Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Any advice would be appreciated.
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Good Morning Mike!
Suggestion. List 10 to 20 Items on SoR Auctions every day while simultaneously Listing them on HipStamp Fixed Price. When the Items Listed on SoR Auctions expire after 14 days the Items Listed on HipStamp Fixed Price will remain forever. I receive 4 - 5 Orders per day by using this method. Any more, and I probably couldn't handle it. My biggest problem is that I routinely receive Orders for stamps that have been on HipStamp for a few years. I may have difficulty finding the stamp(s) and the Shipping charge is guaranteed to be outdated.
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sometimes it takes some time for the regulars to get to know you as a new seller. In my experience, the number of buyers over here is limited, especially when compared with other sites. On the other hand, once you have established yourself, you may have some regular returning customers.
Looking at the items you have on offer, I see the packets, which are very reasonably priced but some of the other mint items are perhaps a bit overpriced. I have not been able to compare them with the catalogue values, but I think you have to work with a selling price of 20 to 25% of cat.value here, higher only for special items.
Also, you may want to consider the approvals. I have seen very different results for both platforms. Stamps that do not sell in the auction will sell when they are part of an approval book, sometimes even for higher prices. I have no explanation, other than that some buyers only look at the auctions while others prefer the approvals. Only a few use both.
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P.S.: When you sell a stamp on SoR be sure to remove the stamp from HipStamp. Otherwise, you could end up selling the same stamp twice. Has happened.
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11:11:52am
FYI
G. Auction/Approvals - Selling Rules
G5. The items cannot be listed on Stamporama and be offered for sale elsewhere at the same time.
Link to Auction Rules
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A couple of things jump out at me, your Paypal fee and the fact you disclaim liability for anything shipped out of the USA.
If you check out other sellers items, most start at around 10% of catalogue and sell around 30%.
Not everyone wants a whole bunch of a country stamps, most of us have have gaps in our collections and are reluctant to purchase 100 stamps to maybe end up with only one or two of the stamps needed.
Regarding images, try and cut out as much vario as possible to give a larger stamp image, use the maximum size to your advantage. Maybe put the larger lots as approvals at 10 cents a stamp, you will be surprised at how many will be snaffled up by us hungry to fill spaces buyers, and you will ultimately realise a greater profit.
If trying approvals then use all 30 pages per book, with maybe 10-15 stamps per page to give a decent image and save scrolling by the buyer. All items on the page must be the same price, but different pages can have different prices, so higher value items can be accommodated.
Just my thoughts, good luck with whatever you decide.
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Selling on here depends on a few things:-
1) Presentation.
Good clear scans that are easily visible in the stamporama listings. Your items are not. There is too much of the vario in your scans. Your GB listings have the four stamps in a single line. For best effect they should be in a group with two on the top and two on the bottom.
2) Price.
Your MNH GB stamps are overpriced. You will not get 50% of catalogue price. 15%-20% is the norm.
3)Quantity of Listings
Member 1938324 is correct when he says to start with listing 10-20 items per day.
4) Use both platforms.
List in the Auctions AND the Approvals. Jansimon and Sheepshanks' advice is correct.
5) Be persistant.
"Rome was not built in a day".
Get to know the system. How it operates. Do your research. Look at what other Sellers are doing/have done.
If it was easy we would all be millionaires!
EDIT
Charging folkies for using Paypal is a big No-No. Saying that you would not be responsible for things going astray overseas is bogus. Whether you like it or not a Buyer can claim from Paypal for non-delivery no matter what you think, say or desire.
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I've been reasonably happy on Hipstamp for about 3 years. I focus on Canada/Provinces stamps, and after 3 years, have several repeat buyers. I agree with the presentation being important. I originally used my iPhone for pics. But after acquiring a pretty inexpensive Canon scanner, the improvement was convincing. Accurate ID and fault/condition disclosure is a must. As for pricing, my sales usually float around 20-30% Of CV. I don't charge PP fees....cost of doing business IMO. Hang in there. BTW, do you focus on anything? ie country etc?
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As a buyer, I’m looking for singles or stamps sets, not miscellaneous grab bags.
