Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
09:43:01am
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Here goes
I collect and sell - 4457 lots sold, 2832 lots purchased. I very seldom try to sell anything on SOR anymore, and NO high priced items. I generally choose a niche and try to keep everything way under a dollar. Last booklet was US cancels - I sold 86 out of 334 items to two members, I was happy to see them find a good home. It made the time spent putting it together worthwhile.
The last few approval books prior to that (two or three years back) were individual country books with items priced from 5 cents to several dollars.They were priced at a nominal 20 per cent of catalog value. Cheap ones sold, anything over a dollar or two did not sell. When placed on Hipstamp at a nominal 40 per cent of catalog the more expensive stamps were usually sold within a couple of weeks.
While I generally purchase for my very eclectic collection (scarce or showy) I do buy for resale once in awhile. There are a lot of bargains on SOR.
Better items are placed on Hip or Ebay because there are a lot of buyers willing to pay 40 per cent of catalog for good material which has not proven to be the case here…
These are just my observations - everyone sees things a little differently.
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I will quite happily purchase higher priced items if they are what I want for my collection.
I do not purchase from hipstamp as I find the rigmarole of trying to put together enough from one seller a total pain. I do purchase from Ebay and a few auction sites like FvH and All Nations in Vancouver and a few from the UK who do not charge a buyers premium.
I do find a problem with some of the sellers, here and elsewhere, who get watermarks wrong or do not describe the condition correctly, if it happens more than once then the seller goes off my list.
I have lots of holes for common stamps which I try to fill, but many times they are gone before I look at a book. I do not collect anything past 1993/4 unless GB so that narrows the shopping window as does the fact I want postally used over CTO or FDC.
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12:44:09pm
I wasn't sure whether to make this comment or not because I know some of you will take offence. I am going to stop making higher end purchases on SOR that are priced using Michel prices. Before you jump on me and say you have a right to use any catalogue you wish, which you definitely do, I find Michel prices a bit confusingly high in some areas - especially when you're not 100% sure what you are buying. I don't intend this to be a complaint, just a comment, so please don't jump on me for this. It is hard to justify paying a substantial price when you're not really sure what you are buying. I really had to think on this one before I decided to "Submit Message".
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"Better items are placed on Hip or Ebay because there are a lot of buyers willing to pay 40 per cent of catalog for good material which has not proven to be the case here"
There it is in a nutshell. The answer why higher priced items do not sell!
Not the whole phrase just "because there are a lot of buyers"!
'nuff said!
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01:53:40pm
Would it really hurt that much to give us a shot at the items first? At the very worst It just means a slight delay before you can post your items somewhere else. There are some sellers who think that way, I've bought some really good items from some of you in the past that are much more than $1.00. I've bought some great items from Greg, Steve, Larry, Anton, Eric, Carl and several others. Why don't some of the rest of you give us a chance of first refusal, after all this is supposed to be a friendly little site!
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As an approval book seller here - I agree the lower priced stamps sell from the books the best. When I break up a country collection - if there are enough higher catalog valued stamps - I try to put together a higher priced approval book. Most of the time the majority of the stamps in those books do not sell here. I always try to sell here first before I move the stamps to my Hipstamp store. Since the lowest price you can have in the higher priced approval books is $3.00 - that leaves the stamps between $1.00 and $3.00 which I try to include in the regular approval books. However, they tend not to sell too well and wind up being moved to my Hipstamp store as well. I will continue to try selling the higher valued stamps here first but I do not expect much and I am pleased when some of the stamps do sell. Steve
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For years and years, this subject is continuously raised on SOR. Buyers cry for higher valued items. Sellers say they won't offer them here, because there is little demand here for them. Then buyers cry and beg for higher valued stamps to be listed. When a seller or two do capitulate and list higher valued items, the items go unsold.
IF BUYERS WANT HIGHER VALUED ITEMS TO BE OFFERED HERE, THEN BUYERS MUST PONY UP TO THE BAR AND BUY THEM. Sellers aren't going to waste their time listing items here that go unsold when the same items could have been listed elsewhere at a higher price, and sold. You want cheap, you get cheap. Sellers will only provide what the people want, which is perfectly fine.
As has been stated many times, buyers need to steer sellers into what they want as regards to higher valued items. Post your wants in the Classified Ads.
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03:41:35pm
"When a seller or two do capitulate and list higher valued items, the items go unsold.
"
I know some of you might find this hard to believe but not all of us are cheap ba*****ds who are afraid to spend a buck or two. Generalizing can be very annoying and not appreciated! Of course it has to be an item I am looking for, but I'd much rather buy it here. And if you want to charge your E-Bay price, that's fine with me!!
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"Of course it has to be an item I am looking for, but I'd much rather buy it here."
As has been stated many times, buyers need to steer sellers into what they want as regards to higher valued items. Post your wants in the Classified Ads.
"Generalizing can be very annoying and not appreciated!"
No generalizing at all. Most stamps sold here are of minimal value. Even you stated it in your primary post to this thread.
"But I notice quite often that in books the cheaper items will disappear and some wonderful higher priced items just sit there. Are we just using SOR to fill in the cheap gaps and ignoring the others?
"
"not all of us are cheap ba*****ds who are afraid to spend a buck or two"
I never said that about anyone. I stated that cheap stamps are what are bought from here, and the sellers are filling that niche. I also stated, "which is fine".
And, once again, rather than sitting around hoping for a seller to list higher valued stamps that you want, buyers need to steer sellers into what they want as regards to higher valued items. Post your wants in the Classified Ads.
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Let me tell you a story:-
Not that long ago in a country far, far away a member of this club wondered how he could sell the unsold items he had listed on Stamporama over the previous few weeks.
Why?
He had spent hours listing items in the auctions with some success but was left with many, many, many items unsold. He had tried to sell more by reducing his prices but with little success. He came up with the idea of having a "Big Event" selling off those unsold items at 10% of catalogue. He listed 1000+ items all at once and by the end of the "Big Event" he had sold 50% of the items that had sat in his stock for weeks.
Once he analysed the figures he was amazed to discover that 80% of the items sold had all been listed previously at the reduced price but had failed to sell before!
The moral of the story is......................well you can make up your own.
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06:53:21pm
" Post your wants in the Classified Ads."
Do you really want buyers posting want lists in your site? Even though I collect about 20 different countries or areas it is still mainly higher priced items I am looking for. A few sellers on SOR have my want list since they asked for it and they occasionally send items to me to buy. My want list is 5 pages long and I have yet to find a way to do cut and paste on this site. If any seller wants to check my member's information they can see which areas I am interested in and if they contact me by regular E-Mail I would be glad to send my want list as an attachment. I have to be a bit careful at present since I am still paying for the amazing full B.C. collection and will be doing so for about 3 more months - it's very expensive. I would still love to see more quality items on your site and would be willing to pay fair prices for them. Some of you already know that - you really shouldn't have to give the stuff away. If that's the case maybe the selling areas should go away and we can just be a question and answer site - sellers deserve fair prices!!!
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Harvey
When your ready why not scan your wants list and then you can post it as an image in the appropriate topic of the discussion board.
When you accquire something on your list just redact and re-scan and relist.
Simples.
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07:26:12pm
"Simples."
Sorry Ian, not quite so simple. I need to get a new scanner and I haven't got around to installing a new camera yet. I've got a camera but my computer is very old and sensitive. When I get a new computer in a while I'll be able to do all these wonderful things - I hope! I'm afraid I'm a little paranoid, I have been working on a book on the history of baseball in my home county and have many saved files and part of the book on my computer. I probably have nothing to worry about but would prefer to finish the book before I change computers. Call me cautious!!
Edit: If any one of you sellers would like a copy of my want list please send me a personal E-mail (cbudgell1@eastlink.ca) and I would be glad to send one to you!
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Harvey
Don't lose the book!
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"Don't lose the book!"
Absolutely! I'm hoping you have those files.... the book itself and all your research files backed up somewhere!
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Harvey writes "Why don't some of the rest of you give us a chance of first refusal, after all this is supposed to be a friendly little site!"
