Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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Everybody who sells on Ebay started with a -0- feedback. If you have purchased some stamps then hopefully a few of the sellers gave you positive feedback.
I quit Ebay in 2008 with a feedback rating of 2400 plus at 100%. When I came back a couple of years later they would not transfer it to my new ID so I started at -0-. I bought a few cheap things to build feedback up to 10 and started selling - unless you are selling expensive stamps I don't really think a low feedback rating is going to impact you.
Just my two cents
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I think you meant to say a "low feedback count", rather than "low feedback rating". A low rating will definitely hurt a buyer/seller.
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Thank you - I did indeed mean count, not rating. The older I get the less cognitive function I seem to utilize to edit my own work. I could still do well correcting my students work but I retired a few year back. Funny, isn't it. You would think that I wouldn't be making mistakes like that but for some reason I can't find them.
Thanks again J
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Webpaper thats the great leveler..we all started out with zero feedback...in 1998 i did not have a scanner...i had to describe everything i was selling...and believe me i was selling a lot more lots back then than i am now with a scanner 
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I started in 1997 - no pictures and the old alpha-numeric numbers and your email address was your Ebay ID. Both buying and selling were wonderful.
About once a month a lot would sell for several times what you ever dreamed it would bring. I started a fishing reel I couldn't research at $20 with the admonition that "since I have never seen one like it I will not sell it for less". It went for a shade under $400 !! With no picture (and paid by personal check). Lots of trust and faith in those days.
I remember a guy sold an apple grinder and when it hit $200 he added all kinds of descriptions of little rust spots and any other flaws he could find. It ended up at $2200 - scarce little apple grinder it was (that was a little later - it had a picture).
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Philb said,
"…in 1998 I did not have a scanner...I had to describe everything I was selling...and believe me I was selling a lot more lots back then than I am now with a scanner."
I have never, as far as I recall, bought a stamp or cover or postcard without having seen an image of it, and I have always presumed that most collectors did the same. Yet I am aware that there are dealers who still rely on written descriptions and seem to do OK. Here in Vancouver, a stamp shop that has a weekly auction rarely provides scans of lots, but has been in business for decades. It's hard for me to imagine why decent images wouldn't increase sales, but in philb's case, that seems to have been the case. Or, there just aren't as many buyers now as there were in 1998. It's a puzzle!
Bob
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Ah Webpaper, the good ole days of eBay... back in 1999 I had a robust business selling old car brochures and auto memorabilia. I was selling over $1000 a month and never had a bad deal.
Nearly everything sold and most of that got multiple bids and a good final price.
As time went on and eBay got more popular, the seller pool got too large and the very same things were being listed for $1 plus $1 postage. Never mind that these newbie sellers didn't know that they couldn't mail it for a dollar. Finally my sell through got bad enough that it really wasn't worth selling anymore.
I have been a constant buyer through the years and have gone through spurts of selling. I subscribe to a daily auction newsletter and keep abreast of the market. As said in this thread, with the slant towards pleasing the buyers of consumer junk, the venue is terribly anti small seller. I can't see myself going back to that mess.
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I was selling stamps pre 2000 on eBay & filling orders every day.
I would sell a little below the catalog price
Then they came in with their adwords and other "marketing" tools. All the big dealers started coming online & before I knew it I was at the BOB and paying big fees and selling very little.
Not much room for the little guy to make a living. The ones who drop ship junk or sell the high end fashion Chinese knockoffs do reasonably well.
For stamps there does seem to be a good market for forgeries, fakes & facsimiles. 
There are some good specialized sites I prefer. I'm into photography & astronomy & I have done very well buying & selling on these sites with no fees involved of any type and everyone a prospective buyer.
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11:04:03am
I've been buying and watching for about 3 months and have yet to see any stamps on the NZ pages being sold by an individual who is not a dealer / trader. I've only a few items to sell, but is it difficult to become trusted / get established?
