Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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05:42:03pm
Over the past few years I have spent lots of dollars with NYStamps, and have always been very happy with my purchases. However, all my purchases from them have been collections, I have never purchased individual stamps. Plus, I never over bid. Everything I won from their auctions were via low ball bids - for every lot I won I probably lost 10.
With respect to auctions in general, my advice to anyone bidding, whether in person, by mail, or online, is to set your upper limit and stick to it, and never bid because you think you are going to outsmart the seller and pick up a treasure among his trash of which he is unaware.
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NY Stamps has a reputation of doing this. He did it on StampWants too, if memory serves correctly.
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Yes, I have personal experience with this seller. Sent item back and received full refund and profuse apology. Then saw item listed again later. He preys on uneducated buyers and apparently is making a killing! He is on my personal black list.
Lars
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I have now had the same experience Lars. I decided to give him a chance and purchased a single mint US 1053. Not a real expensive stamp, picture looked fine, got it at a good price. The stamp that arrived at my door looked like it had coffee spilled on it and had a gouge on the face. Unacceptable. I am sending it back for a refund. So the question is....do I just get my refund and let it go, or leave feedback describing the experience?
Sean
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"do I just get my refund and let it go, or leave feedback describing the experience?"
If you don't leave accurate feedback describing the experience, what good is feedback? The seller has no reason to change, and buyers will continue to be scammed.
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Not leaving feedback is silence, and silence is golden to a seller. By being silent, a buyer does not help the next buyers who make purchases. Those sellers don't care if they get feedback. So a bad transaction occurs, and no feedback is left. The next buyer comes along and sees a seller who has 100% feedback and thinks that the seller is reputable.
If one is not willing to leave feedback on a purchase gone wrong, then that person should not leave feedback on a good transaction. Not willing to use feedback correctly and for what it is intended, then don't use it.
If you got bad service at a restaurant, would you complain? Do you compliment when you get good service? Same thing. Feedback is feedback no matter how or where. Used correctly, businesses can improve how they operate.
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Not sure how it works in USA/Canada but the UK has a trading standards office who will investigate suspicious business practices. Frequently undercover, although they do have the teeth to take a business to court etc. Maybe enough complaints to the appropriate agency would lead to an investigation, because it would appear that Ebay are probably not going to take action against what must be a lucrative source of income.
I myself have purchased from NY stamps and have not had any problems.
Vic.
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I'm definitely not going to do anything until I get my refund, and I won't ever purchase from him again. Another thing I thought about is if I leave him negative feedback, even if I mention he gave a quick refund, he could do the same to me. I'm not sure how important a buyer's feedback is, but it could have consequences.
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Chris, I understand what you're saying that NYStamps gives refunds to any dissatisfied customer. And well he should. However, if there is a pattern of misrepresentation, if there is a pattern of relisting a returned item with the same misrepresentation as from the previous sale, to me that is fraud, and probably should be reported (whatever good that will do with eBay). Other sites might expel such a seller as it brings down the name of the site.
If a buyer returned an item because it was not the catalog number that it was stated to be in the item listing, and the seller relisted it with the corrected catalog number, I wouldn't have any problem with that. However, to me it's the pattern of misrepresentation without attempts to correct the problem that deserves the negative.
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Besides this "one" we have been discussing, are there other ebay sellers to avoid?
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"be aware that if you give a negative, the seller can block you from all future transactions"
I gave a dealer negative feedback, and he blocked me. Didn't hurt my feelings. After giving him two chances, I wasn't going to buy from him again anyway.
It was an issue of listing stamps as MNH, but sending hinged stamps and stamps with hinge remnants instead. I gave him a positive the first time since he corrected the problem in the form of a refund. A couple of months later I bought some more stamps from him. but the stamps received had the same issues. The seller had a cow over the negatives and said that I should have contacted him before doing that. I told him that I did discuss the problem with him after my first purchase with him. No further word from him other than he was blocking me.
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"In 2014 eBay disbanded/terminated the Stamp Community Watch group (SCW) and the Enhanced Member Reporting Group (EMR)"
This action on the part of eBay, done quietly and without general notice, was a blow to the philatelic eBay community. In an attempt to provide an avenue for reporting and investigating concerns such as the topic of this thread, Stamp Smarter was formed. (Stamp Smarter comes up in many discussions on SOR). It is a voluntary, peer-to-peer reporting/reviewing forum with no actionable authority, but it can be helpful in situations such as discussed here.
For example, at the the Stamp Smarter home page, scroll over "Reviews" and click "Display by Seller" in the drop-down menu. On that page, click the "browsehouse" menu and scroll down to "nystamps" and select it. Very interesting...