Michael writes "For years and years, this subject is continuously raised on SOR. Buyers cry for higher valued items. Sellers say they won't offer them here, because there is little demand here for them. "
Webpaper writes "I very seldom try to sell anything on SOR anymore, and NO high priced items."
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It would appear that we have an issue that requires some addressing. Michael has suggested one possible solution to buyers when he writes " Post your wants in the Classified Ads." and " buyers need to steer sellers into what they want as regards to higher valued items. "
I wonder if it would be of value to sellers to also post area's that they offer higher value items in, to encourage buyers to contact them by email/personal messages. Not to have to spend time putting together offerings, but rather to encourage a person to person reachout may be a more friendly and efficient way to work out sales/trades.
I also wonder if having a separate list of sellers might not assist potential buyers. That list would identify area's, countries offered, along with a contact # for those interested.
Just thinking out loud.
Dan C.
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Along the same line of thought, Dani20... As a buyer, when I have a small lot of purchases from one seller, I may message them with a request for higher value stamps that are on my want list. If I can add a stamp or 2 to the invoice, this helps with the shipping cost per stamp. Since my primary collection is only a few countries (Canada, Netherlands, Bermuda, Costa Rica), and my want list is short, its not a big deal to include it in a private message. This is in line with what Michael suggests, but builds on a sale that is already started.
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One of the problems that I foresee with posting a wants list of higher priced items, is that the seller can put together scans, descriptions and send emails, only for the prospective buyer to bilk at the percentage of catalogue asked.
The buyer should, in an ideal world, state his maximum bid range, but this is unlikely to happen. Which catalogue and value is used also come into play as does the condition of the stamps, what may be "fine" to one person may not be to another.
I have posted wants lists on occasion, but even for cheap common stamps not everyone has all those to fill my gaps.
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I'm going to list more "MF" (Monday Fun) higher CV stuff today and make a comment there.
Dave.
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"One of the problems that I foresee with posting a wants list of higher priced items, is that the seller can put together scans, descriptions and send emails, only for the prospective buyer to bilk at the percentage of catalogue asked."
Sheepshanks is correct.
There is however a possible solution.
When a seller puts an item up for sale here, whether in the auctions or approvals, the biggest and most important decision they have to make is "THE PRICE" to sell it at. A buyer can then make a decision whether to buy or not to buy.
If a buyer is looking for a specific item(s) then his want(s) list should at least state "THE PRICE" they are willing to pay. A seller can then decide whether they want to supply or not.
Everyone then knows what all the perameters of the purchase/sale are before first contact.
EDIT
"THE PRICE" should be in Dollars and Cents and most definitely NOT a percentage of catalogue "value".
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02:04:10pm
I just posted a request for US wine revenue stamps - an area that I just started collecting. I bought a small US revenue lot from DanTheStampMan on E-bay and the great thing about it was that the pages for the stamps were included. So I now have pages for the dated reds, the dated greens and the wine revenues. I'm not into creating my own pages as some of you are so it's great to actually have the pages I need to mount the stamps. I quoted a price of up to 50% CV which seems fair to me, but maybe I'm wrong! I assume Scott's catalog even though I know some of you use others. It also implies that you would supply numbers, but I guess that isn't 100% necessary. I'll now just sit back and see if anyone can help me. I already got some really nice wine revenues from one seller. I wonder if anyone else has some. I am missing most of them so a want list doesn't seem that important.
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"I'm going to list more "MF" (Monday Fun) higher CV stuff today and make a comment there."
Go to Dave's post in the auction notes or look at his items that he has listed today.
It shows exactly why higher catalogued items are not listed here by many sellers.
Perception is everything.
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03:22:04pm
"Go to Dave's post in the auction notes or look at his items that he has listed today."
I just had a look - great stuff! Most of it are either areas I don't collect or Russian stamps I have. But I did pick up the Tanna Tuva stamps. I think they have fantastic stamps and "what the Hell", why not start a Tanna Tuva collection. If the point you're trying to make is that higher items don't sell, I really think that if someone needed the material it would be gone. The price is definitely right!!
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"The price is definitely right!!"
exactly why higher catalogued items are not listed here by many sellers.
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04:05:13pm
He decided to ask a price of about 10% CV and my maximum bid is above that. I agree that it is probably difficult to get huge amounts for quality items but hopefully he is still making a profit on the stamps and possibly the item will become hot! You never really know what's going to happen. I bid on some Russian BOB and some Wurt. stamps a while ago and the bidding took off on quite a few of them. I still think that it's worth the chance!! A little story - several years ago a friend of mine put a bunch of Victorian paper clips on E-Bay. Most of them went for a couple dollars but two of them happened to be incredibly rare Victorian mouse traps that went for several hundreds of dollars each. If you never take a chance you never have a chance to WIN!!!
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Dave, Joe Bloggs and I are entitled to sell at whatever price we want.
Buyers are entitled to buy at whatever price they want or not.
Stamporama has too few members for proper competitiveness to take place on items listed as an auction. (Yes you get the one in a million that goes up a wee bit).
It is a complete hit or miss in the auctions here (more misses than hits). The statistics prove it.
Last month only 3% of sold items had more than 1 bid. 10006 items listed were unsold (I didn't include topicals as these could be duplicated elsewhere and would make the figures even worse)(Of course the same items could have been listed more than once)
If a seller stands a better chance of selling a high catalogued item elsewhere at a higher price then why should they try and sell it here. 40% of $40 or 25% of $40 is far far better for them than 10% or 15%. Even with the listing costs and final value costs taken off that other platforms charge.
Yes we are a club and are different from other platforms but you can't buy a Ferrari from a Nickel & Dime store.
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"Do you really want buyers posting want lists in your site?"
That's why a classified ads section was created.
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I'd love to get want-lists from folks. I have a handful I use for "private" sales. But even having a want-list of countries/years or topics would save me time looking through all my envelopes to just pick out a few to focus on.
I spent a couple hours putting together some nice Manchukuo thinking there'd be interest - but so far no sales. So who knows what people want if you don't hear from folks what they want!
Dave.
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The average value of my items for sale on Ebay is A$28. I strongly doubt that selling those same items on SOR would be successful. I'd be delighted to buy higher value items here for myself, but as my collecting preferences are limited, they don't come up very often. So, if anyone wants to list British Empire 1910-1936, go ahead! 
I do buy quite frequently, but usually for resale.
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07:40:10am
I guess I can see the point now. I really wish the sellers here would post their better items here first but I guess the amount of work really outweighs the return. I'll still keep looking but resign myself to the other sites. Thanks for listening!!
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Harvey, let me tell you a story.
I have listed 5 items from a set of 6 because one item has been damaged. Four items are listed and the 5th, the "higher value", is listed as well. When I say "higher value" I mean $2 to $3.
The four items are bought and the 5th, "higher value" item is left unsold. This has happened many, many times.
We have a saying in Old Caledonia "horses for courses". What works in one place does not work in another.
Stamporama is just such a course!
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10:55:13am
Ian - I understand your frustration. In my Poland collection there are several series where I am missing the last stamp. I have occasionally bought the full series to get that last stamp, especially if it means getting rid of a bunch of CTO's. I think I've done that through you several times. To me, as long as it isn't over priced, the money doesn't come into it very much. I think I'm very lucky that I can afford to humour myself, some members are probably not that lucky. How many of us are stupid enough to spend about $10 000 on a complete B.C. collection? There are a few dealers who offer more expensive items on SOR and I keep my eyes open for their "stuff". Otherwise I guess I'll have to keep my eyes on other sites. By the way, I'm not bragging about "having money". I spent many years going without while setting up a large RRSP for my self employed wife. Unfortunately she died first and I now am spending the money meant for her. I think the saying is something like this - If life gives you a bunch of lemons, make lemonade!! If this post offends anyone, sorry about that!
