Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Maybe I'm not thinking this through correctly, how do others approach this situation?
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Perhaps you can come to an agreement with a seller where they will run a bi-monthly or monthly account for any purchases you might make from them. I have several regular bidders of mine who do this just to save on postage costs.
You are still taking the chance that one particular seller will not list something else that may be of interest to you and you will still be trying to justify paying postage on a 50c or a $1 item.
We pay delivery charges on every item we purchase, even at the grocery store. The difference is that we just don't see how much it is as it is built into the price by the businesses.
We sellers could add a dollar or two to our starting bids and offer free postage and then bidders would be screaming that our prices are over-inflated. It's a no win situation as we have no control over postage costs. As it is some of us have started to offer PayPal at no cost to the purchaser. The buyer saves the postage to mail their payment and the seller is dinged with high fees from PayPal. I personally charge $1 for PayPal payments under $10 but still have buyers putting through a PayPal payment for $1 for a 40c item + 60c for the postage. In a case like this it ends up costing me 35c in PayPal fees, plus a % of that $1. Gone is the 40c I sold the item for.
If the item is priced low enough and you still can't justify paying the postage to get the money to the seller and pay the postage to get the item to you, just don't bid. It's your money to spend as you see fit.
Living on an island where almost everything we use has high transportation and delivery charges, I no longer have a choice except to pay delivery charges for almost every item I cannot purchase here due to lack of availability of that item. I haven't found a company yet that will send me their goods for free shipping, whether the item costs $1 or $100. I can either pay $100 to BC ferries and gas to the oil companies to go and pick up something like say a stamp catalogue or I can pay $14 to the dealer to mail it to me.
Unless you can go in person to pick up your winnings, I see no other choice except to pay for postage and/or delivery by another method IF you want the material.
Liz
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Abo: I see nothing wrong in your thinking.
There are many dealers that reduce S&h for
multiple purchases. There are a few dealers
that offer free S&h if you buy a certain amount.
There are even a few that offer discounts plus Free S&H with a certain amount of purchases. That's who I try to buy from, myself. But it can't always be done.
Curiously, as Liz mentioned, I have found an internet dealer that I buy lots from and go pick them up.(large lots where s&h runs $15.00+).
But of course, that is a rarity.
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I look at things differently I guess. I first decide if I want a stamp, regardless of price. If I want it then I decide how much I'm willing to pay for a given stamp, regardless of shipping charges. Now I look to see if the shipping fees are reasonable ( and a few folks out there overcharge ). Now I add these factors together plus the cost of the mount required ( I use only Showguard mounts ) to put in the book, also will the book page have to be re-drawn to accomodate the new stamp. Now you add all these things together I usually pay many times over what the stamp is worth in dollar value BUT did I have fun in the bidding process, the display proces, and the collecting process ..... you bet I did.
Perry
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The way I figure it everything costs money in some type of transportation expense. It is only more obvious when the shipping expense is broken out as a separate line item in an auction. I try to reduce shipping expenses when possible by bidding when a seller offers more than one item on SOR (or eBay), if possible. Sometimes it is possible to save a little on shipping.
Prices for stamps on SOR auctions seems to be better than some eBay auctions and seem to be frequently below book catalogue value offered in a stamp store. Is this a result of the economy or has this valuation scenario been going on for some time?
Some SOR auctions seem to be very well priced even with the extra shipping expense. I enjoy bidding now and then and getting items in the mail.
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Allen
Most of our sellers charge only the cost of postage; and many have either no fees or fees at cost for paypal, so it seems to me that SOR auction prices are, for the most part, not only priced low against CV (again, in most cases) but priced with few or no hidden costs. That said, paypal fees (30c plus 3%) and postage (44c) still add up to 77c on a $1 lot, but many of these lots are such bargains.
This is written in comparison to, say, eBay, where the ad-on costs are typically much higher.
Most of these costs are unavoidable IF one is buying from an online auction.
In reviewing auctions for possible inclusion in highlights, I always shy away from either high-priced lots (relative to catalogue or street value) and shy away from those who tack on high fees.
David the auctioneer
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Just to be clear, I don't have a problem at all with what people charge for shipping and postage. I sell stuff here, too, and I know how much it costs to send stuff out. I must admit, I hesitate to put any lot up that is less than $1.00 because I wouldn't bid on it myself due to the cost of shipping. I'm sure this decision process is as individual and diverse as the members on this site. Nonetheless, I'm curious as to how others make this decision for themselves.
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If I need a stamp, I will happily pay what's necessary to obtain it, within reason.
A good example are two of the U.S. cloud-formation pictorials that I needed for an exhibit last year. The stamps have a catalogue value of...X? It didn't really matter, because, as I said, I needed them. I found a mint set on eBay and paid, I dunno, several times CV to get it. To add insult to injury, it's a self-adhesive stamp that is printed cheek-to-jowl with the stamps and selvedge that surround it.
