Stamporama, Good Deal Or Not?

Anyone heard of Stamporama, or even used them?
I heard they have good prices but you have to pay to be a member and so to buy material.

Sylvain

I don't see any compelling reason to pay for the ability to buy what I can buy almost anywhere, anyway. Five minutes on their website didn't show me anything I couldn't get on ebay or any number of websites that don't charge a membership.

I have used their "approval" books with good results. These are usually cheaper stamps but, hey, I need those sometimes too. These books are like the old time 5 and 10 cent approval books you used to see sometimes.

I first joined in 2017 and 2 days after joining I got a system email saying that I had received a message from another member. When I opened it, it was a really nasty message saying that I had been sending another member aggressive messages over something I had purchased and I immediately needed to stop contacting her.

Problem was that I had never sent her anything nor had I ever done any transactions at all on the venue. So I contacted staff and asked that they clear up whatever this misunderstanding was about; but they blew me off saying I should just ignore her. I pressed the staff to please address the situation but they refused, they did not want to handle the issue.

I had not really joined to do transactions and really just wanted to participate in the forum so I just moved on but never bought or sold anything on the platform.

Over the years I noticed that some of the forum members were quite anti-USA and the community seemed to not mind nationalist threads, I was contacted privately by some of the members and they told me they had given up posting in those kinds of threads.

Then the host of platform decided he no longer wanted to host Stamporama so Staff had to do something or just close it down. They decided to charge for membership for everyone including those who never did any transactions and only contributed in the forum. A 501c3 was not formed and the organization, as far as I could tell, was an LLC. I was not willing to pay for a membership (which could end up being for-profit) for the privilege of helping fellow hobbyists in the forum so I left.
Don

And why would anyone pay to sell stamps through a venue that GREATLY limits itself by charging a membership fee, when you can sell on ebay or Hip?

Disclaimer: I am a discussion moderator at Stamporama but I am not involved with the setting the rules of the board that manages it. I am not involved with auction side either as a moderator.

With that said, I buy most of my common stamps at SOR. There are a lot of sellers in various countries and can obtain many lower catalog value stamps at 10 cents or less. This works for me since I collect a broad range including modern up to 1980. There is an online approval book section and an auction section with some buy it now. One nice aspect is some sellers allow you to purchase over a longer period of time before being invoiced and ship. This reduces mailing fees and paypal expemses.

As has neem said at SCF many times, there is no free lunch and since they do not have ads they charge an annual fee now to cover expenses. Of course, SCF is paid via ads and supporters like me. I pay here (3x more than SOR) and I pay there but do not sell myself (yet).

In that way, the SOR fee is not really a factor since I would likely support even without buying since it is more about supporting the hobby.

The game changed greatly in the last year when the Universal Postal Union member countries started enforcing the new 'no merchandise via First Class mail' laws. Dropping a few inexpensive stamps into a envelope and sending it to someone in another country is now no longer allowed. All selling venues were impacted but supporting low value, international transactions became unfeasible. So Al's point above (about some sellers allowing you to batch orders together) is important since larger orders makes international shipping practicable.
Don

There are some very knowledgeable people there who do not participate here. I am there because of the discussion boards.

(I rarely buy on there, and only sold once on there a few years ago before the membership fee started.)

It was a good forum. The sponsors have probably built a good business by supporting its development, and then dropped it like a stone when it did not suit them to carry on funding it. Should we now still support the original sponsors?

Triangle's cynical opinion aside, I personally like Stamp-o-Rama. I have had nothing but good experiences with them -- both as a buyer of their Approvals and as a seller of Approvals.

The website was free for years until a few months ago when the benefactor of the site needed to move on. There was a lot of discussion on the site about what to do, and the result was members were willing to pay a nominal mount to cover the cost of server operations.

Stamp-o-Rama has a very nice Discussion board also.

SCF site also appears to depend on 'donations' to under right the costs of operations. If SCF had no donations, would ... "sponsors have probably built a good business by supporting its development, and then dropped it like a stone when it did not suit them to carry on funding it."

I support both SCF and Stamp-o-Rama.

I sold a bit on Stamporama a few years ago. The auction section wasn't impressive sales wise and seemed like listing there would be a waste of time for me, but I used the "approval" service to sell some cheaper material not worth listing on ebay, mostly just for fun.

When they lost sponsorship (I believe it was Buck A Cover that had kept them alive) they polled their members to see if enough of them would pay a modest fee so they could fund their own platform. And enough of their membership did.

I stayed on as a seller by paying them $18 back in May, though I have sold nothing there since, nor for two or three years before. Unlike ebay and others, they charge no fees on sales, nor do they beg for donations. As I recall, even this site went to demanding donations in order to sell, here.

I believe many buyers find it worth $12 annually to search through a multitude of inexpensive approvals to build their collections.

Have you ever considered what it costs to sell through the APS, the sales and listing fees in addition to the membership fee and supplies, both the approval booklets and the stamp store pages. And if you're not a member, the higher sales prices charged on stamp store material, and that you must be a member to be able to purchase through their approval service?

On Stamporama, listing in the approvals section is relatively simple compared to what it takes to list an item on ebay or put together an APS sales book. And there are no "middlemen" at StampoRama, all payment come directly to you, in full.

I think Stamporama is an excellent little platform for those whom it serves, people enjoying their hobby at the level they choose; at a level unavailable to them through APS or even ebay; those at one time served by the many small dealers (and even large ones such as H.E. Harris) that sent them stamps on approval through the mail.

Just checked, and there are currently 574 approval "books" (most list their material on plastic pocket stock pages rather the print out paper pages from the templates supplied) in 21 categories. If you are a beginner or even a somewhat advanced collector, Stamporama might be worth a look.

I agree with Modern about the Auction side of Stamp-o-Rama. it is a bit clumsy, but the Approval side is worth the time and effort.

I occasionally use their FORUM but I've never paid any attention to the sales.

I've been buying there for at least a year now. Nothing but pleasant experiences. Have purchased from both the approval books and the auctions. I'm not bothered by the fee. I've found lots of lower cost material for my collections. Not one transaction do I regret. I don't use the forum.

I too have found a lot of inexpensive material. Mostly lower end--I did pick up a Penny Black there for about $80. There was some higher end Germany available (may still be available in the approval books) for 20% of SCV. For sellers it's a bit limited and you wouldn't be able to sustain yourself selling only to members--but first and foremost it's a stamp club. Most stamp clubs have dues of some kind, so thinking of it as a club not a sales site would be a more accurate way of looking at it.

I am waiting on some interesting British colonies I bought at 20% SCV from a seller in Israel. I have bought from US and overseas sellers. most of who also participate on the forum. I have found the sellers very accommodating--most will hold purchases to keep shipping costs down and will look for want list items. Some are hobbyists selling off duplicates and others are dealers.

Stamporama has a 1 month free membership, I would encourage the person who started the thread (or anyone else for that matter) to give it a go. Try it, you might like it :)

Jackie