How Does HipStamp Compare With Ebay For Modestly Priced Stamps?

A few years ago I ramped up my purchasing of both US and British Commonwealth stamp lots, albums and specimen books. Now I am planning to downsize my home and need to sell some of my stamp albums, pages and stamps.

I have posted materials for sale on both ebay (which I was familiar with), and HipStamp (which was new to me).

After a month I am reasonably happy with the sales activity from ebay. But I am very disappointed by the lack of bids, or sales coming from HipStamp. I fear I may have jumped the gun by paying the yearly fee for a basic HipStamp store.

I'd love to better understand if HipStamp appeals more to "serious" collectors who may not be interested in my lower value stock. Most of my offered single stamps, blocks, covers have a CV in the $20 to 150 range and frankly are most often of "fine" quality rather than higher graded.

IMO the opposite is true.

I agree with rogdcam, it is my observation that the quantity, quality and price (i.e., average value) of items on Hipstamp is significantly lower than on ebay. Also, the exposure on ebay is vastly higher than on Hipstamp. I have seen many posts here along the lines of "I check ebay daily, but visit Hipstamp only once every few weeks or even less". I don't recall any posts reflecting the opposite viewing habits.

I concur.
I think that HS has many sellers who dislike ebay for various reasons including the fees associated with the lower value listings.
Don

I have listed moderate to higher price/quality stamps on ebay and have gotten lukewarm responses. The ones I have sold have gone for a fraction of the price (including vigorish) that I got when I consigned thru an auction house. I just don't have enough of them to interest a house. I've gotten the impression that ebay buyers are looking for real bargains instead of buying reasonable prices for good stuff (and I'm not asking for much, just something more than 20% of CV for a high quality stamp with a PF cert). Of course, that may be for a number of other reasons -small sample size, fewer viewers than long standing more-well-known sellers, or maybe market has softened since COVID times. I also listed the stamps on HipStamp and nothing sold at all. So still trying to find the right way to dispose of the better stuff that I still have.

Much of this has to do with one's selling philosophy. Whether one uses ebay as a true auction site with a low start amount expecting bidders to bring bidding up to a fair price ... or one uses ebay as a net-price or buy-it-now site expecting only one bid. And naturally viewership "hits" depend considerably on the quality and detail of the keywords in the title and description in addition to having good images. ebay has certainly shifted from an auction site to a net-price site over the years.

My two cents from an active Hipstamp seller. Hipstamp has its flaws certainly - but I do pretty well on it, sell mostly Canada, and major European countries & their colonies. Very little US/Commonwealth so that is a difference from the OP. Also sell on Delcampe, which obviously has mostly European buyers (and sellers), it's been a very good platform. Also sell on ebay, but not much.

Hipstamp makes it pretty easy to list in volume with free bulk listing tools (Delcampe also), so sellers may prefer it for that reason, and both have no per-listing fees. Both aren't good for auction style listings, although they promote them - ebay would make much more sense for auctions.

I honestly don't think there's a significant difference in type of collectors buying there. All 3 have beginners, generalists, specialists, bargain hunters, etc. Key to success has been building up a group of regular, repeat customers - which takes time & good customer service - think that would apply regardless of venue. Conversely, dodgy sellers can be found on all 3 sites (although giving credit to Delcampe, they do attempt to police their listings for obvious fakes for major European countries).

I'm with gmot regarding HipStamp. I've had a store there now for several years, and list both stamps and covers ranging in price from a few cents up to a few hundred dollars. One of the secrets to sales (and I'm a small fish in huge lake) seems to be related to the number of items for sale at any one time. I try to keep my item count at, at least around 3000 lots which by my experience is the threshold for garnering somewhat regular sales. Sure, there are lulls at this level, and I regularly go several days with no sales, and then suddenly a handful will come in one one day.
One big (IMO) benefit of HipStamp is that so many low value stamps actually are offered. Most ebay sellers won't bother with these but as a classic era collector for example, I still have plenty of spaces in my Vintage Reproduction albums that I want to have filled, many of which are for low value stamps which can be hard to find (by virtue of being of low value). Since selling isn't my livelihood (I sell to help feed my buying), I enjoy selling the low value stuff since I know I'm helping a fellow collector fill the spaces in their albums.
On Hip it also seems to take a while for buyers to find your store. As gmot mentioned, repeat customers are key and if your prices are fair and your service honest and excellent...they will come.
Its also worthwhile not to keep all the eggs in one basket. I don't keep a store there, but still list auctions and BIN lots on ebay with a reasonable amount of success.

In total agreement with Doc, and I also sell on HS to subsidize my stamp purchasing addiction.

When I was at 3000, I found the same volume cycles as Doc states. Now that I'm between 9000 - 10,000, I average almost 3 sales a day, and many repeat buyers.

I have stamps in the $100 range and above, but the average stamp I sell is less than $1.00. My main collecting these days is trying to complete my Big Blue- Scott International #1, 1840-1940, and when I purchase a country collection, box lot or album, anything that doesn't fill a hole for me is listed at some point. Since I'm buying countries that aren't easy to begin with, it seems like when I do list, I sell quickly. Sometimes when I list late at night, stamps from that batch are sold before I get up the next day. Seems like others are using HS to fill holes, with lesser-to-moderate priced material that's not always readily available.

It's taken me about 3 good years to get to this point.

