any tips I could give to this seller to help him out.
Maybe this is the wrong area of the forum to ask a question like this.
I just wanted to help this seller out.
Thanks.

While I think your approach is nobile, I also think he's overvalued the collection.
I dealt with one of these in the past, and I wound up getting a big chunk of money back because the way it had been "valued" was really flawed. I was going to return it to the guy, but he decided instead to give me about $1,000 back on it. Not sure what to do with this actually...

IMO a new seller is up against it with no feedback and no followers etc. but the 1 exception is selling collections. Collections are popular and I think a beginner can get a decent price. The big hurdle is the 12 picture limit. In this listing the seller wastes 3 pictures showing "on-paper" that actually detracts from this collection and he shouldn't waste a picture on the 24c facsimile. That would be 4 more pictures. I'd like to see more pictures of the sheets and better yet a list of the sheets that are included. Unless he has material that's not mentioned it's hard to see this item getting more than 50% of stated face ($2500) probably less because of the risk in buying from a new seller.

ClassicPhilatelist,
I was also wondering what the real value of the collection is.
I know many stamps collections can be overvalued in the seller's opinion when sold on ebay. Sorry to hear about your bad experience with buying a large collection. It must have been a high closing bid for the seller to give you back about $1,000.

KRelyea
Would it be a good idea to ask the seller to list the MHN sheets?
I know what you mean about the "on-paper" stamps that he shows, it does detract from his collection.

No amount of photos will do anything for this. It is a face lot and needs to be sold as such but broken down into smaller chunks such as $50 and $100 postage value. He should also detail the values. Are there a bunch of 3 cent stamps or a bunch of Forever stamps? Dump the used. It only confuses the thing. Face postage in manageable chunks and done. It will all sell quickly.

10 dollars (current bid) plus 40 shipping sounds like a fair price.

Tell the seller to start at a price he is willing to accept so he does not give the face value stamps away.

Tell him to add all the face value and start at 30% or 40% of face value.

He is a seller waiting to get shafted.

I'd say you helped him out by advertising his post here, where people will bid on it based on the postage they can see.

Hi dutchman1948,
I like your idea. I was going to write to the seller to set his staring price higher, but he had bids already. It will be interesting to see what the lot sells for.

He should have broken it into $100 chunks with a title that says "$100 Face US Postage". You get more bidders because the whole enchilada knocks out a lot of people plus he could build feedback faster. Oh well.

I agree rogdcam.
Most buyers are not in the market for such a large lot.
He probably would have had some repeat buyers with smaller lots also.

You win some, you lose some. In some years we've bought as many as 30 collections in a year. So we've gotten pretty good at figuring out how we can make the best of it. With a collection like this, with mostly "modern" stamps in the value, it becomes a "Postage lot" from my perspective. Generally then, will take face value at around 50% we resell postage lots generally at 70% and do ok this way. The rest is 0 value.
Things like souvenir sheets we might keep in tact, but unless it's a 630, most are low value as well. Some of the Farley's do ok, but it doesn't look like this collection goes back that far.
We will probably bid on it, but I'm keeping the number in low 4 digit...

@classicphilateslist - What is a 630 and Farley?

US Scott Catalogue #630. International Philatelic Exhibition Issue or White Plains Souvenir Sheet Issued October 18,1926. Catalogues $350/$450.

See StampSmarter US pop up tool.
http://www.stampsmarter.com/feature...eatures.html

Farley' Follies.

http://stampsmarter.com/1847usa/Far...Follies.html