Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Also, I see a lot of pages where there are multiples of a stamp. So if I want 12 stamps of the 30, that's a lot of clicking. Why not have pages with just one of each stamp on a page & if you have multiples, put them on another page.Then one click would buy the page.
On another angle, if I do see some stamps have been sold, will clicking on the "buy whole page" button take into account the already sold stamps & total up the available stamps, or just say some are already sold, buy individual stamps?
Peter
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"if I do see some stamps have been sold, will clicking on the "buy whole page" button take into account the already sold stamps & total up the available stamps, or just say some are already sold, buy individual stamps?"
If you click on the "Buy Whole Page" button, you will be buying all the remaining, unsold stamps on the page.
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" I see a lot of pages where there are multiples of a stamp"
The rules only permit 3 examples of a stamp in a book.
Of course, if the approval book is being offered as a pre-cancel, special cancellations, etc. of a single stamp or several stamps, there will be more than 3 examples of each stamp.
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"I find most sellers just toss in their stamps in willy-nilly"
Several do that. Best is to find the sellers who create books that you like, and buy from them.
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" Why aren't stamps sorted as per date of issue?"
Most sellers would like to do that.
BUT
a) It all depends on the source of the stamps. (Are they from a mix in a box or a well laid out collection).
b) The time it takes to look at a catalogue and lay out the stamps in year order. (Some countries date their stamps well others are a nightmare).
c) The selling price of the stamps.
Try finding 100 stamps from a box of mixed loose stamps to suit a category in the Approvals rules, putting them in year order, valueing them to decide what price to sell them at, taking a note of how long it takes to do it.
Take cognicence that you may only sell 50% of the book and work out the rate per hour you achieve.
Remember also that you still have to scan the pages, crop them and list them. Also when a stamp is sold you have to collate the sales, (maybe to 10 different buyers), send invoices, wait to be paid, take the envelope to the post office and return home, notify the seller that they have been shipped then pray that the mail service delivers the package. If not you have to return the money to the buyer so all that work could be for nothing!!
Aye we sellers are the salt of the earth, the supreme beings
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Well, Ian just scared away a bunch of sellers!
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02:02:54pm
A note: Ian may seem a bit cranky at times (no offence), but his books are usually a joy to buy from. Sometimes he says that certain books are unsorted, but that's his right! There are other sellers whose books are always totally unorganized. What can you do about that? Don't buy from those people! Two of my countries are Poland and Russia. If I see books from those areas I always check them out, but if there is no order to the books it is almost impossible to know what I need. So I just wait for a new book from Ian or one of the others who try as much as possible to keep some order to their books. 
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"Ian just scared away a bunch of sellers!"
I hope so then everyone will have to buy from the one, the only, supreme being.... ME!!
" Ian may seem a bit cranky at times (no offence)"
Cranky? Me? The fantastic commander of great wit and repartee!
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"contain philatelic items with a $3.00 minimum selling price"
Micheal, by this you mean CV or actual selling price?
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The price that you charge the buyer.
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Sellers would say "and loving it" (catch phrase from Get Smart)
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"Cranky? Me? The fantastic commander of great wit and repartee!"
There are some buyers whose price threshold is low (5-9c), and they don't mind sorting through messy books to get really low cost stamps, and some buyers who don't mind paying a little more (>=10c) and will gladly pay the extra for organization.
It is up to the sellers and buyers to decide, what they want to charge/pay and what state of organization/chaos they will go for. It will not please eveyone to try to legislate it.
I myself think it is a club member to club member personal consideration to organize an approval book in some order, but it does take more time. As a buyer, I only buy from organized books, (and from Ian). As a seller, I try to post (almost) all books in chronological order and with cat numbers.
What would really really help, is for the TITLE of the book to state how the book is organized or not, but after a while, as a buyer, you know which sellers do it your way, and which ones have to be ignored. As a general rule, title description should be improved!
rrr...