"The phrase was initially coined by Christian anarchist writer Elbert Hubbard in a 1915 obituary he penned and published for dwarf actor Marshall Pinckney Wilder.[2] The obituary, entitled The King of Jesters, praises Wilder's optimistic attitude and achievements in the face of his disabilities:"
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While Approval Books was primarily designed to offer lower cost stamps, and a vast array of them to allow collectors to fill cheaply their pesky voids, or start a new collecting focus, I found that putting a good array of higher priced stamps at the back of the book has worked wonders.. And organize your book, for heaven sake!
From an economic stand point, a book with 200 stamps at 10c each can at most return $20 of sales. But add 10 stamps at $1 on one page, 5 stamps at $5 on another page and one or two $10 stamps on a third page, and one at $20 and now your potential is up to some very respectable numbers, nearing $100, and justifying the work it takes to list the approval book. And trust me, THEY SELL!
As an advance collector, I ALWAYS start at the end of the Approval Book where the higher value stamps are usually listed!
I always buy the higher valued stamps I need first, then look at the rest, IF they are organized systematically and not just thrown randomly on a page!
As a collector I work by ONE or a FEW specific areas at one time, so a match between my interests and your sales items will get my attention. I do have a want list that I refer to, but I am more likely to focus. Having one higher value stamp on Auction is not going to do the trick for me, What works is for a seller to focus on a few countries or topics, just like on Approvals (before we let this WW labeled books take over and degrade the platform). Then my chances of matching my needs with your items on sale are greatly enhanced. I never hesitated due to the prices, since SOR prices are ALWAYS more attractive than on commercial sites. The key is matching needs vs items on sales.
One other problem is that if you are going to offer a huge array of stamps with just a few in each country/area of collection, chances are that a buyer like me who focuses his/her attention specifically at one time, will have difficulties reaching a critical sales level. That is compounded by sellers who want to bill right after a sale. Be Flexible. I like to accumulate for a few week/ or even a month and reach a certain threshold before paying. (above $10 for sure. I return to sellers who make this easy, and I have eliminated the sellers who demand instant payments from the list of sellers I look at. Keep it in mind, because when I have eliminated you, I am unlikely to return! Should the total rise up quickly, I do request a bill so as not to put too many stamps at risk in the postal system. Otherwise, end of month billing is my ideal.
I don't think there is a real issue selling higher valued stamps on SOR as such. There is an issue because we are a small Club and the number of eyes will always be small when compared to commercial sites. But I would much rather buy here, and that is always where my search starts. My recommendation: Put a number of higher items in a well constructed and COUNTRY SPECIFIC Approval book, and see what happens. Auctions are too short in timing to offer good "store" self life, but Approvals are notr. Spend a little more time to id the high value stamps with year, cat number and any other needed specifics for advance collectors, and be surprised! Think of the high value stamp pages as Auction offerings and put the data allowing a buyer to know what he is buying with certainty! And above all ORGANIzE your books so that they dont look like floor dropping stuck on a page! No one is moderating Approvals, so put pressure on sellers to deliver quality books! But try listing more higher valued stamps together with the lower valued ones, at the end of the book would be my choice, and be surprised!
rrr...
PS: Working on Latin Americas right now. Show me what you got!!!
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02:14:51pm
RRR - Well said, I agree with everything you say!! You should be put in charge of all approval books!!!
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Thanks Harvey. Well someone should! (and not just in title!)
By the way, I am much more likely to look at approval books that have a price range of say 10c to $50,00 than books where the price range is $0.05 to $0.10
And our book listings show the range, so it is easy to know where to focus, when searching for better stamps.
rrr..
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02:33:06pm
When I look at the listing of new books I rarely open up a book that doesn't have a reasonably large number for the upper range. Or if I do look at it I really don't expect much. Most of the sellers are smart enough to not offer a great stamp for a small price. I consider myself to be an advanced collector and am mainly looking for higher priced items. There are exceptions for a few countries I have started recently - I'm considering Ecuador and Tanna Touva and possibly a few others. Please set up books the RRRalph suggests!!!
Edit: I was just looking at my want list. Why don't we see more material from Peru, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Swiss officials and US BOB? Counting me, only three people specify Peru as a collectible country and two for S.P &M. but 16 for Switzerland.
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It still comes down to the small number of members here. Not just buyers but also sellers. The pool is so small and the possible market so large.
Of course some members do not sell and some members do not buy.
With such a small no of sellers/buyers then choice is going to be limited. Never mind countries but when you add in the range of possible thematics, Back of the Book, First Day Covers, Postal History, Mint Never Hinged and Used ( Postally or not) amongst the small number of buyers, I am surprised that anything is bought at all!
The other day I looked at the number of items for sale in the auctions, a total of 7272 items were listed.
The number of Sellers was 30. Theoretical average of items per seller 242.
No of Items............No of Sellers
Listed
0 - 50........................8
51 - 100....................5
101-200....................4
201-300....................7
301-400....................2
401-500....................0
501-600....................1
601-700....................2
701-800....................0
801-900....................0
901-1000..................0
1001-1250.................0
1251-1500.................0
1501-1750.................0
1751-2000.................1
And you wonder why there is limited choice??
You wonder why there are few Higher Value items listed?
The pool is not an Olympic sized one, its a puddle!
If the seller in the 1751-2000 bracket disappears then its not even a puddle its a raindrop!
Edit
It also begs the question:-
How many of the 7272 items are re-lists?
1000, 2000 or 3000?
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06:37:05pm
"How many of the 7272 items are re-lists?
1000, 2000 or 3000?"
If I were forced to guess I'd say close to 3000.
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"If I were forced to guess I'd say close to 3000."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkhPuH8G ...
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For those interested there are currently 592 Approval Books on offer.
There are 39 different Sellers.
Of which 9 Sellers Sell on the auctions as well.
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I'm one of the 301-400 sellers but that will remain so for I think 2 more weeks. After that, I will put aside auctions until possibly giving them a try again next year. I discontinued penny auctions, which had stamps catloging up to a dollar when I began to sell less than 1/4 of them, all to the same person for a penny each. Sales on the auction platform for me anyway is next to nil. Unfortunately I cannot compete with sellers selling at 10% CV. Fees and the new federal tax (that pesky $600 1099) would leave me with no profit at all. I can't buy at 10%, at least not a collection that I could sell 100% of here. I am going to switch auctions over to approval style books, and while the one this week contains a few items over $10, I do not expect them to sell. I'll go this route for a while only because when I tried this back in January, they surprisingly sold at about a 75% clip, far better than any other books. Single country books seem to be dead for me as well. Since I only buy to sell here, no sales means I have nothing to use to purchase additional collections.
I still think it is the economy, and while people like to collect, they also like to eat or put gas in their cars. These things have a much higher priority for most people. Stamps though seem to be the only thing really affected. Other things I sell particularly books and postcards continue to do well
Greg
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Greg
Sorry to read that you are thinking of withdrawing from the auctions. But it is no surprise as I have been having the same thoughts.
Why?
This is not meant to be criticism of any individual.
This is my own perception of some of the weaknesses of the auction system.
Sellers have to find the items to sell either from their own stocks/collections. The item has to be looked at for condition, found in a catalogue, put aside if not for sale, details written down if it is to be sold, and a price decided on then stored. The item then has to be scanned, in some cases cropped, the final image of the item has to be noted alongside the item. Once that is done it has to be listed, details filled in, the no of days filled in, the correct image uploaded and then activated. All this takes time for each item so imagine how long it takes to prepare and list 10, 20, 30 items. (The labourer is worthy of his hire)
The item then appears in the New Item List for 24 hours. Once it is automatically removed from that list it then goes into the category/country lists for as many days as the seller has placed on it. There it stays until it appears on the Closing in 24 Hours List and after that it is removed from all visible lists whether it is country/category/New/closing.
Lots of folkies look at the New Items List and the Closing in 24 hours list but the perception is that few folkies go into the country list or category list. Some folkies say that they will not bid if the item is lasting more than 7 days. Some folkies don't want to see re-listed items in the New Items List.