The easiest and most attractive way to display the stamps was to peel them and simply stick it them on the exhibit sheet. Which I did. So now that stamps are essentially worthless unless someone wants to remove them with lighter fluid and use them for postage. Do I care? Nope. The stamp helped to tell the story I wanted to tell, and I got a silver medal. Here's the sheet:
To me, stamps are just printed paper that are useful primarily in the context in which I place them.
Bob
(Message edited by Bobstamp on March 23, 2010)
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I agree completely Bob!
Stamps are just little printed pieces of paper, which we collect because it is great fun.
In this sense, any CV over 0.005c is ridiculous for a stamp.
On the other hand, the prices we pay (including or not postage and other fees) just represent how fond we are of getting that specific item in our collection.
Miguel
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Bob, I agree wih you, some pieces of color paper are more expensive, etc.
Lately I have re-discovered the great hobby of collecting covers, specially those full of remembrances (good and bad) where the stamps takes a second place to the value placed to the cover. This' such a polifacetic hobby that you could write books about it. I remembr a person that used to collect DAMAGED stamps! was he crazy? of course not, he was a full professor of Psychology at NYU. He would NEVER consider bidding on a stamp that wasn't damaged. Each with her/his likes and dislikes this' what makes this hobby so interesting.
Peace, Health and more Peace, I wish everyone, Jew or not a Holy, Peaceful and Healthy Pesach.
Baruk Ha-Shem!
LuisM
known by Sefardisafran and Avi.
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I decide how much I am willing to pay for an item and then deduct from that the estimated postage and that becomes my maximum bid. If I get the item fine and if I don't that is fine also. I figure in 95% of the lots, it will be available again. I get a lot of items so it works.
Unfortunately, some of you see fit to bid more than my maximum bid and then, in some cases, I lose control and bid more anyway which is why I go to very few live auctions. So as the famous quote says "The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay" or something like that.
I would note as someone above said, the prices are generally reasonable. I quite often buy, take what I want and resell the rest for as much and sometimes more than what I paid.
Stampmanjack
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Dear All,
As a longtime buyer/seller at SOR I've found that most sellers will try to help make a low value purchase make better sense by laying away your little wins in a separate pile, suggesting other possible items not even in auction at the time, or even striking a deal for something that you have that the seller could use.
Basically, I'm suggesting that the auction is really a means to have fun with the hobby, to increase the individual contact and hopefully to add items that you can use.
To view our auction as only a buy this/get that storehouse misses much of the fun I think.
Dan
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I see lots of items I'd like to bid on in the auction, but I pass them over simply because I cannot justify doubling or more the price by the time I pay for postage and handling. I'll sometimes look to see if the same seller has other items I'd like so that lots can be shipped together, but more often than not, this is not the case.
Maybe I'm not thinking this through correctly, how do others approach this situation?
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06:16:31pm
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
Perhaps you can come to an agreement with a seller where they will run a bi-monthly or monthly account for any purchases you might make from them. I have several regular bidders of mine who do this just to save on postage costs.
You are still taking the chance that one particular seller will not list something else that may be of interest to you and you will still be trying to justify paying postage on a 50c or a $1 item.
We pay delivery charges on every item we purchase, even at the grocery store. The difference is that we just don't see how much it is as it is built into the price by the businesses.
We sellers could add a dollar or two to our starting bids and offer free postage and then bidders would be screaming that our prices are over-inflated. It's a no win situation as we have no control over postage costs. As it is some of us have started to offer PayPal at no cost to the purchaser. The buyer saves the postage to mail their payment and the seller is dinged with high fees from PayPal. I personally charge $1 for PayPal payments under $10 but still have buyers putting through a PayPal payment for $1 for a 40c item + 60c for the postage. In a case like this it ends up costing me 35c in PayPal fees, plus a % of that $1. Gone is the 40c I sold the item for.
If the item is priced low enough and you still can't justify paying the postage to get the money to the seller and pay the postage to get the item to you, just don't bid. It's your money to spend as you see fit.
Living on an island where almost everything we use has high transportation and delivery charges, I no longer have a choice except to pay delivery charges for almost every item I cannot purchase here due to lack of availability of that item. I haven't found a company yet that will send me their goods for free shipping, whether the item costs $1 or $100. I can either pay $100 to BC ferries and gas to the oil companies to go and pick up something like say a stamp catalogue or I can pay $14 to the dealer to mail it to me.
Unless you can go in person to pick up your winnings, I see no other choice except to pay for postage and/or delivery by another method IF you want the material.
Liz
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Auctions
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
Abo: I see nothing wrong in your thinking.
There are many dealers that reduce S&h for
multiple purchases. There are a few dealers
that offer free S&h if you buy a certain amount.
There are even a few that offer discounts plus Free S&H with a certain amount of purchases. That's who I try to buy from, myself. But it can't always be done.
Curiously, as Liz mentioned, I have found an internet dealer that I buy lots from and go pick them up.(large lots where s&h runs $15.00+).
But of course, that is a rarity.