I've sold some stuff on ebay in the past, and my auctions were usually sold. But I chose HS because:

• I don't have to use ebay's shipping


• the rates are less than ebay, and


• I get paid right away, instead of ebay holding my money for not using their shipping


• the initial file setup seemed easier for HS than eBay

So, it might take you longer to get established on HS than ebay, but there are advantages also.

Hope this was helpful!
Ray

Many many thanks for your shared wisdom. To summarize your feedback...seller beware!

After I saw that the APS moved its selling service to HipStamp, I reviewed the sight and subscribed to a basic store. I assumed the APS would make that move based on HipStamp proving more viable for stampers.

Now my decision to pay for a year on HipStamp looks like a dumb move. I should have posted my OP here first. I've posted several dozen items for sale on each of the sites -- single 1800s stamps, a couple albums, covers, blocks, and catalogs. Despite using too many $0.99 starting bids, sales in the first weeks are more than 50% of listed items on ebay for approx. $400. HipStamp generated a single $3.99 sale, plus one low ball offer for 2 Scott US Platinum Series Albums w/895 mostly mint stamps mounted on hingeless Scott pages. My counter offer asking for $10 more was rejected. The albums without the stamps are worth their offer!

My personal experience with ebay lines up with most of your comments. When I initially got into a major "buying" mode, I certainly was an ebay bargain hunter bidding on Great Britain and Commonwealth albums mostly purchased from UK and Western EU dealers.

I'm intrigued by those of you who prefer HipStamp. It is nice getting paid directly into your PayPal account. But unfortunately I am not seeing eyeballs on HipStamp. Hardly any bids or watchers. Having worked in marketing, I wonder what the average daily traffic is for HipStamp? Could it be 10% or less of ebay's traffic in the stamp area? Would they dare tell us?

But as a seller, I am appalled at the results for "auction pricing" on either ebay or HipStamp. I've learned my lesson -- the hard way, per usual. LOL!

After shipping a few issues with CV over $100 for 99 cent and $2.99 bids, no more! While I am not looking to make a profit as I downsize my collection, I've come to the conclusion it's foolish to post a $0.99 auction starting bid for a $150 CV item in the hopes of attracting a buyer horde. It hasn't happened on either HipStamp or ebay. Live and learn! I now set a minimum floor starting bid for auctions, and more often a Buy It Now price I think is fair.

I doubt I'll ever get to a 1000 items for sale, but your input has given me much to consider. Thanks for sharing your experience and insights!

Very valid concern and I have seen this happen many times. I haven't listed stamps for sale on ebay live auction format for a while, it just seems too risky. Friedman has been listing live auctions with .99 start, but they are rolling new items weekly and doing a good job of mixing in premium items with more common items. Seemingly attracting buyers on many levels. They usually list at least 1 or 2 items weekly that pique my interest. They also maintain a large inventory of fixed price items.

I also watch some live auctions on hip and search fixed price sometimes. There's a ton of inventory on there by many dealers, which I repeatedly see on searches.

A pet peeve I have with hip is they don't show the shipping cost on the first view of a listing and require user input to calculate a shipping amount. Just about every time I ignore this on a purchase, I get to checkout and shipping is $5, which for a sub $20 item isn't worth it. I either have to attempt to find other items from the seller or just completely abandon the purchase.

I specifically avoid sellers that do this, tbh. Seeing an expensive item at $0.99 makes me wonder if the seller knows what they have, or if it's a fake, or what game they're playing. I gravitate to sellers with a price reasonably in line with others, and then go for the one that seems the best overall value (based on seller reputation, price, description, stamp quality, etc).
It'd be interesting to sit in on a conversation between ebay sellers and buyers, I feel that there's a lot that each side doesn't consider about the other.

Like I said previously, I am not reducing my collection in order to maximize my income.
I'm still learning the business realities of stamping. Just this week I have shipped a couple stamp catalogues and stamp purchases that took more time to scan, post, package and ship than I was paid. It's partially a labor of love because I want others to enjoy stamping as I have. That's important to me.

But I do not wish to give away my accumulated stamps, albums and references simply because CV means nothing if your material is on the lower end of the scale. A few months ago I attended a large stamp show in the Meadowlands area of New Jersey. Knowing there were many dealers on hand, I drove over an hour and brought a Great Britain Schaubek hingeless album. I figured Stanley Gibbons CV to be $6600 for my collection.

I showed the album to 4 different dealers. I understand that I have not purchased gems. But on the other hand I hoped to get an offer $1500 or so. All of the dealers acted as if I had brought them a bag of trash. Rather disheartening.

So it seems I must become a stamp store owner posting my accumulated collection on ebay, HipStamp and anywhere else online buyers go.

My experience - Hipstamp auctions don't get enough eyeballs to make starting at a low price worthwhile. Fixed price is the way to go for that platform.

And re your album experience - Stanley Gibbons CV is considerably inflated compared to Scott (which of course is no where near market price, especially for GB material). And a dealer will want to pay 10% or less of Scott CV typically, so they can make their profit on resale. You'd probably do better consigning the album to an auction house (Dutch Country comes to mind, believe they are near there).

~Greg

IIRC, Stanley Gibbons catalog values are based on their own retail, not the market per se. A lot would also depend on the era of said GB album: GV and EII will give buyers wildly different reactions.
There are only two ways to dispose of an album: either an auction (Dutch, Rasdale, etc) or my parceling it out and selling individuals or sets.

Absolutely correct. It is way safer to start auctions at the lowest price you feel comfortable accepting for an item.