How long should a Seller list an item for? If they list for 14 days the item is only guaranteed to be "up front" twice. (In New Items & Closing in 24Hrs) If they list for 7 days it appears "up front" twice and they have to relist the item, if they relist it will appear in the two lists for 4 days instead of 2 days compared to listing for 14 days.
Of course a seller could list for three days and their items would appear "up front" 8 times in 14 days!!!
The wide variation in prices is another weakness. This is down to the perception of each individual seller and buyer. What catalogues each individual has ranging from Scott, Gibbons Michel etc never mind the year it was published. Is it time that we should all use Stampworld.com or some other internet source?
Of course in turbulent economic times money is tight and sellers have to think of where they can maximise sales as do buyers who want the "most for their buck". A balance has to be struck.
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12:16:47pm
The only experiences I've had with selling is running an antique shop or doing antiques shows for about 30 years. This was actually, except for setting up or packing up at the shows, fairly simple. Of course you had to go to auctions or house sales to get the stuff but no biggie there! We sold on E-Bay for about 10 years but at that time that was much simpler than it would be now. Honestly Ian, if I had to go through all the stuff you mentioned above I don't think I'd have the patience or energy to do it. And I'm not just saying that, I mean it. Thankfully some of you still do it and I hope you do for a while yet. Thanks to all the sellers who go through all of the crap and I'll really try to be more understanding in the future! Thanks again for the hard work!!
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Ian you are correct in the amount of work for the auctions. The only reason I now am using a spreadsheet and reposting the same lots is that its far less time consuming. I have seen no difference in the sales from when I was doing a Wednesday afternoon listing and letting them run 10 days. I can also easily modify the spreadsheet so it is compatible with Hipstamps upload and I can then just move every unsold stamp to the store, which is what I will probably do in 2-3 weeks. I did sell a carton lot in the sales area and will do that for some of an estate that I have been selling over the course of 2-3 years. I STILL have not figured out what to do with the US. Joe bought a bunch, and you can see some of it in my weekly auctions, but, that is the tip of the iceberg. I have thought about accepting want lists but it is quite time consuming to do that. So, I'll try to dispose of all of the foreign and covers in bulk and just whittle away at the US, possibly just running US auctions going forward and leave the w/w in sales books. Its all older US, but the biggest problem is the sheer volume of it. How do you begin to sell of list 23 copies of US Scott #309? I hear the grumbling over multiple copies of the same stamp being repeated. And there are also thousands and thousands of Washington and Franklin issues. I'd need months of spare time to check them all The estate is from a widow whose husband was an ebay seller back about 10 years ago and an US approval dealer as well.
Good idea though about Stampworld, but it will never happen. Colnect is pretty good too because they give you all the catalog numbers for multiple catalogs. Trouble with that site is that they list each stamp individually and it takes a while to find what you are looking for if you do not know the year
Greg
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Now this is not meant as a criticism or to be derogatory in any way, but in response to Greg (Soundcrest) I just looked at your approval book list, around 27 books of various countries of which I am only collecting one, GB.
However, The id for many of the stamps is incorrect having mistaken the Scotland emblem for the Welsh and therefore given the wrong references. Ok not a big problem to Machin collectors but disaster for a newbie.
Machin collectors also tend to want to know the Phosphor band status and while I can see some bands I would have trouble trying to identify many. Also some have damage that is not noted and many have FDC postmarks, I only collect genuinely postally used.
I'm sure many of the other books have some good stamps at good prices but they are not in my collecting area so will not get looked at by myself, I also do not look at any book that is for mint stamps. I also skim past mint stamps in the auctions.
I know it is a lot of work to put up books with proper id and in good order and also to put stamps in the auctions, but when all is said and done this is a hobby site not a commercial one, and the basis for approvals and auctions was for collectors to offer there unwanted items to other collectors.
Again no criticism of anyone intended, just an explanation of what I look for when perusing the sale items.
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12:59:02pm
I haven't specifically mentioned the US material I picked up from Greg because I didn't know if he wanted it mentioned. But now that he has... I picked up some incredible stuff from that collection of US material!! Items that I will probably never see again and at very fair and reasonable prices. He always has great items on offer and I hope he continues selling for a long time yet! Thanks!!
But Greg, don't let it go to your head. You still have to figure out the difference between Scotland and Wales!
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"around 27 books of various countries of which I am only collecting one, GB."
That is one of the problems that is obvious. The diversity of subject matter that collectors seek.
Micheal said that the classified ads section was to allow for wants lists to be published.
Those that are actually seeking items should list the details and prices willing to be paid in that section of the DB. The more folkies that do that then the more sellers will look at that section, the greater the chance of the item being found for the buyer.
"Machin collectors also tend to want to know the Phosphor band status"
Phosphor Band status is very important for Machin collectors. However I must come to the aid of my American cousins as they have one major problem.
Scott's catalogue more or less ignores Phosphor Bands!!!
I'm off to cart 6 x Bankers Boxes of assorted stamps, Albums and covers to my car for transportation to my local auction house tommorrow.
My missus is fair chuffed that I'm getting them out of my hobby room!
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And Joe, I have not forgotten your other "desired for stamps that i can practically guaranty no one else has".......Yet, when I have offered similar stamps here at auction the interest is - zip. I can say that with certainty because auction lot views are given to those who put up the lot and many times better US stamps don't get looked at. You mentioned wines, and I have them somewhere in some folder (because I do not think I put them in a store. I do see a couple on ebay. Do a search in the store using RE*) that I listed here and for the most part, they went unsold. Some were quite good. It is a tricky site to work with mainly due to the small number of buyers that are actually here these days. I have no idea if the membership numbers are in a decline since I joined I think 6-7 years ago, but that may be part of the problem. I will continue to blame inflation though as the main reason. I see it just hit double digits in the UK
Greg
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"My missus is fair chuffed"
Translation Ian
rrr...
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fair chuffed = fair pleased.
Short answer as it is approaching 9pm here and my ice cream is waiting!
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i hold off until 10 p.m. for the ice cream !
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Whoa! Ice cream may be too much excitement for the board here!
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"Whoa! Ice cream may be too much excitement for the board here!"
It all depends on the flavour!!
Are you Vanilla, Strawberry, or something exotic like Rum & Raisen!
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As a buyer only I will throw in my tuppence worth.
Most countries that I collect I just collect what I can afford, I know I have no chance of filling the expensive gaps so don't bother even looking.
However the exception to the rule is British Guiana/Guyana and I have so far never seen any scarce items from here (apart from one item sometime ago that I already had). With British Guiana/Guyana I collect EVERYTHING that I can get my grubby little mitts on, including any cancels so will often get multiples of the "same" stamp just for the cancels.
This info probably doesn't help any of the sellers here but that is the way I collect and spend my hard-earned dough.
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And my 2¢ worth: if I want something, I'll buy it. Be it here, APS Stamp Store or some online dealer. I search in that order. Of course it is cheaper here, but I for one, would pay more, so I do go to online dealers and pay CV or even more! They range from Nordfrim, Postbeeld, Arpin in Quebec and a couple British dealers.
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Myself... I'm a Tin Roof man.
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10:41:22am
There's some incredible quality US material in the auction right now. I think we should all get off our butts and bid on the items we want and prove that we are not a bunch of cheapskates. I bid on the two I don't have, how about some others joining in. People are not going to post good stuff here if it doesn't get bids!!!
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
14 Aug 2022
09:43:01am
I haven't been keeping statistics on this so I might be out to lunch. I have been noticing that higher priced items in books and auction usually just sit there. Of course I, like anyone else, will only buy an item if it falls into one of our areas. But I notice quite often that in books the cheaper items will disappear and some wonderful higher priced items just sit there. Are we just using SOR to fill in the cheap gaps and ignoring the others? Am I imagining things or has anyone else noticed this? Is this also why there are so many new items? Are sellers putting their better items on E-Bay where there is more action?
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10:48:38am
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Here goes
I collect and sell - 4457 lots sold, 2832 lots purchased. I very seldom try to sell anything on SOR anymore, and NO high priced items. I generally choose a niche and try to keep everything way under a dollar. Last booklet was US cancels - I sold 86 out of 334 items to two members, I was happy to see them find a good home. It made the time spent putting it together worthwhile.