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I have prepared 2 approval books so far (not activated yet), one is fairly well organized as I know the subject matter and have a catalogue that covers that country, the second book I have simply tried to group similar designs/subjects together as I have no information about those stamps from that country. Both books contain stamps that are priced at 10 cents and under, there may well be bargains in both books, certainly with the first book some are slightly higher cat. prices, but to me cat. price means nothing, never has done and I am not going to start worrying about prices now. If people think my books are messy (no idea myself) and will not look through them then that could well be their lose, am I going to lose any sleep over it, NO.
I enjoy going through neat and messy books (as long as the stamps aren't damaged), yes, it is easier to look through a well organized book, but, where is the fun in searching out that bargain?
Just my tuppence worth.
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Like has been said already, it depends on many things. I do approval books based on stuff I get in and sometimes it is too much work for just a few cents to put everything in catalogue order. When I already have it sorted in the stock book, I take it out in the proper order and only take out the ones that have a significantly higher c.v. They go on a separate page.
In other cases I put them in as I find them and give the buyer something to search for.
Thank you for the suggestion re. duplicates in approval books. I normally group stamps together, i.e. if I have more copies, I just put them next to eachother, but I never realized that this may prevent people from pushing the 'buy whole page' button.
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Thanks for all the responses to my query!
One other thing... when someone helpfully adds a link, it open in the current tab. Can a slight alteration to open in a new tab be added for all these links? I know, I know, just ctrl-click to bring a pop-up menu, but just clicking it would be so much easier. I could save so much time by just doing that instead!
TIA...
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BrightonPete,
If you right click a link instead of left click it, it should give you the option to open the link in a new tab.
Jackie
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I have been perusing the approval books, but I find most sellers just toss in their stamps in willy-nilly. Not being especially versed in all foreign countries, I find searching for stamps troublesome. Flipping album pages trying to find if I need a stamp. No numbers and not in any order makes it a chore. Why aren't stamps sorted as per date of issue?
Also, I see a lot of pages where there are multiples of a stamp. So if I want 12 stamps of the 30, that's a lot of clicking. Why not have pages with just one of each stamp on a page & if you have multiples, put them on another page.Then one click would buy the page.
On another angle, if I do see some stamps have been sold, will clicking on the "buy whole page" button take into account the already sold stamps & total up the available stamps, or just say some are already sold, buy individual stamps?
Peter
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11:57:42am
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
"if I do see some stamps have been sold, will clicking on the "buy whole page" button take into account the already sold stamps & total up the available stamps, or just say some are already sold, buy individual stamps?"
If you click on the "Buy Whole Page" button, you will be buying all the remaining, unsold stamps on the page.
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12:00:54pm
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
" I see a lot of pages where there are multiples of a stamp"
The rules only permit 3 examples of a stamp in a book.
Of course, if the approval book is being offered as a pre-cancel, special cancellations, etc. of a single stamp or several stamps, there will be more than 3 examples of each stamp.
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12:02:39pm
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
"I find most sellers just toss in their stamps in willy-nilly"
Several do that. Best is to find the sellers who create books that you like, and buy from them.
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12:53:16pm
Approvals
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
" Why aren't stamps sorted as per date of issue?"
Most sellers would like to do that.
BUT
a) It all depends on the source of the stamps. (Are they from a mix in a box or a well laid out collection).
b) The time it takes to look at a catalogue and lay out the stamps in year order. (Some countries date their stamps well others are a nightmare).
c) The selling price of the stamps.
Try finding 100 stamps from a box of mixed loose stamps to suit a category in the Approvals rules, putting them in year order, valueing them to decide what price to sell them at, taking a note of how long it takes to do it.
Take cognicence that you may only sell 50% of the book and work out the rate per hour you achieve.
Remember also that you still have to scan the pages, crop them and list them. Also when a stamp is sold you have to collate the sales, (maybe to 10 different buyers), send invoices, wait to be paid, take the envelope to the post office and return home, notify the seller that they have been shipped then pray that the mail service delivers the package. If not you have to return the money to the buyer so all that work could be for nothing!!