I will readily pay more than CV for key stamps with good centring, no damage, fresh colour, and in the case of used stamps, clear, contemporaneous CDS cancellations. Otherwise, don’t expect me to pay more than 20 or 30 percent of CV for common stamps, if that.
I won’t look twice at an image that's so small I can’t see full detail. Badly exposed images, distorted images, or out of focus images just waste my time. I am leery of any stamp offer that doesn’t include images of both front and back. Don’t describe any stamp as “Rare!” or worthy of a “Wow!” I prefer to make my own evaluations. A simple “Rare” is all that’s necessary, assuming it’s true —99.999 percent of stamps are dirt common and are not wow-worthy of a wow, much less a WOW!
Bob
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02:20:53pm
I think most of the collectors on this site are very advanced collectors in their areas and are probably not super interested in stamp lots. Unless I am going to start a new country or area, which is unlikely, I will usually just buy single stamps. I'm willing to pay a bit more if the item is needed so your prices can be a bit higher than the amount most buyers are quoting - again it depends on how much I want the item. If you have classic stamps you can usually get a bit more. For example I just picked up a really nice New Zealand #9a for around half Scott CV. Offer stuff like that and I would be very interested!!!! Good luck!
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TO ALL SELLERS:
Please keep in mind what Roy posted above and also note -
Sanctions may be imposed for those sellers that are found to be not complying with SOR rules, including;
"K1. Sanctions imposed are:
• seller's item(s) closed
• access to sales platforms suspended for 6 months
• access to sales platforms permanently suspended
• expulsion from Stamporama"
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Rules are necessary, but I must admit that I'm bamboozled by this one. What is the defining logic behind it?
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I only sell my stamps in my books/auctions on SoR, so I don't find need to worry about it.
And anything I sell outside SoR is NOT in the system.
Not sure why it is needed like this though, but I did not write these rules...
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Some sellers do list the same stamp or stamps in a few sites, and some even blatantly tell us about it, breaking this this rule along with not listing damaged stamps is regularly abused and it will keep being abused until some of the penalties are enforced.
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Is there one person in either the approvals or auctions that consistently sells the most?
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Ernie:-
Define the "most".
Is it the number of stamps? The number of items? The value of stamps? The value of items? The average value of each sale?
One figure that is available is the no of items an individual member has sold since they have joined stamporama.
The only other way is to calculate what each seller has sold on a monthly basis which takes a heck of a long time.
Since I joined Stamporama in 2015 I have sold 138511 items, and bought 2018 items.
You have not sold a single item but you have bought 321 items since 2015.
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Dave,
"Rules are necessary..... What is the defining logic behind it?"
We've had people list their stuff here and on other sites, simultaneously. We don't want to be in the position of adjudicating a sale that's now obligated in two sites.
We're up front about it, so, assuming folks read the rules, there shouldn't be a problem with it.
David
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Ian,
Wow! That's alot of transactions. I know Greg sells alot also.
Maybe if I was retired I'd take a crack at it.
SoR should place a s all ad in the American Philatelist advertising our auctions and approvals.
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Ernie:-
Since my last post I went through the current Approval sellers and I can say who has sold the largest number of items. I am sad to say that the person who has sold the largest number of items across both the Auctions and Approvals is one whom I can refer to with the use of the perpendicular pronoun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-s-Y4xA ...
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Hi
I know what you mean about becoming discouraged. I am now at the stage where I have lost the will to list stamps here.
I have sold on here for some time now but on and off. I was introduced to the site by the late Liz Jones (Patches). I find these days that whilst listing modern Canadian issues, in the main, not listed by anyone else, I do not get many, if any bids or even views of listed items.
Could this be more due to the general decline in collecting rather than bad images, too high prices etc. as I am finding with my eBay account. I do try to list at as reasonable prices I can, not expecting to male a fortune but to offload duplicate stamps I have.
Plantman
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10:10:15am
I see many newer issues listed here and not anywhere near as many classics, and when there are classics most are quite common. There are exceptions, of course. But I really think that most of the buyers here have cut off dates for their collections, as I do. For Canada my cutoff in normally 1988 and for the US it is, with a few exceptions, 1976. With my other areas it is normally 1956 because I use the first 3 volumes of Scott's International albums. Could this be part of the reason while sales have gone down? For a while I eliminated a few sellers who seemed to only list newer material but I put them back when I started looking for the odd bit of newer stuff! We seem to need more collectors who want to ignore the classics, mostly because of price, and concentrate on newer material. Good luck with that!!