The last few approval books prior to that (two or three years back) were individual country books with items priced from 5 cents to several dollars.They were priced at a nominal 20 per cent of catalog value. Cheap ones sold, anything over a dollar or two did not sell. When placed on Hipstamp at a nominal 40 per cent of catalog the more expensive stamps were usually sold within a couple of weeks.
While I generally purchase for my very eclectic collection (scarce or showy) I do buy for resale once in awhile. There are a lot of bargains on SOR.
Better items are placed on Hip or Ebay because there are a lot of buyers willing to pay 40 per cent of catalog for good material which has not proven to be the case here…
These are just my observations - everyone sees things a little differently.
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
I will quite happily purchase higher priced items if they are what I want for my collection.
I do not purchase from hipstamp as I find the rigmarole of trying to put together enough from one seller a total pain. I do purchase from Ebay and a few auction sites like FvH and All Nations in Vancouver and a few from the UK who do not charge a buyers premium.
I do find a problem with some of the sellers, here and elsewhere, who get watermarks wrong or do not describe the condition correctly, if it happens more than once then the seller goes off my list.
I have lots of holes for common stamps which I try to fill, but many times they are gone before I look at a book. I do not collect anything past 1993/4 unless GB so that narrows the shopping window as does the fact I want postally used over CTO or FDC.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
14 Aug 2022
12:44:09pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
I wasn't sure whether to make this comment or not because I know some of you will take offence. I am going to stop making higher end purchases on SOR that are priced using Michel prices. Before you jump on me and say you have a right to use any catalogue you wish, which you definitely do, I find Michel prices a bit confusingly high in some areas - especially when you're not 100% sure what you are buying. I don't intend this to be a complaint, just a comment, so please don't jump on me for this. It is hard to justify paying a substantial price when you're not really sure what you are buying. I really had to think on this one before I decided to "Submit Message".
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01:42:45pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"Better items are placed on Hip or Ebay because there are a lot of buyers willing to pay 40 per cent of catalog for good material which has not proven to be the case here"
There it is in a nutshell. The answer why higher priced items do not sell!
Not the whole phrase just "because there are a lot of buyers"!
'nuff said!
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
14 Aug 2022
01:53:40pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Would it really hurt that much to give us a shot at the items first? At the very worst It just means a slight delay before you can post your items somewhere else. There are some sellers who think that way, I've bought some really good items from some of you in the past that are much more than $1.00. I've bought some great items from Greg, Steve, Larry, Anton, Eric, Carl and several others. Why don't some of the rest of you give us a chance of first refusal, after all this is supposed to be a friendly little site!
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Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
As an approval book seller here - I agree the lower priced stamps sell from the books the best. When I break up a country collection - if there are enough higher catalog valued stamps - I try to put together a higher priced approval book. Most of the time the majority of the stamps in those books do not sell here. I always try to sell here first before I move the stamps to my Hipstamp store. Since the lowest price you can have in the higher priced approval books is $3.00 - that leaves the stamps between $1.00 and $3.00 which I try to include in the regular approval books. However, they tend not to sell too well and wind up being moved to my Hipstamp store as well. I will continue to try selling the higher valued stamps here first but I do not expect much and I am pleased when some of the stamps do sell. Steve
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03:33:08pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
For years and years, this subject is continuously raised on SOR. Buyers cry for higher valued items. Sellers say they won't offer them here, because there is little demand here for them. Then buyers cry and beg for higher valued stamps to be listed. When a seller or two do capitulate and list higher valued items, the items go unsold.
IF BUYERS WANT HIGHER VALUED ITEMS TO BE OFFERED HERE, THEN BUYERS MUST PONY UP TO THE BAR AND BUY THEM. Sellers aren't going to waste their time listing items here that go unsold when the same items could have been listed elsewhere at a higher price, and sold. You want cheap, you get cheap. Sellers will only provide what the people want, which is perfectly fine.
As has been stated many times, buyers need to steer sellers into what they want as regards to higher valued items. Post your wants in the Classified Ads.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
14 Aug 2022
03:41:35pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"When a seller or two do capitulate and list higher valued items, the items go unsold.
"
I know some of you might find this hard to believe but not all of us are cheap ba*****ds who are afraid to spend a buck or two. Generalizing can be very annoying and not appreciated! Of course it has to be an item I am looking for, but I'd much rather buy it here. And if you want to charge your E-Bay price, that's fine with me!!
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04:32:27pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"Of course it has to be an item I am looking for, but I'd much rather buy it here."
As has been stated many times, buyers need to steer sellers into what they want as regards to higher valued items. Post your wants in the Classified Ads.
"Generalizing can be very annoying and not appreciated!"
No generalizing at all. Most stamps sold here are of minimal value. Even you stated it in your primary post to this thread.
"But I notice quite often that in books the cheaper items will disappear and some wonderful higher priced items just sit there. Are we just using SOR to fill in the cheap gaps and ignoring the others?
"
"not all of us are cheap ba*****ds who are afraid to spend a buck or two"
I never said that about anyone. I stated that cheap stamps are what are bought from here, and the sellers are filling that niche. I also stated, "which is fine".
And, once again, rather than sitting around hoping for a seller to list higher valued stamps that you want, buyers need to steer sellers into what they want as regards to higher valued items. Post your wants in the Classified Ads.
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06:23:20pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Let me tell you a story:-
Not that long ago in a country far, far away a member of this club wondered how he could sell the unsold items he had listed on Stamporama over the previous few weeks.
Why?
He had spent hours listing items in the auctions with some success but was left with many, many, many items unsold. He had tried to sell more by reducing his prices but with little success. He came up with the idea of having a "Big Event" selling off those unsold items at 10% of catalogue. He listed 1000+ items all at once and by the end of the "Big Event" he had sold 50% of the items that had sat in his stock for weeks.
Once he analysed the figures he was amazed to discover that 80% of the items sold had all been listed previously at the reduced price but had failed to sell before!
The moral of the story is......................well you can make up your own.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
14 Aug 2022
06:53:21pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
" Post your wants in the Classified Ads."
Do you really want buyers posting want lists in your site? Even though I collect about 20 different countries or areas it is still mainly higher priced items I am looking for. A few sellers on SOR have my want list since they asked for it and they occasionally send items to me to buy. My want list is 5 pages long and I have yet to find a way to do cut and paste on this site. If any seller wants to check my member's information they can see which areas I am interested in and if they contact me by regular E-Mail I would be glad to send my want list as an attachment. I have to be a bit careful at present since I am still paying for the amazing full B.C. collection and will be doing so for about 3 more months - it's very expensive. I would still love to see more quality items on your site and would be willing to pay fair prices for them. Some of you already know that - you really shouldn't have to give the stuff away. If that's the case maybe the selling areas should go away and we can just be a question and answer site - sellers deserve fair prices!!!
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07:17:25pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Harvey
When your ready why not scan your wants list and then you can post it as an image in the appropriate topic of the discussion board.
When you accquire something on your list just redact and re-scan and relist.
Simples.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
14 Aug 2022
07:26:12pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"Simples."
Sorry Ian, not quite so simple. I need to get a new scanner and I haven't got around to installing a new camera yet. I've got a camera but my computer is very old and sensitive. When I get a new computer in a while I'll be able to do all these wonderful things - I hope! I'm afraid I'm a little paranoid, I have been working on a book on the history of baseball in my home county and have many saved files and part of the book on my computer. I probably have nothing to worry about but would prefer to finish the book before I change computers. Call me cautious!!
Edit: If any one of you sellers would like a copy of my want list please send me a personal E-mail (cbudgell1@eastlink.ca) and I would be glad to send one to you!
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07:34:08pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Harvey
Don't lose the book!
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"Don't lose the book!"
Absolutely! I'm hoping you have those files.... the book itself and all your research files backed up somewhere!
