When You See Things Like This.

Being retired and all that I spend some time browsing various places that have stamps for sale. Some seem to be good and others are not.

On ebay you get all sorts.

1. Browsing today I saw the following stamp listed and described as............MUH.




The seller has a feedback of over 5000 with a 100% positive feedback rating.

When I see something like this so far from reality it turns me off from that seller even if they have something I might want.

2. US sellers and their ridiculous shipping charges. Yes, I know it is the Global Shipping Program or whatever, but the postage charges are more than the stamp.

A block of four stamps for sale at $US40 from one seller that charges US$40 something for postage to Australia and others even more. One I saw with a postal cost of US$60 for a block of four stamps.

When I see those shipping charges, well forget it.

I can get a couple of heavy stockbooks filled with stamps sent from high cost Europe to Australia for that price!!

3. A while back I wanted a block of stamps that a seller had listed at a Buy it Now price of around US$40 and yep, the shipping charges were around that US$40 area. I really wanted the stamps and they were worth about US$40 or so.

I sent the seller an email about the ridiculous postal costs and did get reply...........they could reduce the shipping charges to 'only' US$19.95 and send it to me by 'regular' post.

4. It takes Australia Post 11 days to deliver a regular letter 40 kilometers across Melbourne...............

What is going on with domestic mail service in Australia?

I didn't even bother replying.

MUH was either a mistake, joke, means Mint Ultra Hinged or Mess Under Here. I would send an email to mention the photo/text conflict. We are all human. By the way with that nice photo, there was no need to mention the slight thin.

Some of the shipping is due to demands by ebay for tracking and such. For international out going mail from the USA, it can get pricey. Likewise one can order and be shipped packages from China to the USA for a lower postage cost than mailing a letter to a neighbor across the street.

A lot of the international pricing is set by and at the UPU, Universal Postal Union. Countries actually have not that much control over international pricing.

The last US President actually got the term Universal Postal Union into the main stream press when complaining of the postage inequities for mail from the USA to location XYZ compared to the cost of sending the same item from XYZ to the USA. The China disparity I believe was the worst as the rate dated back to when China was categorized as a developing country.

https://time.com/5680413/trump-univ...ostal-union/

https://time.com/5687134/trump-univ...-union-deal/

I looked at some of the other stamps the seller has put up and there are lots of them with missing perfs and other faults so I don't know what to think. Pretty pricey too.

I knew about the changes to the postal rates as Japan has been affected and will increase their small packet charges by a huge amount. Heavier parcels are barely changed.

Used to be able to send a 300 gram packet from Japan to Australia for IIRC 300 - 400 yen. Doesn't really matter now as that service and all air parcels from Japan to Australia have been stopped though Japan Post.

Still a lot cheaper than sending the other way from Australia to Japan. Used to be 3 times as much from here to Japan. Now it will only be 2 1/2 times as much for the same weight!!

Makes buying kiloware from Japan that much more expensive along with the 10% GST Australia adds on to the total bill if bought through places like ebay.

@yankee: you've hit on a reason why I don't use ebay (stamps with undisclosed faults). I'm an avid collector of Portuguese colonies, including an almost complete collection of major Scott numbers from your neighbor to the north, Timor. When I've looked for older issues of the colonies on ebay, what I find is inevitably damaged or overpriced.

There are a few current threads about the poor descriptions on ebay especially from sellers known for selling only quality. I bring this up not as an excuse, but just an "as it is."

As retail dealers, especially big time show dealers have had to expand to electronic sales they discovered the huge work involved. One I won't mention had a help wanted ad out for just such new employees, the internet listers. As they expand the number of workers, the "real dealer" is not able to do the individual quality control they could when doing it themselves. Now they are in the learning curve to understand they need to really monitor their new staff's product to hit quality output.

It is for that reason I take a moment to send the dealers with a good reputation comments about the big misses such as the one prompting this thread.

Perhaps I am a bit understanding as well. One US career military vet dealer friend, ebay only, could use some help. His relative had just gotten out of the military with a rather scrambled brain emotionally and was not doing well. He put the relative up in his home and gave him a job working on the listing (almost 400 per week with the auctions closing within a four-five hour period once per week). Yes there were and are mistakes and he deals with the customers when such happens. But his concern is the big picture, relative rehab, filling a bit of the hole left when his and his wife's only son was killed in the same wars and not so much ebay sales.

Understanding perspective can be helpful, important and leads to a level of understanding.

A very important thing to remember, thank you Parcelpostguy for posting this consideration.

First we should realize that 'stuff happens', especially as we all get older, and that this might effect the way we interact with each other. There have been a number of cases in this very community where a person's emotional, physical, and/or mental status has changed. Cutting folks some slack and giving people the benefit of doubt goes a long way in getting along with each other.

And if anyone has not noticed, we are currently living in a time where there are many who either seek or thrive on dividing us. They are pushing agendas that highlights the differences between us instead of promoting the idea that we are all human.

As someone mentioned in another thread today, the vast majority of us are good people who typically want to do the right thing. Someone might have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, perhaps they are in dark place, perhaps they are in great physical pain, or perhaps they are suffering through a great personal tragedy. If we cut each other some slack it would be a better community, hobby, and world.
Don