Buying On Ebay/Hipstamp

Once I had exceeded my comfort level with on-line vendors for more expensive or scarce issues, I was lucky to find a couple of sellers with whom I now deal almost exclusively for these kinds of stamps. One is in Colorado, the other in Connecticut. One advertises extensively and provides both a hard copy and on-line sales catalog, the other does not. We correspond by email, snail mail, and sometimes phone. Usually they work from wish lists I have provided, but sometimes when they identify something they think I might be interested in, they let me know. Trust is paramount in these relationships. Both provide free credit, installment payment, and willingly ship before any payment is received. For my part, although I have returned items occasionally, I have been very pleased with my purchases. I made both of these contacts at shows, and over time they have proved to be very helpful.

Thanks, Bud. Not sure if you or anyone can name names, but would like to know some of the reputable dealers are. (Maybe there is a list here somewhere?)

Try the search function. Use the top google search.

Andy of course I don't collect any US so I can't help a lot. Greenstamps though has a limited selection of US and he sells everything at 1/3 Scott. He's easy to work with as well. I've also had good experiences with Mike Sober from NYC but can't recall if he sells US.

I bought some US Liberty Issue stamps once (Scott 1030//1053) from "Invest" and was very pleased with the centering and quality. Lastly, Terry Myers is a retired Physician who is very easy to deal with but I don't know if he sells US or Possessions.

I have bought a lot of 1970's to 1990's from invest and a few other sellers; "Saratogatrading" also comes to mind for small sets of post 1970's US as well and is a good seller. That said, not really worried about 1980's stamps being forged or misrepresented.

Am really looking for a dealer or two or three I can work with and know I'm not getting hosed. Bought an unused US 120 last week from Momen; who seems to have very nice material, but at higher prices. Hipstamp helped facilitate the deal on that one though so I bit. Was pleased that the stamp looked nicer in person than in the scan to boot.

Momen has come up in various threads here over time. You may want to search his name here and take a look.

Andy - When was the certificate for the 120 issued?

I'm not in the market for buying the high-end stamps, but ebay is not a place where I would buy high end stamps at high-end prices. Too hard to make a judgment based on a scan, even if its front and back. I've had plenty of problems even with low-end stuff -- there are too many sellers out there who know that there are plenty of people who will spend $10 on a stamp, find its damaged, and write it down to experience.

The eBay/PayPal returns guarantee is great, but who wants to have to go through all that hassle every time a 'bargain' proves to be anything but?

Having said that, I buy a lot of stuff on ebay, and sometimes you can get high-end stuff at knockdown prices!

However, there is no substitute for detailed knowledge about what you are trying to buy.

And the second part of this statement is the crux of the matter.

Of course if one is paying full freight, it makes sense to purchase from a reputable retail dealer or auction house. However, most collectors don't want to pay full retail... so they go looking for bargains. Enter ebay et al.

Indeed, but what gets me is how many people spend large sums making really bad buys -- 'the other forum' is full of examples of collectors who have bought forged or damaged or generally poor stamps from dodgy sellers, been given the bad news by other forum members, and then often tried to deny reality.

If I were going to spend $100s on a stamp, I'd want to have some idea about what I was buying.

Rogdcam - The 120 did not have a cert.

I kind of already knew the answer was no cert.

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Taking shortcuts is a human condition, and is exacerbated by the collector gene. The posts you refer to are what happens when people try this without having the prerequisite knowledge. If you jump into the deep end of the pool without learning to swim first, it's a recipe for disaster, and sometimes those lessons need to be learned the hard way. There's no amount of vetting or policing sellers that will save foolhardy buyers from themselves.

Everybody makes dumb purchases and/or gambles at some point in time. You just hope to minimize them with knowledge achieved through experience and research over time, and counterbalance them with the wins to achieve a larger positive net score when all is said and done.

*shrug*

Then why the question Rogdcam?

Andy - I was not certain but the odds were good that there was no cert. What you paid for what stamp is your business but it would be interesting to know if you did research on what similar stamps went for at auction houses using information available on SAN for instance and why you felt secure enough in your purchase to not require a certificate. The story is very similar to others that pop up on the forum. My questions are not implying criticism but I am always interested in why some collectors choose the paths that they do for higher value stamps. However, I could be out of line in my thinking and you could have a healthy level of expertise when it comes to these things.