EDIT: I was just checking my information and I have been a member for just over 6 years and have bought 5386 (averages to about 2.5 stamps per day) items from 104 different sellers, some unfortunately no longer with us. This doesn't count the many items I have bought from members here on a personal basis. But the numbers are going down as the stamps I need for many of my areas also goes down.
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"But I really think that most of the buyers here have cut off dates for their collections, as I do."
I've noticed a tendency on this board for people to project their collecting style onto a club as a whole. Going off what is posted by regular commenters on the board colleccting to cutoff dates would seem to be a thing, but the majority of people who buy here never post in the Discussions (except very rarely when there is a free giveaway), including a handful with well over 100,000 items purchased.
I buy modern stamps and I often have to compete with other collectors for such stamps from certain sellers. My impression is that a lot of buyers stick with just a few sellers as regulars. I'm not sure how you break in to that group as a seller (I don't sell).
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10:56:55am
"I've noticed a tendency on this board for people to project their collecting style onto a club as a whole."
I'm just mentioning this as a possibility, not a fact. I could be totally out to lunch and am not generalizing. I just see the number of newer stamps increasing and again I have no stats to back this up.
EDIT: I'm not sure what the "official" definition of a classic would be. I have always assumed in was a stamp issued in the first 100 years of adhesive postage stamps, i.e. 1840 - 1940.
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"I have lost the will to list stamps here."
I think we all go through phases, even as buyers and sellers, of varying emotions with our collecting/selling.
When one thinks of the number of stamps that have been issued in the past 185 years (it must run into millions) and if one limits ones collecting area, and have been collecting for years, it is no surprise that one finds it difficult to purchase more.
It is even more difficult for a Seller to guess what is required.
Here most sellers are selling their duplicates or buying lots at auction, keeping what they want for their own collection and selling the remainder. Therefore the sellers ranges of product are limited.
The quickest way to sell on here is through the Approvals. It is far easier for the Seller to list there than in the Auctions for a limited period of time.
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I collect used US and Canadian stamps. Any seller who can offer used copies of 2023 or 2024 or even 2025 issues would find me as an avid (or rabid) customer. Some of the sellers in Canada use current issues as postage but alas most arrive without any postmark.
Try to find postally used copies of the US pinback buttons set or any current Canadian souvenir sheet. How about UN stamps? Mint all over the place, used not a peep.
But it is a challenge. I write a lot of letters to ..... myself.
Tad
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Auctions
I'm getting discouraged about selling items on this site. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, prices are too high, undesirable stamps, or what the issue could be. I've had several items listed for several weeks and only sold 1 lot of seals. So I'm not sure what to do or if I should list them on ebay instead. I have hundreds more items to sell.
Any advice would be appreciated.
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re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Good Morning Mike!
Suggestion. List 10 to 20 Items on SoR Auctions every day while simultaneously Listing them on HipStamp Fixed Price. When the Items Listed on SoR Auctions expire after 14 days the Items Listed on HipStamp Fixed Price will remain forever. I receive 4 - 5 Orders per day by using this method. Any more, and I probably couldn't handle it. My biggest problem is that I routinely receive Orders for stamps that have been on HipStamp for a few years. I may have difficulty finding the stamp(s) and the Shipping charge is guaranteed to be outdated.
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Approvals
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
sometimes it takes some time for the regulars to get to know you as a new seller. In my experience, the number of buyers over here is limited, especially when compared with other sites. On the other hand, once you have established yourself, you may have some regular returning customers.
Looking at the items you have on offer, I see the packets, which are very reasonably priced but some of the other mint items are perhaps a bit overpriced. I have not been able to compare them with the catalogue values, but I think you have to work with a selling price of 20 to 25% of cat.value here, higher only for special items.