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12:36:04pm
re: Selling on eBay
Everybody who sells on Ebay started with a -0- feedback. If you have purchased some stamps then hopefully a few of the sellers gave you positive feedback.
I quit Ebay in 2008 with a feedback rating of 2400 plus at 100%. When I came back a couple of years later they would not transfer it to my new ID so I started at -0-. I bought a few cheap things to build feedback up to 10 and started selling - unless you are selling expensive stamps I don't really think a low feedback rating is going to impact you.
Just my two cents
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01:04:19pm
re: Selling on eBay
I think you meant to say a "low feedback count", rather than "low feedback rating". A low rating will definitely hurt a buyer/seller.
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07:44:45pm
re: Selling on eBay
Thank you - I did indeed mean count, not rating. The older I get the less cognitive function I seem to utilize to edit my own work. I could still do well correcting my students work but I retired a few year back. Funny, isn't it. You would think that I wouldn't be making mistakes like that but for some reason I can't find them.
Thanks again J
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re: Selling on eBay
Webpaper thats the great leveler..we all started out with zero feedback...in 1998 i did not have a scanner...i had to describe everything i was selling...and believe me i was selling a lot more lots back then than i am now with a scanner
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09:17:18pm
re: Selling on eBay
I started in 1997 - no pictures and the old alpha-numeric numbers and your email address was your Ebay ID. Both buying and selling were wonderful.
About once a month a lot would sell for several times what you ever dreamed it would bring. I started a fishing reel I couldn't research at $20 with the admonition that "since I have never seen one like it I will not sell it for less". It went for a shade under $400 !! With no picture (and paid by personal check). Lots of trust and faith in those days.
I remember a guy sold an apple grinder and when it hit $200 he added all kinds of descriptions of little rust spots and any other flaws he could find. It ended up at $2200 - scarce little apple grinder it was (that was a little later - it had a picture).
Login to Like
this post
re: Selling on eBay
Philb said,
"…in 1998 I did not have a scanner...I had to describe everything I was selling...and believe me I was selling a lot more lots back then than I am now with a scanner."
I have never, as far as I recall, bought a stamp or cover or postcard without having seen an image of it, and I have always presumed that most collectors did the same. Yet I am aware that there are dealers who still rely on written descriptions and seem to do OK. Here in Vancouver, a stamp shop that has a weekly auction rarely provides scans of lots, but has been in business for decades. It's hard for me to imagine why decent images wouldn't increase sales, but in philb's case, that seems to have been the case. Or, there just aren't as many buyers now as there were in 1998. It's a puzzle!
Bob
Login to Like
this post
re: Selling on eBay
Ah Webpaper, the good ole days of eBay... back in 1999 I had a robust business selling old car brochures and auto memorabilia. I was selling over $1000 a month and never had a bad deal.
Nearly everything sold and most of that got multiple bids and a good final price.
As time went on and eBay got more popular, the seller pool got too large and the very same things were being listed for $1 plus $1 postage. Never mind that these newbie sellers didn't know that they couldn't mail it for a dollar. Finally my sell through got bad enough that it really wasn't worth selling anymore.
I have been a constant buyer through the years and have gone through spurts of selling. I subscribe to a daily auction newsletter and keep abreast of the market. As said in this thread, with the slant towards pleasing the buyers of consumer junk, the venue is terribly anti small seller. I can't see myself going back to that mess.
Login to Like
this post
10:41:38pm
re: Selling on eBay
I was selling stamps pre 2000 on eBay & filling orders every day.
I would sell a little below the catalog price
Then they came in with their adwords and other "marketing" tools. All the big dealers started coming online & before I knew it I was at the BOB and paying big fees and selling very little.
Not much room for the little guy to make a living. The ones who drop ship junk or sell the high end fashion Chinese knockoffs do reasonably well.
For stamps there does seem to be a good market for forgeries, fakes & facsimiles.
There are some good specialized sites I prefer. I'm into photography & astronomy & I have done very well buying & selling on these sites with no fees involved of any type and everyone a prospective buyer.
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