Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
I began online in 1997 with stampauctions.com. you can see a snapshot of the old site in the internet way back machine. Back then I could put up 50 auctions and sell 40-45 of them every week. The success in coding that got me to give up my part time approval selling and switch to auctions and packet ads in Linns. I did some selling on eBay but I didn't really have a store there until later on. I was also a seller on stamp wants in its early years. At one point I had other venues but now its just the three, but eBay is the biggest due to all the other things I sell. Stamps with the exception of poster stamps is a small part
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Back around 1974 as a teen I started Tnt Stamps. I yearned to be a stamp dealer. I had my lawn business... not just a kid mowing a lawn or two, but once I got going I invested in a tractor, and had a helper running after me with a push mower doing the edges. I did better than 20 lawns a week, and invested a lot of my money in stamps. I was bidding low on mail order auctions. One time my father saw an invoice for a few hundred dollars and flipped out. I told him it was no problem, I had the money and it was all inventory. I offered my wares at my local stamp club meetings and in Linn's. I also represented the local stamp and coin shop with breaking down collections and taking items up to New York City dealers for sale. I was a wheeler dealer! I'd go to the big shows in the city and this little unassuming kid would approach dealers with a little stock book. Their eyes would bug out when they saw the first page was all US number ones! Eventually all the dealers knew me. Some would buy from me and others put stuff aside for me.
In 1976 I started ODDITY Cachets. First day cover collectors were collecting different cachets back then and I did fairly well. I printed 500 per issue. I did that through 1978.
eBay got me back to stamps in 1999 or so. I had discovered it through a model car friend. I thought it was absolutely amazing and started selling things right away. Early on there were no photos, and eBay displayed your email address. You had to send email "Bills" at the end of the auctions and keep track of your deals. There were no fixed price items, it was all collectible auctions.
That led to Turtles Trading Post on eBay. As children my sister and I always played store. We'd set up our little "store" and sell things to the neighbors. This started around 1966, so I've said we invented the garage sale. So the logo on my eBay store to date is a photo of us in that little store with the tag line "established 1966".
I gambled and bought a $100 scanner. I tried to sell some of my car dealer brochure duplicates and was met with instant success. As with Greg's experience, everything sold with some healthy bidding competition too. You could do no wrong in those days. I got that up to 25 items a week, all starting at $3.99. Average sale was over $10. I had many duplicates of some items, so I'd rotate those once a month, which made listing a lot easier.
Then I discovered the stamp category. I found a Scott 300b booklet pane for sale... my holy grail of my 1902 Ben Franklin series. I had never even seen one in person. So I sat there and sniped it. I hadn't collected stamps nor paid attention to my Ben Franklins for a long time. This purchase got me back to it. It was amazing. I found all the private perforations, interesting usage on cover. My collection grew many times over!
I got back to stamps about six years ago. My wife had an operation with several weeks of recuperation and I thought it would be fun to sort out my hoard of stamps. My goal was to put together one USA album with a representation of every issue... I didn't care if it was a mint or used single, a plate block, first day cover or even interesting usage on cover. That got out of hand pretty soon and it grew to my collection with a single, a plate block and many first day covers for each issue. To accomplish this I started buying big lots of stuff on eBay. I've always said that stamps and cocaine are similar... at first it's all fun and games and soon enough you're dealing to support your habit!
I got back to my New Jersey postmark collection too. That had me buying covers on eBay. I started to notice the large dealers who dominated the postal history category and did a composite of their businesses, which I've shared on this board. This was when I was home hiding from Covid and I was lured to sell on eBay with the "250 free auctions per month" deal. That's blossomed to an eBay store with 2500 items. I get large packages of new inventory every week. And I keep a bunch of it for my own collections!
Turtles Trading Post sells primarily US covers as that's my passion. I'm following along on the business model I developed watching the high volume sellers and it's been kinda sorta working. I have about 60 watchers and a few hundred regular customers, some who buy something every week. I ship about 100 covers a week.
It's fun and I've had some interesting interactions with people. I had a cover honoring an Indian princess from a town bearing her name in Michigan and I sold it to her great, great grandson. I found a second one later in the collection and just sent it to him! That's where it belonged! Recently I sold a cover to a guy who said his father had mailed it in 1986! I also send a lot of covers and postcards back to their original town. I like my little part of reorganizing the universe, one cover at a time!
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Soundcrest and BenFranklin1902, thanks for your great input, perhaps we could hear from a few others who remember the "Glory Days" on eBay.
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Auctions
In 1998 my wife purchased a Gateway (remember them ?) computer for $3,000. I immediately started looking for stamps on the net and found eBay. I had a surplus of stamps from purchasing box lots at auction and decided to offer them for sale on the net. I did not even have a scanner..but in those days people were eager to buy and i sold a lot of stamps by description alone. Stamps are my hobby (buying and selling) i did not want to go all in as a dealer. I would say i averaged $500 a year in sales and my Paypal account built up Jopie and i could draw from it for internet stamp and cover purchases. So thats about where i stand today, i have a few steady customers so they are no hassle and its fun and no one gets hurt. My story and i am sticking to it.