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
I look at things differently I guess. I first decide if I want a stamp, regardless of price. If I want it then I decide how much I'm willing to pay for a given stamp, regardless of shipping charges. Now I look to see if the shipping fees are reasonable ( and a few folks out there overcharge ). Now I add these factors together plus the cost of the mount required ( I use only Showguard mounts ) to put in the book, also will the book page have to be re-drawn to accomodate the new stamp. Now you add all these things together I usually pay many times over what the stamp is worth in dollar value BUT did I have fun in the bidding process, the display proces, and the collecting process ..... you bet I did.
Perry
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this post
Approvals
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
The way I figure it everything costs money in some type of transportation expense. It is only more obvious when the shipping expense is broken out as a separate line item in an auction. I try to reduce shipping expenses when possible by bidding when a seller offers more than one item on SOR (or eBay), if possible. Sometimes it is possible to save a little on shipping.
Prices for stamps on SOR auctions seems to be better than some eBay auctions and seem to be frequently below book catalogue value offered in a stamp store. Is this a result of the economy or has this valuation scenario been going on for some time?
Some SOR auctions seem to be very well priced even with the extra shipping expense. I enjoy bidding now and then and getting items in the mail.
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
Allen
Most of our sellers charge only the cost of postage; and many have either no fees or fees at cost for paypal, so it seems to me that SOR auction prices are, for the most part, not only priced low against CV (again, in most cases) but priced with few or no hidden costs. That said, paypal fees (30c plus 3%) and postage (44c) still add up to 77c on a $1 lot, but many of these lots are such bargains.
This is written in comparison to, say, eBay, where the ad-on costs are typically much higher.
Most of these costs are unavoidable IF one is buying from an online auction.
In reviewing auctions for possible inclusion in highlights, I always shy away from either high-priced lots (relative to catalogue or street value) and shy away from those who tack on high fees.
David the auctioneer
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
Just to be clear, I don't have a problem at all with what people charge for shipping and postage. I sell stuff here, too, and I know how much it costs to send stuff out. I must admit, I hesitate to put any lot up that is less than $1.00 because I wouldn't bid on it myself due to the cost of shipping. I'm sure this decision process is as individual and diverse as the members on this site. Nonetheless, I'm curious as to how others make this decision for themselves.
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
If I need a stamp, I will happily pay what's necessary to obtain it, within reason.
A good example are two of the U.S. cloud-formation pictorials that I needed for an exhibit last year. The stamps have a catalogue value of...X? It didn't really matter, because, as I said, I needed them. I found a mint set on eBay and paid, I dunno, several times CV to get it. To add insult to injury, it's a self-adhesive stamp that is printed cheek-to-jowl with the stamps and selvedge that surround it.
The easiest and most attractive way to display the stamps was to peel them and simply stick it them on the exhibit sheet. Which I did. So now that stamps are essentially worthless unless someone wants to remove them with lighter fluid and use them for postage. Do I care? Nope. The stamp helped to tell the story I wanted to tell, and I got a silver medal. Here's the sheet:
To me, stamps are just printed paper that are useful primarily in the context in which I place them.
Bob
(Message edited by Bobstamp on March 23, 2010)
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09:25:08am
Approvals
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
I agree completely Bob!
Stamps are just little printed pieces of paper, which we collect because it is great fun.
In this sense, any CV over 0.005c is ridiculous for a stamp.
On the other hand, the prices we pay (including or not postage and other fees) just represent how fond we are of getting that specific item in our collection.
Miguel
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
Bob, I agree wih you, some pieces of color paper are more expensive, etc.
Lately I have re-discovered the great hobby of collecting covers, specially those full of remembrances (good and bad) where the stamps takes a second place to the value placed to the cover. This' such a polifacetic hobby that you could write books about it. I remembr a person that used to collect DAMAGED stamps! was he crazy? of course not, he was a full professor of Psychology at NYU. He would NEVER consider bidding on a stamp that wasn't damaged. Each with her/his likes and dislikes this' what makes this hobby so interesting.
Peace, Health and more Peace, I wish everyone, Jew or not a Holy, Peaceful and Healthy Pesach.
Baruk Ha-Shem!
LuisM
known by Sefardisafran and Avi.
Login to Like
this post
02:29:26pm
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
I decide how much I am willing to pay for an item and then deduct from that the estimated postage and that becomes my maximum bid. If I get the item fine and if I don't that is fine also. I figure in 95% of the lots, it will be available again. I get a lot of items so it works.
Unfortunately, some of you see fit to bid more than my maximum bid and then, in some cases, I lose control and bid more anyway which is why I go to very few live auctions. So as the famous quote says "The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay" or something like that.
I would note as someone above said, the prices are generally reasonable. I quite often buy, take what I want and resell the rest for as much and sometimes more than what I paid.
Stampmanjack
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on costs of shipping and how that affects bidding
Dear All,
As a longtime buyer/seller at SOR I've found that most sellers will try to help make a low value purchase make better sense by laying away your little wins in a separate pile, suggesting other possible items not even in auction at the time, or even striking a deal for something that you have that the seller could use.
Basically, I'm suggesting that the auction is really a means to have fun with the hobby, to increase the individual contact and hopefully to add items that you can use.
To view our auction as only a buy this/get that storehouse misses much of the fun I think.
Dan
Login to Like
this post