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Thank you for mentioning Stamp Smarter - my first visit
They appear to be very active & that is a LONG list of offenders
I recognize a lot of the main ones that I have sent notices to
I see some have been in business for a long time & were first mentioned over 10 years ago in SCADS & others
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I second the thanks. Many changes over the last 30 years. Thanks for letting me know about Stamp Smarter too. Ebay has lots of fraud in all categories.
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Now that we have heard about the bad apples and how to avoid them, does anyone have some favorite sellers that are real good? I have been real happy with one called gsquared7. So far they are the only ones I would actually recommend.
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Hi Everyone;
Someone should e-mail this thread to NY Stamps, and to spoof@ebay.com, and maybe a few
appropriate federal agencies, so that NY Stamps and eBay knows that not only are they being
watched by collectors, but by the FEDS too.
If enough people are brought into the loop, one of them will maybe choose to prosecute them.
Right after the real estate bubble burst, the FBI started it's on-going investigations of the real
estate fraud. Most of them didn't have a clue that the FEDS were digging into there past, until
they were read their rights and hand-cuffed, and carted off to jail.
The result was that in Detroit alone almost 70 individuals were convicted and sentenced, to jail,
including Realtors, Mortgage Loan agents, bankers, and others professions involved, that
had knowledge of the goings on.
Just my two centimes....
TuskenRaider
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There are a lot of bad listings on Ebay. Most can be determined just by looking at the picture. I often tell the seller that they have made a mistake. The common response I get is that is how it was identified when they got it. Many sellers are just resellers without the knowledge to properly identify items. There are also sellers that just don't care. I know of one that has had a listing for an E1 on cover for at least a year. I have told him at least a half dozen times that it obviously is not. He never changed his listing, but he has banned me from bidding on his stuff. His item continues to go up every week and does not sell. Eventually he will catch some sucker that is not paying enough attention to the picture.
As far as NY Stamps goes. I have bid with him. He lists a lot of US part perf and imperf Revenue stamps. You have to be very careful buying them as many are trimmed perforated stamps. I also won't bid on stamps online that the variety can only be verified through the watermark unless I have good history with the seller.
If you go on Ebay right now and search E3 under US postal history you will find a listing for a cover that is not an E3. The stamp isn't even orange. I believe it is an honest mistake by the seller.
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Hi Everyone;
Honest mistakes do happen on occasion, but repeated mistakes in a consistent pattern, are
just plain fraud and a felony!
Just chillin'....
TuskenRaider
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As an aside, with Ebay and other sites, When an item is listed with a "best offer" how can we tell what has been offered and is the seller required to sell at the best price offered even if it is the only offer?
Seems to me that the seller is making an offer to sell, and presumably the site keeps a record of offers and should enforce the sale at best offer within the time frame of the listing.
Any thoughts on the legal/moral position.
Vic
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Re: best offer
I have been involved with many non stamp best offers in the past and the general rules as I remember are:
Best Offers are good for 48 hours, or until the listing ends, whichever comes first.
If you don't respond to an offer with agreement, decline or a counter offer within 48 hours, it's cancelled.
The prospective buyer has 48 hours to respond to a counter offer
You can negotiate with the buyer but there is a 3 offer limit.
You can be getting multiple best offers at the same time.
I can't see it from my end but I do not think anyone can see a Best Offer is in progress
If you agree to an offer both parties are bound to the sale
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03:43:56pm
Michael wrote;
" ... Not willing to use feedback correctly and for what it is intended, then don't use it. ..."
I agree and the unwillingness to provide feedback to buyers until they make a favorable report is as immoral in my mind as outright theft.
But then I gave up on eBay several years ago.
I doubt that they noticed.
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04:13:40pm
I really like when a seller has bin and best offer. I bought one stamp from a fella who I've never bought from before at bin and noticed he had another stamp that I thought would never land in my paws just listed as bin. I looked at his other listings that had obo and messaged him saying I had just bought such and such a stamp and all his other stamps were offered as bin or best offer except for such and such a stamp, was there any chance he would consider a best offer for it and quoted my low offer. He wrote back and said that he would do a best offer but he couldn't accept that offer the best he could do was such and such. I wrote back reminding him of the one I just bought and gave him an offer $50 less than his offer and he agreed. He also posted them no charge registered post.
Nice fella and two beautiful stamps! If I ever get money again I'll definitely look at his stuff - nice honest dealer.
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"Best Offer", I have found is often used as "eye candy". I have made best offers that were less than 10% off the buy it now price, and have been rejected or ignored. Now I don't pay any attention to best offers on eBay.
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It costs nothing to make an offer so I will when the option is noticed. Results are as varied as the sellers. Don't expect to save 50 percent, but I've been successful in saving a few dollars
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And this is one reason why I only buy stamps from sellers on EBay I have known for a long time.
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21 Mar 2015
05:42:03pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Over the past few years I have spent lots of dollars with NYStamps, and have always been very happy with my purchases. However, all my purchases from them have been collections, I have never purchased individual stamps. Plus, I never over bid. Everything I won from their auctions were via low ball bids - for every lot I won I probably lost 10.