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Harvey writes "Why don't some of the rest of you give us a chance of first refusal, after all this is supposed to be a friendly little site!"
Michael writes "For years and years, this subject is continuously raised on SOR. Buyers cry for higher valued items. Sellers say they won't offer them here, because there is little demand here for them. "
Webpaper writes "I very seldom try to sell anything on SOR anymore, and NO high priced items."
---------------------------------------------------------------
It would appear that we have an issue that requires some addressing. Michael has suggested one possible solution to buyers when he writes " Post your wants in the Classified Ads." and " buyers need to steer sellers into what they want as regards to higher valued items. "
I wonder if it would be of value to sellers to also post area's that they offer higher value items in, to encourage buyers to contact them by email/personal messages. Not to have to spend time putting together offerings, but rather to encourage a person to person reachout may be a more friendly and efficient way to work out sales/trades.
I also wonder if having a separate list of sellers might not assist potential buyers. That list would identify area's, countries offered, along with a contact # for those interested.
Just thinking out loud.
Dan C.
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11:18:25am
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Along the same line of thought, Dani20... As a buyer, when I have a small lot of purchases from one seller, I may message them with a request for higher value stamps that are on my want list. If I can add a stamp or 2 to the invoice, this helps with the shipping cost per stamp. Since my primary collection is only a few countries (Canada, Netherlands, Bermuda, Costa Rica), and my want list is short, its not a big deal to include it in a private message. This is in line with what Michael suggests, but builds on a sale that is already started.
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
One of the problems that I foresee with posting a wants list of higher priced items, is that the seller can put together scans, descriptions and send emails, only for the prospective buyer to bilk at the percentage of catalogue asked.
The buyer should, in an ideal world, state his maximum bid range, but this is unlikely to happen. Which catalogue and value is used also come into play as does the condition of the stamps, what may be "fine" to one person may not be to another.
I have posted wants lists on occasion, but even for cheap common stamps not everyone has all those to fill my gaps.
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01:20:05pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
I'm going to list more "MF" (Monday Fun) higher CV stuff today and make a comment there.
Dave.
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01:54:38pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"One of the problems that I foresee with posting a wants list of higher priced items, is that the seller can put together scans, descriptions and send emails, only for the prospective buyer to bilk at the percentage of catalogue asked."
Sheepshanks is correct.
There is however a possible solution.
When a seller puts an item up for sale here, whether in the auctions or approvals, the biggest and most important decision they have to make is "THE PRICE" to sell it at. A buyer can then make a decision whether to buy or not to buy.
If a buyer is looking for a specific item(s) then his want(s) list should at least state "THE PRICE" they are willing to pay. A seller can then decide whether they want to supply or not.
Everyone then knows what all the perameters of the purchase/sale are before first contact.
EDIT
"THE PRICE" should be in Dollars and Cents and most definitely NOT a percentage of catalogue "value".
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
15 Aug 2022
02:04:10pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
I just posted a request for US wine revenue stamps - an area that I just started collecting. I bought a small US revenue lot from DanTheStampMan on E-bay and the great thing about it was that the pages for the stamps were included. So I now have pages for the dated reds, the dated greens and the wine revenues. I'm not into creating my own pages as some of you are so it's great to actually have the pages I need to mount the stamps. I quoted a price of up to 50% CV which seems fair to me, but maybe I'm wrong! I assume Scott's catalog even though I know some of you use others. It also implies that you would supply numbers, but I guess that isn't 100% necessary. I'll now just sit back and see if anyone can help me. I already got some really nice wine revenues from one seller. I wonder if anyone else has some. I am missing most of them so a want list doesn't seem that important.
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02:34:06pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"I'm going to list more "MF" (Monday Fun) higher CV stuff today and make a comment there."
Go to Dave's post in the auction notes or look at his items that he has listed today.
It shows exactly why higher catalogued items are not listed here by many sellers.
Perception is everything.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
15 Aug 2022
03:22:04pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"Go to Dave's post in the auction notes or look at his items that he has listed today."
I just had a look - great stuff! Most of it are either areas I don't collect or Russian stamps I have. But I did pick up the Tanna Tuva stamps. I think they have fantastic stamps and "what the Hell", why not start a Tanna Tuva collection. If the point you're trying to make is that higher items don't sell, I really think that if someone needed the material it would be gone. The price is definitely right!!
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03:53:11pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"The price is definitely right!!"
exactly why higher catalogued items are not listed here by many sellers.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
15 Aug 2022
04:05:13pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
He decided to ask a price of about 10% CV and my maximum bid is above that. I agree that it is probably difficult to get huge amounts for quality items but hopefully he is still making a profit on the stamps and possibly the item will become hot! You never really know what's going to happen. I bid on some Russian BOB and some Wurt. stamps a while ago and the bidding took off on quite a few of them. I still think that it's worth the chance!! A little story - several years ago a friend of mine put a bunch of Victorian paper clips on E-Bay. Most of them went for a couple dollars but two of them happened to be incredibly rare Victorian mouse traps that went for several hundreds of dollars each. If you never take a chance you never have a chance to WIN!!!
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06:31:26pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Dave, Joe Bloggs and I are entitled to sell at whatever price we want.
Buyers are entitled to buy at whatever price they want or not.
Stamporama has too few members for proper competitiveness to take place on items listed as an auction. (Yes you get the one in a million that goes up a wee bit).
It is a complete hit or miss in the auctions here (more misses than hits). The statistics prove it.
Last month only 3% of sold items had more than 1 bid. 10006 items listed were unsold (I didn't include topicals as these could be duplicated elsewhere and would make the figures even worse)(Of course the same items could have been listed more than once)
If a seller stands a better chance of selling a high catalogued item elsewhere at a higher price then why should they try and sell it here. 40% of $40 or 25% of $40 is far far better for them than 10% or 15%. Even with the listing costs and final value costs taken off that other platforms charge.
Yes we are a club and are different from other platforms but you can't buy a Ferrari from a Nickel & Dime store.
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06:52:21pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"Do you really want buyers posting want lists in your site?"
That's why a classified ads section was created.
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08:34:40pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
I'd love to get want-lists from folks. I have a handful I use for "private" sales. But even having a want-list of countries/years or topics would save me time looking through all my envelopes to just pick out a few to focus on.
I spent a couple hours putting together some nice Manchukuo thinking there'd be interest - but so far no sales. So who knows what people want if you don't hear from folks what they want!
Dave.
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
The average value of my items for sale on Ebay is A$28. I strongly doubt that selling those same items on SOR would be successful. I'd be delighted to buy higher value items here for myself, but as my collecting preferences are limited, they don't come up very often. So, if anyone wants to list British Empire 1910-1936, go ahead!
I do buy quite frequently, but usually for resale.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
16 Aug 2022
07:40:10am
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
I guess I can see the point now. I really wish the sellers here would post their better items here first but I guess the amount of work really outweighs the return. I'll still keep looking but resign myself to the other sites. Thanks for listening!!
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10:42:25am
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Harvey, let me tell you a story.
I have listed 5 items from a set of 6 because one item has been damaged. Four items are listed and the 5th, the "higher value", is listed as well. When I say "higher value" I mean $2 to $3.
The four items are bought and the 5th, "higher value" item is left unsold. This has happened many, many times.
We have a saying in Old Caledonia "horses for courses". What works in one place does not work in another.
Stamporama is just such a course!
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
16 Aug 2022
10:55:13am
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Ian - I understand your frustration. In my Poland collection there are several series where I am missing the last stamp. I have occasionally bought the full series to get that last stamp, especially if it means getting rid of a bunch of CTO's. I think I've done that through you several times. To me, as long as it isn't over priced, the money doesn't come into it very much. I think I'm very lucky that I can afford to humour myself, some members are probably not that lucky. How many of us are stupid enough to spend about $10 000 on a complete B.C. collection? There are a few dealers who offer more expensive items on SOR and I keep my eyes open for their "stuff". Otherwise I guess I'll have to keep my eyes on other sites. By the way, I'm not bragging about "having money". I spent many years going without while setting up a large RRSP for my self employed wife. Unfortunately she died first and I now am spending the money meant for her. I think the saying is something like this - If life gives you a bunch of lemons, make lemonade!! If this post offends anyone, sorry about that!