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Auctions - Approvals
re: My experience as an internet stamp seller.
I began online in 1997 with stampauctions.com. you can see a snapshot of the old site in the internet way back machine. Back then I could put up 50 auctions and sell 40-45 of them every week. The success in coding that got me to give up my part time approval selling and switch to auctions and packet ads in Linns. I did some selling on eBay but I didn't really have a store there until later on. I was also a seller on stamp wants in its early years. At one point I had other venues but now its just the three, but eBay is the biggest due to all the other things I sell. Stamps with the exception of poster stamps is a small part
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: My experience as an internet stamp seller.
Back around 1974 as a teen I started Tnt Stamps. I yearned to be a stamp dealer. I had my lawn business... not just a kid mowing a lawn or two, but once I got going I invested in a tractor, and had a helper running after me with a push mower doing the edges. I did better than 20 lawns a week, and invested a lot of my money in stamps. I was bidding low on mail order auctions. One time my father saw an invoice for a few hundred dollars and flipped out. I told him it was no problem, I had the money and it was all inventory. I offered my wares at my local stamp club meetings and in Linn's. I also represented the local stamp and coin shop with breaking down collections and taking items up to New York City dealers for sale. I was a wheeler dealer! I'd go to the big shows in the city and this little unassuming kid would approach dealers with a little stock book. Their eyes would bug out when they saw the first page was all US number ones! Eventually all the dealers knew me. Some would buy from me and others put stuff aside for me.
In 1976 I started ODDITY Cachets. First day cover collectors were collecting different cachets back then and I did fairly well. I printed 500 per issue. I did that through 1978.
eBay got me back to stamps in 1999 or so. I had discovered it through a model car friend. I thought it was absolutely amazing and started selling things right away. Early on there were no photos, and eBay displayed your email address. You had to send email "Bills" at the end of the auctions and keep track of your deals. There were no fixed price items, it was all collectible auctions.
That led to Turtles Trading Post on eBay. As children my sister and I always played store. We'd set up our little "store" and sell things to the neighbors. This started around 1966, so I've said we invented the garage sale. So the logo on my eBay store to date is a photo of us in that little store with the tag line "established 1966".
I gambled and bought a $100 scanner. I tried to sell some of my car dealer brochure duplicates and was met with instant success. As with Greg's experience, everything sold with some healthy bidding competition too. You could do no wrong in those days. I got that up to 25 items a week, all starting at $3.99. Average sale was over $10. I had many duplicates of some items, so I'd rotate those once a month, which made listing a lot easier.
Then I discovered the stamp category. I found a Scott 300b booklet pane for sale... my holy grail of my 1902 Ben Franklin series. I had never even seen one in person. So I sat there and sniped it. I hadn't collected stamps nor paid attention to my Ben Franklins for a long time. This purchase got me back to it. It was amazing. I found all the private perforations, interesting usage on cover. My collection grew many times over!
I got back to stamps about six years ago. My wife had an operation with several weeks of recuperation and I thought it would be fun to sort out my hoard of stamps. My goal was to put together one USA album with a representation of every issue... I didn't care if it was a mint or used single, a plate block, first day cover or even interesting usage on cover. That got out of hand pretty soon and it grew to my collection with a single, a plate block and many first day covers for each issue. To accomplish this I started buying big lots of stuff on eBay. I've always said that stamps and cocaine are similar... at first it's all fun and games and soon enough you're dealing to support your habit!
I got back to my New Jersey postmark collection too. That had me buying covers on eBay. I started to notice the large dealers who dominated the postal history category and did a composite of their businesses, which I've shared on this board. This was when I was home hiding from Covid and I was lured to sell on eBay with the "250 free auctions per month" deal. That's blossomed to an eBay store with 2500 items. I get large packages of new inventory every week. And I keep a bunch of it for my own collections!
Turtles Trading Post sells primarily US covers as that's my passion. I'm following along on the business model I developed watching the high volume sellers and it's been kinda sorta working. I have about 60 watchers and a few hundred regular customers, some who buy something every week. I ship about 100 covers a week.
It's fun and I've had some interesting interactions with people. I had a cover honoring an Indian princess from a town bearing her name in Michigan and I sold it to her great, great grandson. I found a second one later in the collection and just sent it to him! That's where it belonged! Recently I sold a cover to a guy who said his father had mailed it in 1986! I also send a lot of covers and postcards back to their original town. I like my little part of reorganizing the universe, one cover at a time!
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Auctions
re: My experience as an internet stamp seller.
Soundcrest and BenFranklin1902, thanks for your great input, perhaps we could hear from a few others who remember the "Glory Days" on eBay.
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.