Noble Spirit Auction On San But You Bid On Ebay

https://stampauctionnetwork.com/NB/NB1.cfm

Seems like a smart way to get more eyes on your ebay lots. No commission to pay for buyers. Same Noble Spirit.

Thoughts?

***Harsh Language removed*** It still looks like the same ragtag bunch of jumbled together pieces like it does on ebay, except with a shinier veneer. They act like sorting by country in the table of contents is so cool when most every single one of them has just a single item. This is really gross it makes my stomach churn a little. Hopefully we are immune to the propaganda

"They act like sorting by country in the table of contents is so cool when most every single one of them has just a single item"

They couldn't even handle that. They go from Antigua thru Turkey and then back to Ascension thru US then Barbados thru Scotland.

This is hilarious and almost surprising nobody thought of doing this before. Whenever I watch the HR Harmer / Noblespirit conversation videos on youtube, I always feel there is underlying contempt for Noblespirit because they are just ebay shovelware dealers and not serious philatelists. Probably could have done with a brand name change though (sort of like Aldrich / ABC, maybe). I personally don't think I would ever bid on premium singles from Noblespirit.

We will see how long it lasts. NS will now have SAN fees to pay on top of their (negotiated?) ebay fees.

Can the NS ebay listings push traffic to SAN or is that verboten?

I have concerns with SANS being the target of ransomware hackers just like Hibid.com was last week; large impact, lots of dollars/transactions, single point of service hack.

Companies which diversify across multiple selling platforms are probably wise (even if they do not 'roll their own').
Don

Those concerns are valid Don. SAN is a technical travesty. They are running on IIS 8.5 which is Windows 2012. The fact that they advertise this stack thru their http headers shows they aren't capable of the basics. When you go to a bad url, you get a public facing stack dump that highlights a coldfusion, apache, tomcat, java stack all on top on Windows. Just a dilapidated tech stack from top to bottom.

I would not stake any business on tech like this. The question of ransomware hitting SAN is not if, but when if they maintain their internet posture as they currently do.

That said I do think the site is undergoing a rehaul, but not sure its got good bones or expertise behind it just judging from the exposed details.

Another positive is the site is rudimentary and like craigslist sticks to providing core functionality extremely well which has contributed to its excellent success.

"their (negotiated?) ebay fees."

probably

I clicked on the link in Post #1 to see what they were doing over on SAN, before reading any of the response posts. My impression while over there was, "Couldn't they put these things in any better order than this????" Then I come back here and see everyone else is thinking the same. I am a little leary about bidding on NS offerings, but there are some decent looking stamps in their 'auction'. My 'leariness' will have an impact on how much I bid, so I suspect I will be outbid on anything I might have an interest. Still, I might try.

I may blow all my disposable cash at the Siegel Sale next week, though. I got NO PROBLEM spending my money there.

I have a search set on ebay which usually picks up items I want to check out. It would find items of interest and not be dictated by the sellers with this clever marketing. Suggest you search ebay as normal, and if they happen to have an item you want, you decide what to do!
I am sure it will drive traffic,potentially getting more interest, more bids and a higher price for the seller and more commission due to ebay and SAN.[Even if they have done a deal to reduce the level they pay]

You all seem harsh. Looks like a variety of nice material. I am sure I have seen plenty of auctions where items are not alphabetical. What's the big deal? It seems pretty easy to search and find the country you're interested in.

Not sure what's motivating the animus against NS and such ebay "shovel ware" sellers.

Yes, the finer material and high-end collections won't be found there, but there's perfectly good stuff there that forms the basis of many collections.

Perhaps the issue is that they're trying to 'pass themselves off' as a higher-end entity by putting their stuff on SAN?

Difference between NS and Siegel is kind of like the difference between this board and Frajola's board - the latter being for specialized, high-end collectors typically in niche areas. This board is much broader, and (dare I say) friendlier. Both serve a useful need!

In my opinion there has always been a bit of elitism in the hobby, at least for as long as I have been in it (since the 1970s). Sellers can be classified in many ways no matter what the marketplace; WalMart is different than Saks 5th Avenue. It is not very productive to be snobby when our hobby can should be supporting everyone no matter what they collect or where they shop.

I do agree that buyers should make informed decisions and should know as much about the seller as they do about the material. I also think that buyers should consider the value of forming a solid relationship with sellers who can help them learn and keep an eye out for material they might specialize in. It is false economy to think that you can simply rely upon ebay 'sort by lowest' believing you can build a quality collection for cheap. I also think it valid for buyers to consider whom they are supporting. Buying from a known bad seller, even if you get a legitimate deal, keeps them in business.

But I think that we should support all hobbyists, no matter what they collect or which marketplace they support.
Don

So I think NS has hidden reserves on all those new listings, gave it a try and ten bids on one lot told me the reserves are a lot higher than many of the better known auction houses ,so this is really a retail store . Think I put in 30 bids all over the place and not one was the high bid ,no I don't bid nickels and dimes ,many were in line with auction firm bids .

Something else is going on ------maybe to increase ebay traffic or increase dollar amounts of bids but something to me is going on .Those reserves are higher than auction firms that have public auctions .

floortrader - Well, that's interesting. Can we inquire as to what general percentage of the listings' catalog value you placed as a bid?

British Colonies was under 1/3 catalog . Worldwide under 1/7 catalog and got no "Your top bidder ". They are testing something and I haven't figured it out yet .I will keep playing with it .