Corona Flu And The Stamp Market .

True but over the last 30 days Gold is up $31 or 2%. On Jan 15 gold was around $1549 and today it is close to $1620. There was a drop 2 weeks ago due to the reason that you mention (it recovered quickly) but overall Gold is up following the 'world in trouble' trend which is historically seen.
Don

My sales have been strong since Xmas. They have grown every week and this past weekend was best so far this year. I have been home for last 2 weeks and took the oppurtunity to list many items. I concentrated on lower priced items to stir up more interest plus I had time to list items in areas/countries where I don't usually list a lot due to time constraints. Still selling items in the $ 15-25 with strong bidding on lots and collections. Happy with my sales but not so happy with the possible reasons that are driving it.

One thing I have noticed about ebay is my daily search-results emails have noticeably fewer "hits." I've interpreted this to mean sellers are listing fewer items, especially those sellers who are in Europe.

Morning all,

Don, it may be too early to be meaningful but how are the metrics on this board looking? Are the number of monthly visits continuing to increase? Also, can you see any change in the number of first time visitors both casual lookers and folks signing up to play?

Wishing all health and philatelic pleasure. Russ

PS: The virus has struck: https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Registe...AOSwJHhegMXw

I've been shopping for used H.E. Harris Citation albums for the past year, mostly to acquire some binders in good condition, but also for the stamps. I've tracked e-bay auctions of these (auctions, not fixed price offerings) since March of last year, with over 200 entries so far.

Albums in good condition with 3,000 – 5,000 stamps have been mostly selling in the $45 - $60 range. For the past couple of weeks these have shot up to $70, $80, and beyond. Last night there were 4 of these albums with 3,000 – 5,600 stamps from 2 different sellers, all with starting bids under $30.00. A couple of the listings indicated that the binder was in poor condition. These 4 sold for $163.50, $187.50, $204.00, and $212.50.

I'm speculating that there are people who have more time right now to spend on e-bay. Either their philatelic budget hasn't changed or the economic realities of their situation hasn't caught up with them.

Russ,
For Stamp Smarter, March traffic was 54% greater this month than the same time last year.
Don

Don, what were last month's numbers? Is everything trending up?

Is it just you are more popular now and have had a steady increase, or is it all us folks working from home now checking in now and then between boring emails?

I'm on the cusp of having one of my huge 3,000+ cover auctions on ebay, but I'm holding off until the worst of this is over and international mail delivery disruptions decline. No reason to go to the post office more than I have to. Instead I'm going to just keep on working up material for better days and I'm not short of material to do so.

I have noticed that the posts on the philatelic Facebook pages has greatly increased in number as well. Lots of online activity.

As for upcoming auctions it will be interesting to see what happens as some auction houses have already scrapped the floor auctions. Online only!

My interest on ebay is very much focused on specific accessories...albums, mounts etc.
But in the absence of having no "new" kiloware to sort, I might be tempted back. I would never make a purchase of more than $15-20 online. Mail delivery here is still reasonably normal but I think it is only a matter of time before they are suspended.

The stamp market is like a stool with three legs ,first the high end stuff that are sold at public auctions ,the second leg is the collectible material that ranges from $300.00 catalog down to the $25.00 catalog range . The last and biggest market is the 2 cents to $20.00 range .

The high end is going to take a nose dive ,it will be better stuff held back by the auction firms,I don't think the auction firms have the money or the will to buy so they can resell at a later date . The Sorry part will be the people who have to let go and sell ,these are the biggest losers because prices realized are going to be way down .

The middle section leg of the stool will also take a nose dive with the economy and this is where you can see bargins and filling holes in one's collection will be a active area but at lower prices .

The last leg will actually see a increase in sale with some better pricing for mixture boxes, treasure boxes and album pages . Any collections/mixture lots should do well as more people are shut-in and want something to do .Look for a active internet market here in sales .

The Kelleher sale today will be interesting to watch. So far the opening bids are showing more strength then I typically see. I think that if Siegel was not seeing traffic and book bids for say the Morton sale they would reschedule it if contractually possible. My guess is that sales will be counterintuitively strong across the board. We shall see.

Add: 40 minutes prior to the Kelleher sale and opening bids posted are the strongest that I have ever seen.

Meanwhile 113 lots out of 783 did not sell, and those that did seemed to be about average for an auction.

First 12 lots , 5 of 12 no bids ,6 of 12 went for opening and only 1 had 2 bids . Not a good start .

The lots yesterday were autographs and postal history that frankly did about as well as they usually would have at Kelleher. We must be watching two different Kelleher auctions right now because I see nothing different from an ordinary Kelleher auction except that there is more spirited bidding then their last two Flagship sales. Look back at the previous sales and make a comparison. It could be enlightening.

Perhaps I want to see the best and some others want to see the worst. Who knows.

I do know that I have some higher end US for sale by private treaty right now and sales are doing very well. In fact yesterday was one of the best days.