"The phrase was initially coined by Christian anarchist writer Elbert Hubbard in a 1915 obituary he penned and published for dwarf actor Marshall Pinckney Wilder.[2] The obituary, entitled The King of Jesters, praises Wilder's optimistic attitude and achievements in the face of his disabilities:"
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
While Approval Books was primarily designed to offer lower cost stamps, and a vast array of them to allow collectors to fill cheaply their pesky voids, or start a new collecting focus, I found that putting a good array of higher priced stamps at the back of the book has worked wonders.. And organize your book, for heaven sake!
From an economic stand point, a book with 200 stamps at 10c each can at most return $20 of sales. But add 10 stamps at $1 on one page, 5 stamps at $5 on another page and one or two $10 stamps on a third page, and one at $20 and now your potential is up to some very respectable numbers, nearing $100, and justifying the work it takes to list the approval book. And trust me, THEY SELL!
As an advance collector, I ALWAYS start at the end of the Approval Book where the higher value stamps are usually listed!
I always buy the higher valued stamps I need first, then look at the rest, IF they are organized systematically and not just thrown randomly on a page!
As a collector I work by ONE or a FEW specific areas at one time, so a match between my interests and your sales items will get my attention. I do have a want list that I refer to, but I am more likely to focus. Having one higher value stamp on Auction is not going to do the trick for me, What works is for a seller to focus on a few countries or topics, just like on Approvals (before we let this WW labeled books take over and degrade the platform). Then my chances of matching my needs with your items on sale are greatly enhanced. I never hesitated due to the prices, since SOR prices are ALWAYS more attractive than on commercial sites. The key is matching needs vs items on sales.
One other problem is that if you are going to offer a huge array of stamps with just a few in each country/area of collection, chances are that a buyer like me who focuses his/her attention specifically at one time, will have difficulties reaching a critical sales level. That is compounded by sellers who want to bill right after a sale. Be Flexible. I like to accumulate for a few week/ or even a month and reach a certain threshold before paying. (above $10 for sure. I return to sellers who make this easy, and I have eliminated the sellers who demand instant payments from the list of sellers I look at. Keep it in mind, because when I have eliminated you, I am unlikely to return! Should the total rise up quickly, I do request a bill so as not to put too many stamps at risk in the postal system. Otherwise, end of month billing is my ideal.
I don't think there is a real issue selling higher valued stamps on SOR as such. There is an issue because we are a small Club and the number of eyes will always be small when compared to commercial sites. But I would much rather buy here, and that is always where my search starts. My recommendation: Put a number of higher items in a well constructed and COUNTRY SPECIFIC Approval book, and see what happens. Auctions are too short in timing to offer good "store" self life, but Approvals are notr. Spend a little more time to id the high value stamps with year, cat number and any other needed specifics for advance collectors, and be surprised! Think of the high value stamp pages as Auction offerings and put the data allowing a buyer to know what he is buying with certainty! And above all ORGANIzE your books so that they dont look like floor dropping stuck on a page! No one is moderating Approvals, so put pressure on sellers to deliver quality books! But try listing more higher valued stamps together with the lower valued ones, at the end of the book would be my choice, and be surprised!
rrr...
PS: Working on Latin Americas right now. Show me what you got!!!
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
16 Aug 2022
02:14:51pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
RRR - Well said, I agree with everything you say!! You should be put in charge of all approval books!!!
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Thanks Harvey. Well someone should! (and not just in title!)
By the way, I am much more likely to look at approval books that have a price range of say 10c to $50,00 than books where the price range is $0.05 to $0.10
And our book listings show the range, so it is easy to know where to focus, when searching for better stamps.
rrr..
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
16 Aug 2022
02:33:06pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
When I look at the listing of new books I rarely open up a book that doesn't have a reasonably large number for the upper range. Or if I do look at it I really don't expect much. Most of the sellers are smart enough to not offer a great stamp for a small price. I consider myself to be an advanced collector and am mainly looking for higher priced items. There are exceptions for a few countries I have started recently - I'm considering Ecuador and Tanna Touva and possibly a few others. Please set up books the RRRalph suggests!!!
Edit: I was just looking at my want list. Why don't we see more material from Peru, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Swiss officials and US BOB? Counting me, only three people specify Peru as a collectible country and two for S.P &M. but 16 for Switzerland.
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06:21:40pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
It still comes down to the small number of members here. Not just buyers but also sellers. The pool is so small and the possible market so large.
Of course some members do not sell and some members do not buy.
With such a small no of sellers/buyers then choice is going to be limited. Never mind countries but when you add in the range of possible thematics, Back of the Book, First Day Covers, Postal History, Mint Never Hinged and Used ( Postally or not) amongst the small number of buyers, I am surprised that anything is bought at all!
The other day I looked at the number of items for sale in the auctions, a total of 7272 items were listed.
The number of Sellers was 30. Theoretical average of items per seller 242.
No of Items............No of Sellers
Listed
0 - 50........................8
51 - 100....................5
101-200....................4
201-300....................7
301-400....................2
401-500....................0
501-600....................1
601-700....................2
701-800....................0
801-900....................0
901-1000..................0
1001-1250.................0
1251-1500.................0
1501-1750.................0
1751-2000.................1
And you wonder why there is limited choice??
You wonder why there are few Higher Value items listed?
The pool is not an Olympic sized one, its a puddle!
If the seller in the 1751-2000 bracket disappears then its not even a puddle its a raindrop!
Edit
It also begs the question:-
How many of the 7272 items are re-lists?
1000, 2000 or 3000?
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
16 Aug 2022
06:37:05pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"How many of the 7272 items are re-lists?
1000, 2000 or 3000?"
If I were forced to guess I'd say close to 3000.
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08:22:34pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"If I were forced to guess I'd say close to 3000."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkhPuH8G ...
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08:39:20pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
For those interested there are currently 592 Approval Books on offer.
There are 39 different Sellers.
Of which 9 Sellers Sell on the auctions as well.
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Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
I'm one of the 301-400 sellers but that will remain so for I think 2 more weeks. After that, I will put aside auctions until possibly giving them a try again next year. I discontinued penny auctions, which had stamps catloging up to a dollar when I began to sell less than 1/4 of them, all to the same person for a penny each. Sales on the auction platform for me anyway is next to nil. Unfortunately I cannot compete with sellers selling at 10% CV. Fees and the new federal tax (that pesky $600 1099) would leave me with no profit at all. I can't buy at 10%, at least not a collection that I could sell 100% of here. I am going to switch auctions over to approval style books, and while the one this week contains a few items over $10, I do not expect them to sell. I'll go this route for a while only because when I tried this back in January, they surprisingly sold at about a 75% clip, far better than any other books. Single country books seem to be dead for me as well. Since I only buy to sell here, no sales means I have nothing to use to purchase additional collections.
I still think it is the economy, and while people like to collect, they also like to eat or put gas in their cars. These things have a much higher priority for most people. Stamps though seem to be the only thing really affected. Other things I sell particularly books and postcards continue to do well
Greg
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11:49:18am
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Greg
Sorry to read that you are thinking of withdrawing from the auctions. But it is no surprise as I have been having the same thoughts.
Why?
This is not meant to be criticism of any individual.
This is my own perception of some of the weaknesses of the auction system.
Sellers have to find the items to sell either from their own stocks/collections. The item has to be looked at for condition, found in a catalogue, put aside if not for sale, details written down if it is to be sold, and a price decided on then stored. The item then has to be scanned, in some cases cropped, the final image of the item has to be noted alongside the item. Once that is done it has to be listed, details filled in, the no of days filled in, the correct image uploaded and then activated. All this takes time for each item so imagine how long it takes to prepare and list 10, 20, 30 items. (The labourer is worthy of his hire)
The item then appears in the New Item List for 24 hours. Once it is automatically removed from that list it then goes into the category/country lists for as many days as the seller has placed on it. There it stays until it appears on the Closing in 24 Hours List and after that it is removed from all visible lists whether it is country/category/New/closing.
