Should I Try HipStamp Or Stick With Ebay?

The other aspect I think we might be overlooking is the generational transfer of material.

I signed up at ebay 20 years ago and there were more stamps than you could poke a stick at. Now, a purchase for me is a rare thing. Anyone specialising in a particular area would surely have noticed something similar? General collectors will never run out of material to buy though. Generally, most of what appears on ebay, if you're specialising, has either been there for years or is of lesser quality.

I think a lot of the cream has disappeared into collections that won't see the light of day for another 20 years or more, and that this trend has become much more noticeable in the last 5 years.

Thoughts?

I think it depends on what you specialize in, and where/how you search on ebay. While there is definitely a large amount of stale overpriced material, there is also a wealth of new, unusual material being offered on a regular basis. This is where being creative in how you use ebay's search features and where you search within the myriad of categories can pay huge dividends.

The "cream" hasn't disappeared at all; in fact it comes out on a daily/basis. I would argue that the more esoteric your collecting interests, the more lucrative ebay can be.

Bobby - I think it is a lot like regular dealers and auction houses. Most everything is in endless recycle mode. But I do agree that 20 years ago there were more finds to be had. Perhaps because the period when stamps had all kinds of things to discover is defined or not infinite. With the advent of modern stamps from say the 1960's onward it becomes more run of the mill. Yes, there are EFO's and plate numbers and so on to focus on, but it is nowhere near the same as before production advancements made things more uniform and less interesting.

Doubtless I just offended someone.

Hi revenuecollector,

For New South Wales, I search for that term in the Stamps category and search worldwide. Only on the rare occasion does something appear that piques my interest. Then, when examining the lot or item, that interest vanishes 99.9% of the time.

I agree with you on one thing. It will depend on what you're collecting. Maybe I need a new field ?

IMO part of this is due not to the marketplaces/venues in question, but rather the advancements your collection has made over 2 decades. As we acquire more material, there are naturally fewer items that rise to the level of being "finds". So it's not necessarily just a change in what is being offered now vs. then, but also how our perceptions and valuations change over time.

Thank you for your thoughts rogdcam. The idea of endless recycling is a good one. It means I just have to be patient

No offence taken by me by the way!

Agreed revenuecollector; I did say the general collector would have an easier time finding material than the specialist.

Of course this is where I'm at now - unless you have unlimited funds (and I do not) a collection can only be taken so far.

Taking that into consideration, there is less quality material appearing on ebay than there once was, even if I already have what is being offered. Just my observations on what is a small area of the entire field

I have lots of research avenues open, so 2023 will probably find me heading more in that direction I'd say.

Note that the APS store has moved to Hip. Interesting development which should improve traffic. I sold on ebay but gave up because of the constant tweaking(aka bi monthly "enhancements") which were basically degradations of the seller's position. Every time. I still usually buy a lot or 2 every week in my area's auctions but the understanding has to be that undisclosed faults are present. so bottom fishing for me only. I am sure that others feel the same way.

In terms of HIP I would suggest trying it out with a starter store. Inexpensive. Try to get a reasonable number of listings, use good quality scans and accurate titles and descriptions(helps given that HIP search is better than ebay), combine shipping and ship as quickly as practicable, price competitively using BIN only and use best offer on listings where you have wiggle room. Set your minimum best offer option at the lowest you would be willing to accept or you will get infuriatingly low ball offers. You can either list one at a time or in bulk. Pretty straightforward really.

The owner's wife has a shovel ware store(think NY stamps) that is increasing the size and frequency of auctions. There are others like Momen stamps who sell at auction there as well. I personally avoid auctions as a seller and if I were to go that route I would probably use ebay or more likely a mainstream house in the case of better material. If you price competitively, using market clearing BINs, then your material will move once people figure out that you are offering the real deal.

My 2 cents. 22000k items sold and counting.

Bob

revenuecollector, that's an interesting take. Nice observation. It's totally obvious (once you said it).

Hipstamp sells your email address to every stamp dealer who will buy it. I wish I never signed up.

I like Hipstamp BUT only particular dealers - stampnut, TedTyzska, and Odiamo. They have been longtime sellers so you could ask what they do to be successful (plus they also sell on other platforms).

A third option that I found excellent as it is items from fellow philatelists who are serious about their hobby - Stamporama. For a very modest annual fee you can join and then set up an approval book to sell a lot of stamps. The prices are low so I prefer it more for buying but it is a great venue to move excess material.

If you specialize in plate number coils there are members who sell them at the pnc3.org - Plate Number Coil Collectors Club.

I use ebay to see common vintage stamps and I will say sales are quite slow and there are substantial fees. You can make a very modest profit but expect items to sit for several months unless it iis something truly in high demand.

My experience with Stamporama. is not good. We parted company because of their wide spread attitude with sellers selling forgeries. In particular over prints.

What about selling on this forum to members is that a good venue?

Any advice on the best place to sell larger sets all at once? For example, I have a 3 album France set that I will probably sell in the near future - are there particular venues that are better for larger sets?

And what is this about hipstamp selling my email? Can I opt out of that, this would make me crazy and would drive me away from them if that happens.

Hipstamp is brutal when it comes monetizing your email address. Some will say that you can opt out. For me that is not true. I am now and have been bombarded with seller emails that have the .hipstamp extension and no matter whom I contact or what buttons I click it continues on unabated. Hipstamp also lies like other people breath. I have had countless exchanges with Hip representatives about stopping the spam. They will tell you that they have fixed it (for the 219th time), they will blame the sellers first of all, they will actually tell you that it is not possible, they will ask you to forward each email to them and do nothing. Years of this BS now. I hate them. Sorry.

The key takeaway for me is the lying. If they will go so far out of their way to lie to such an extent about spam, they have less than zero integrity IMO.

I think that HipStamp 'opt out' only applies to emails coming directly from them (HS). But since they sell/share email addresses with HS sellers, I see no way in hell that they could control the sellers use of their mailing lists.

This is the issue with the monetization our personal information, companies even like Google and Amazon have no way to control our data once it passes to another party. So a company like HS can assure you that you have opted out, but the horse has already left the barn. Their control ends with them passing it on once, what secondary, tertiary, quaternary, level companies do with you info is anyone's guess.

I hae found that the spam emails from them slowly dropped off but only when I stopped going to their site. After not visiting it for about a year I finally stopped getting any emails. Then when this APS/HS partnership began I made the mistake of going to the HS site; within 6 hours I started getting spammed.
Don