Aye we sellers are the salt of the earth, the supreme beings
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01:59:40pm
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
Well, Ian just scared away a bunch of sellers!
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
03 Feb 2020
02:02:54pm
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
A note: Ian may seem a bit cranky at times (no offence), but his books are usually a joy to buy from. Sometimes he says that certain books are unsorted, but that's his right! There are other sellers whose books are always totally unorganized. What can you do about that? Don't buy from those people! Two of my countries are Poland and Russia. If I see books from those areas I always check them out, but if there is no order to the books it is almost impossible to know what I need. So I just wait for a new book from Ian or one of the others who try as much as possible to keep some order to their books.
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02:45:13pm
Approvals
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
"Ian just scared away a bunch of sellers!"
I hope so then everyone will have to buy from the one, the only, supreme being.... ME!!
" Ian may seem a bit cranky at times (no offence)"
Cranky? Me? The fantastic commander of great wit and repartee!
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Approvals
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
"contain philatelic items with a $3.00 minimum selling price"
Micheal, by this you mean CV or actual selling price?
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05:14:49pm
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
The price that you charge the buyer.
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this post
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
Sellers would say "and loving it" (catch phrase from Get Smart)
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this post
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
"Cranky? Me? The fantastic commander of great wit and repartee!"
There are some buyers whose price threshold is low (5-9c), and they don't mind sorting through messy books to get really low cost stamps, and some buyers who don't mind paying a little more (>=10c) and will gladly pay the extra for organization.
It is up to the sellers and buyers to decide, what they want to charge/pay and what state of organization/chaos they will go for. It will not please eveyone to try to legislate it.
I myself think it is a club member to club member personal consideration to organize an approval book in some order, but it does take more time. As a buyer, I only buy from organized books, (and from Ian). As a seller, I try to post (almost) all books in chronological order and with cat numbers.
What would really really help, is for the TITLE of the book to state how the book is organized or not, but after a while, as a buyer, you know which sellers do it your way, and which ones have to be ignored. As a general rule, title description should be improved!
rrr...
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01:18:10am
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
I have prepared 2 approval books so far (not activated yet), one is fairly well organized as I know the subject matter and have a catalogue that covers that country, the second book I have simply tried to group similar designs/subjects together as I have no information about those stamps from that country. Both books contain stamps that are priced at 10 cents and under, there may well be bargains in both books, certainly with the first book some are slightly higher cat. prices, but to me cat. price means nothing, never has done and I am not going to start worrying about prices now. If people think my books are messy (no idea myself) and will not look through them then that could well be their lose, am I going to lose any sleep over it, NO.
I enjoy going through neat and messy books (as long as the stamps aren't damaged), yes, it is easier to look through a well organized book, but, where is the fun in searching out that bargain?
Just my tuppence worth.
1 Member
likes this post.
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Approvals
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
Like has been said already, it depends on many things. I do approval books based on stuff I get in and sometimes it is too much work for just a few cents to put everything in catalogue order. When I already have it sorted in the stock book, I take it out in the proper order and only take out the ones that have a significantly higher c.v. They go on a separate page.
In other cases I put them in as I find them and give the buyer something to search for.
Thank you for the suggestion re. duplicates in approval books. I normally group stamps together, i.e. if I have more copies, I just put them next to eachother, but I never realized that this may prevent people from pushing the 'buy whole page' button.
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re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
Thanks for all the responses to my query!
One other thing... when someone helpfully adds a link, it open in the current tab. Can a slight alteration to open in a new tab be added for all these links? I know, I know, just ctrl-click to bring a pop-up menu, but just clicking it would be so much easier. I could save so much time by just doing that instead!
TIA...
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08:06:48pm
re: Sorting your stamps in Approval Books
BrightonPete,
If you right click a link instead of left click it, it should give you the option to open the link in a new tab.
Jackie
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