Lots of folkies look at the New Items List and the Closing in 24 hours list but the perception is that few folkies go into the country list or category list. Some folkies say that they will not bid if the item is lasting more than 7 days. Some folkies don't want to see re-listed items in the New Items List.
How long should a Seller list an item for? If they list for 14 days the item is only guaranteed to be "up front" twice. (In New Items & Closing in 24Hrs) If they list for 7 days it appears "up front" twice and they have to relist the item, if they relist it will appear in the two lists for 4 days instead of 2 days compared to listing for 14 days.
Of course a seller could list for three days and their items would appear "up front" 8 times in 14 days!!!
The wide variation in prices is another weakness. This is down to the perception of each individual seller and buyer. What catalogues each individual has ranging from Scott, Gibbons Michel etc never mind the year it was published. Is it time that we should all use Stampworld.com or some other internet source?
Of course in turbulent economic times money is tight and sellers have to think of where they can maximise sales as do buyers who want the "most for their buck". A balance has to be struck.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
17 Aug 2022
12:16:47pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
The only experiences I've had with selling is running an antique shop or doing antiques shows for about 30 years. This was actually, except for setting up or packing up at the shows, fairly simple. Of course you had to go to auctions or house sales to get the stuff but no biggie there! We sold on E-Bay for about 10 years but at that time that was much simpler than it would be now. Honestly Ian, if I had to go through all the stuff you mentioned above I don't think I'd have the patience or energy to do it. And I'm not just saying that, I mean it. Thankfully some of you still do it and I hope you do for a while yet. Thanks to all the sellers who go through all of the crap and I'll really try to be more understanding in the future! Thanks again for the hard work!!
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Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Ian you are correct in the amount of work for the auctions. The only reason I now am using a spreadsheet and reposting the same lots is that its far less time consuming. I have seen no difference in the sales from when I was doing a Wednesday afternoon listing and letting them run 10 days. I can also easily modify the spreadsheet so it is compatible with Hipstamps upload and I can then just move every unsold stamp to the store, which is what I will probably do in 2-3 weeks. I did sell a carton lot in the sales area and will do that for some of an estate that I have been selling over the course of 2-3 years. I STILL have not figured out what to do with the US. Joe bought a bunch, and you can see some of it in my weekly auctions, but, that is the tip of the iceberg. I have thought about accepting want lists but it is quite time consuming to do that. So, I'll try to dispose of all of the foreign and covers in bulk and just whittle away at the US, possibly just running US auctions going forward and leave the w/w in sales books. Its all older US, but the biggest problem is the sheer volume of it. How do you begin to sell of list 23 copies of US Scott #309? I hear the grumbling over multiple copies of the same stamp being repeated. And there are also thousands and thousands of Washington and Franklin issues. I'd need months of spare time to check them all The estate is from a widow whose husband was an ebay seller back about 10 years ago and an US approval dealer as well.
Good idea though about Stampworld, but it will never happen. Colnect is pretty good too because they give you all the catalog numbers for multiple catalogs. Trouble with that site is that they list each stamp individually and it takes a while to find what you are looking for if you do not know the year
Greg
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Now this is not meant as a criticism or to be derogatory in any way, but in response to Greg (Soundcrest) I just looked at your approval book list, around 27 books of various countries of which I am only collecting one, GB.
However, The id for many of the stamps is incorrect having mistaken the Scotland emblem for the Welsh and therefore given the wrong references. Ok not a big problem to Machin collectors but disaster for a newbie.
Machin collectors also tend to want to know the Phosphor band status and while I can see some bands I would have trouble trying to identify many. Also some have damage that is not noted and many have FDC postmarks, I only collect genuinely postally used.
I'm sure many of the other books have some good stamps at good prices but they are not in my collecting area so will not get looked at by myself, I also do not look at any book that is for mint stamps. I also skim past mint stamps in the auctions.
I know it is a lot of work to put up books with proper id and in good order and also to put stamps in the auctions, but when all is said and done this is a hobby site not a commercial one, and the basis for approvals and auctions was for collectors to offer there unwanted items to other collectors.
Again no criticism of anyone intended, just an explanation of what I look for when perusing the sale items.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
17 Aug 2022
12:59:02pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
I haven't specifically mentioned the US material I picked up from Greg because I didn't know if he wanted it mentioned. But now that he has... I picked up some incredible stuff from that collection of US material!! Items that I will probably never see again and at very fair and reasonable prices. He always has great items on offer and I hope he continues selling for a long time yet! Thanks!!
But Greg, don't let it go to your head. You still have to figure out the difference between Scotland and Wales!
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02:20:05pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"around 27 books of various countries of which I am only collecting one, GB."
That is one of the problems that is obvious. The diversity of subject matter that collectors seek.
Micheal said that the classified ads section was to allow for wants lists to be published.
Those that are actually seeking items should list the details and prices willing to be paid in that section of the DB. The more folkies that do that then the more sellers will look at that section, the greater the chance of the item being found for the buyer.
"Machin collectors also tend to want to know the Phosphor band status"
Phosphor Band status is very important for Machin collectors. However I must come to the aid of my American cousins as they have one major problem.
Scott's catalogue more or less ignores Phosphor Bands!!!
I'm off to cart 6 x Bankers Boxes of assorted stamps, Albums and covers to my car for transportation to my local auction house tommorrow.
My missus is fair chuffed that I'm getting them out of my hobby room!
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Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
And Joe, I have not forgotten your other "desired for stamps that i can practically guaranty no one else has".......Yet, when I have offered similar stamps here at auction the interest is - zip. I can say that with certainty because auction lot views are given to those who put up the lot and many times better US stamps don't get looked at. You mentioned wines, and I have them somewhere in some folder (because I do not think I put them in a store. I do see a couple on ebay. Do a search in the store using RE*) that I listed here and for the most part, they went unsold. Some were quite good. It is a tricky site to work with mainly due to the small number of buyers that are actually here these days. I have no idea if the membership numbers are in a decline since I joined I think 6-7 years ago, but that may be part of the problem. I will continue to blame inflation though as the main reason. I see it just hit double digits in the UK
Greg
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"My missus is fair chuffed"
Translation Ian
rrr...
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03:55:45pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
fair chuffed = fair pleased.
Short answer as it is approaching 9pm here and my ice cream is waiting!
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
i hold off until 10 p.m. for the ice cream !
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Whoa! Ice cream may be too much excitement for the board here!
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02:45:52pm
Auctions - Approvals
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
"Whoa! Ice cream may be too much excitement for the board here!"
It all depends on the flavour!!
Are you Vanilla, Strawberry, or something exotic like Rum & Raisen!
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02:58:02pm
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
As a buyer only I will throw in my tuppence worth.
Most countries that I collect I just collect what I can afford, I know I have no chance of filling the expensive gaps so don't bother even looking.
However the exception to the rule is British Guiana/Guyana and I have so far never seen any scarce items from here (apart from one item sometime ago that I already had). With British Guiana/Guyana I collect EVERYTHING that I can get my grubby little mitts on, including any cancels so will often get multiples of the "same" stamp just for the cancels.
This info probably doesn't help any of the sellers here but that is the way I collect and spend my hard-earned dough.
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
And my 2¢ worth: if I want something, I'll buy it. Be it here, APS Stamp Store or some online dealer. I search in that order. Of course it is cheaper here, but I for one, would pay more, so I do go to online dealers and pay CV or even more! They range from Nordfrim, Postbeeld, Arpin in Quebec and a couple British dealers.
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re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
Myself... I'm a Tin Roof man.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
12 Sep 2022
10:41:22am
re: I can understand why higher priced item are not listed
There's some incredible quality US material in the auction right now. I think we should all get off our butts and bid on the items we want and prove that we are not a bunch of cheapskates. I bid on the two I don't have, how about some others joining in. People are not going to post good stuff here if it doesn't get bids!!!
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