With respect to auctions in general, my advice to anyone bidding, whether in person, by mail, or online, is to set your upper limit and stick to it, and never bid because you think you are going to outsmart the seller and pick up a treasure among his trash of which he is unaware.
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10:33:26pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
NY Stamps has a reputation of doing this. He did it on StampWants too, if memory serves correctly.
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Yes, I have personal experience with this seller. Sent item back and received full refund and profuse apology. Then saw item listed again later. He preys on uneducated buyers and apparently is making a killing! He is on my personal black list.
Lars
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
I have now had the same experience Lars. I decided to give him a chance and purchased a single mint US 1053. Not a real expensive stamp, picture looked fine, got it at a good price. The stamp that arrived at my door looked like it had coffee spilled on it and had a gouge on the face. Unacceptable. I am sending it back for a refund. So the question is....do I just get my refund and let it go, or leave feedback describing the experience?
Sean
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01:49:46pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
"do I just get my refund and let it go, or leave feedback describing the experience?"
If you don't leave accurate feedback describing the experience, what good is feedback? The seller has no reason to change, and buyers will continue to be scammed.
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06:19:30pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Not leaving feedback is silence, and silence is golden to a seller. By being silent, a buyer does not help the next buyers who make purchases. Those sellers don't care if they get feedback. So a bad transaction occurs, and no feedback is left. The next buyer comes along and sees a seller who has 100% feedback and thinks that the seller is reputable.
If one is not willing to leave feedback on a purchase gone wrong, then that person should not leave feedback on a good transaction. Not willing to use feedback correctly and for what it is intended, then don't use it.
If you got bad service at a restaurant, would you complain? Do you compliment when you get good service? Same thing. Feedback is feedback no matter how or where. Used correctly, businesses can improve how they operate.
Login to Like
this post
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Not sure how it works in USA/Canada but the UK has a trading standards office who will investigate suspicious business practices. Frequently undercover, although they do have the teeth to take a business to court etc. Maybe enough complaints to the appropriate agency would lead to an investigation, because it would appear that Ebay are probably not going to take action against what must be a lucrative source of income.
I myself have purchased from NY stamps and have not had any problems.
Vic.
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
I'm definitely not going to do anything until I get my refund, and I won't ever purchase from him again. Another thing I thought about is if I leave him negative feedback, even if I mention he gave a quick refund, he could do the same to me. I'm not sure how important a buyer's feedback is, but it could have consequences.
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12:11:08am
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Chris, I understand what you're saying that NYStamps gives refunds to any dissatisfied customer. And well he should. However, if there is a pattern of misrepresentation, if there is a pattern of relisting a returned item with the same misrepresentation as from the previous sale, to me that is fraud, and probably should be reported (whatever good that will do with eBay). Other sites might expel such a seller as it brings down the name of the site.
If a buyer returned an item because it was not the catalog number that it was stated to be in the item listing, and the seller relisted it with the corrected catalog number, I wouldn't have any problem with that. However, to me it's the pattern of misrepresentation without attempts to correct the problem that deserves the negative.
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Besides this "one" we have been discussing, are there other ebay sellers to avoid?
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01:12:37am
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
"be aware that if you give a negative, the seller can block you from all future transactions"
I gave a dealer negative feedback, and he blocked me. Didn't hurt my feelings. After giving him two chances, I wasn't going to buy from him again anyway.
It was an issue of listing stamps as MNH, but sending hinged stamps and stamps with hinge remnants instead. I gave him a positive the first time since he corrected the problem in the form of a refund. A couple of months later I bought some more stamps from him. but the stamps received had the same issues. The seller had a cow over the negatives and said that I should have contacted him before doing that. I told him that I did discuss the problem with him after my first purchase with him. No further word from him other than he was blocking me.
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
"In 2014 eBay disbanded/terminated the Stamp Community Watch group (SCW) and the Enhanced Member Reporting Group (EMR)"
This action on the part of eBay, done quietly and without general notice, was a blow to the philatelic eBay community. In an attempt to provide an avenue for reporting and investigating concerns such as the topic of this thread, Stamp Smarter was formed. (Stamp Smarter comes up in many discussions on SOR). It is a voluntary, peer-to-peer reporting/reviewing forum with no actionable authority, but it can be helpful in situations such as discussed here.
For example, at the the Stamp Smarter home page, scroll over "Reviews" and click "Display by Seller" in the drop-down menu. On that page, click the "browsehouse" menu and scroll down to "nystamps" and select it. Very interesting...
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04:18:47pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Thank you for mentioning Stamp Smarter - my first visit
They appear to be very active & that is a LONG list of offenders
I recognize a lot of the main ones that I have sent notices to
I see some have been in business for a long time & were first mentioned over 10 years ago in SCADS & others
4 Members
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
I second the thanks. Many changes over the last 30 years. Thanks for letting me know about Stamp Smarter too. Ebay has lots of fraud in all categories.
1 Member
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Now that we have heard about the bad apples and how to avoid them, does anyone have some favorite sellers that are real good? I have been real happy with one called gsquared7. So far they are the only ones I would actually recommend.
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Hi Everyone;
Someone should e-mail this thread to NY Stamps, and to spoof@ebay.com, and maybe a few
appropriate federal agencies, so that NY Stamps and eBay knows that not only are they being
watched by collectors, but by the FEDS too.
If enough people are brought into the loop, one of them will maybe choose to prosecute them.
Right after the real estate bubble burst, the FBI started it's on-going investigations of the real
estate fraud. Most of them didn't have a clue that the FEDS were digging into there past, until
they were read their rights and hand-cuffed, and carted off to jail.
The result was that in Detroit alone almost 70 individuals were convicted and sentenced, to jail,
including Realtors, Mortgage Loan agents, bankers, and others professions involved, that
had knowledge of the goings on.
Just my two centimes....
TuskenRaider
Login to Like
this post
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
There are a lot of bad listings on Ebay. Most can be determined just by looking at the picture. I often tell the seller that they have made a mistake. The common response I get is that is how it was identified when they got it. Many sellers are just resellers without the knowledge to properly identify items. There are also sellers that just don't care. I know of one that has had a listing for an E1 on cover for at least a year. I have told him at least a half dozen times that it obviously is not. He never changed his listing, but he has banned me from bidding on his stuff. His item continues to go up every week and does not sell. Eventually he will catch some sucker that is not paying enough attention to the picture.
As far as NY Stamps goes. I have bid with him. He lists a lot of US part perf and imperf Revenue stamps. You have to be very careful buying them as many are trimmed perforated stamps. I also won't bid on stamps online that the variety can only be verified through the watermark unless I have good history with the seller.
If you go on Ebay right now and search E3 under US postal history you will find a listing for a cover that is not an E3. The stamp isn't even orange. I believe it is an honest mistake by the seller.
Login to Like
this post
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Hi Everyone;
Honest mistakes do happen on occasion, but repeated mistakes in a consistent pattern, are
just plain fraud and a felony!
Just chillin'....
TuskenRaider
Login to Like
this post
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
As an aside, with Ebay and other sites, When an item is listed with a "best offer" how can we tell what has been offered and is the seller required to sell at the best price offered even if it is the only offer?
Seems to me that the seller is making an offer to sell, and presumably the site keeps a record of offers and should enforce the sale at best offer within the time frame of the listing.
Any thoughts on the legal/moral position.
Vic
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03:28:37pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Re: best offer
I have been involved with many non stamp best offers in the past and the general rules as I remember are:
Best Offers are good for 48 hours, or until the listing ends, whichever comes first.
If you don't respond to an offer with agreement, decline or a counter offer within 48 hours, it's cancelled.
The prospective buyer has 48 hours to respond to a counter offer
You can negotiate with the buyer but there is a 3 offer limit.
You can be getting multiple best offers at the same time.
I can't see it from my end but I do not think anyone can see a Best Offer is in progress
If you agree to an offer both parties are bound to the sale
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
05 Apr 2015
03:43:56pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
Michael wrote;
" ... Not willing to use feedback correctly and for what it is intended, then don't use it. ..."
I agree and the unwillingness to provide feedback to buyers until they make a favorable report is as immoral in my mind as outright theft.
But then I gave up on eBay several years ago.
I doubt that they noticed.
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05 Apr 2015
04:13:40pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
I really like when a seller has bin and best offer. I bought one stamp from a fella who I've never bought from before at bin and noticed he had another stamp that I thought would never land in my paws just listed as bin. I looked at his other listings that had obo and messaged him saying I had just bought such and such a stamp and all his other stamps were offered as bin or best offer except for such and such a stamp, was there any chance he would consider a best offer for it and quoted my low offer. He wrote back and said that he would do a best offer but he couldn't accept that offer the best he could do was such and such. I wrote back reminding him of the one I just bought and gave him an offer $50 less than his offer and he agreed. He also posted them no charge registered post.
Nice fella and two beautiful stamps! If I ever get money again I'll definitely look at his stuff - nice honest dealer.
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04:14:12pm
re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
"Best Offer", I have found is often used as "eye candy". I have made best offers that were less than 10% off the buy it now price, and have been rejected or ignored. Now I don't pay any attention to best offers on eBay.
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re: eBay - Hundreds of "Classics" starting @ $1.00
It costs nothing to make an offer so I will when the option is noticed. Results are as varied as the sellers. Don't expect to save 50 percent, but I've been successful in saving a few dollars
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