Also, you may want to consider the approvals. I have seen very different results for both platforms. Stamps that do not sell in the auction will sell when they are part of an approval book, sometimes even for higher prices. I have no explanation, other than that some buyers only look at the auctions while others prefer the approvals. Only a few use both.
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re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
P.S.: When you sell a stamp on SoR be sure to remove the stamp from HipStamp. Otherwise, you could end up selling the same stamp twice. Has happened.
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BuckaCover.com - 80,000 covers priced 60c to $1.50 - Easy browsing 500 categories
28 Apr 2025
11:11:52am
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
FYI
G. Auction/Approvals - Selling Rules
G5. The items cannot be listed on Stamporama and be offered for sale elsewhere at the same time.
Link to Auction Rules
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re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
A couple of things jump out at me, your Paypal fee and the fact you disclaim liability for anything shipped out of the USA.
If you check out other sellers items, most start at around 10% of catalogue and sell around 30%.
Not everyone wants a whole bunch of a country stamps, most of us have have gaps in our collections and are reluctant to purchase 100 stamps to maybe end up with only one or two of the stamps needed.
Regarding images, try and cut out as much vario as possible to give a larger stamp image, use the maximum size to your advantage. Maybe put the larger lots as approvals at 10 cents a stamp, you will be surprised at how many will be snaffled up by us hungry to fill spaces buyers, and you will ultimately realise a greater profit.
If trying approvals then use all 30 pages per book, with maybe 10-15 stamps per page to give a decent image and save scrolling by the buyer. All items on the page must be the same price, but different pages can have different prices, so higher value items can be accommodated.
Just my thoughts, good luck with whatever you decide.
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02:40:00pm
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Selling on here depends on a few things:-
1) Presentation.
Good clear scans that are easily visible in the stamporama listings. Your items are not. There is too much of the vario in your scans. Your GB listings have the four stamps in a single line. For best effect they should be in a group with two on the top and two on the bottom.
2) Price.
Your MNH GB stamps are overpriced. You will not get 50% of catalogue price. 15%-20% is the norm.
3)Quantity of Listings
Member 1938324 is correct when he says to start with listing 10-20 items per day.
4) Use both platforms.
List in the Auctions AND the Approvals. Jansimon and Sheepshanks' advice is correct.
5) Be persistant.
"Rome was not built in a day".
Get to know the system. How it operates. Do your research. Look at what other Sellers are doing/have done.
If it was easy we would all be millionaires!
EDIT
Charging folkies for using Paypal is a big No-No. Saying that you would not be responsible for things going astray overseas is bogus. Whether you like it or not a Buyer can claim from Paypal for non-delivery no matter what you think, say or desire.
Login to Like
this post
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
I've been reasonably happy on Hipstamp for about 3 years. I focus on Canada/Provinces stamps, and after 3 years, have several repeat buyers. I agree with the presentation being important. I originally used my iPhone for pics. But after acquiring a pretty inexpensive Canon scanner, the improvement was convincing. Accurate ID and fault/condition disclosure is a must. As for pricing, my sales usually float around 20-30% Of CV. I don't charge PP fees....cost of doing business IMO. Hang in there. BTW, do you focus on anything? ie country etc?
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re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
As a buyer, I’m looking for singles or stamps sets, not miscellaneous grab bags.
I will readily pay more than CV for key stamps with good centring, no damage, fresh colour, and in the case of used stamps, clear, contemporaneous CDS cancellations. Otherwise, don’t expect me to pay more than 20 or 30 percent of CV for common stamps, if that.
I won’t look twice at an image that's so small I can’t see full detail. Badly exposed images, distorted images, or out of focus images just waste my time. I am leery of any stamp offer that doesn’t include images of both front and back. Don’t describe any stamp as “Rare!” or worthy of a “Wow!” I prefer to make my own evaluations. A simple “Rare” is all that’s necessary, assuming it’s true —99.999 percent of stamps are dirt common and are not wow-worthy of a wow, much less a WOW!
Bob
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Back when I had a bunch! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
29 Apr 2025
02:20:53pm
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
I think most of the collectors on this site are very advanced collectors in their areas and are probably not super interested in stamp lots. Unless I am going to start a new country or area, which is unlikely, I will usually just buy single stamps. I'm willing to pay a bit more if the item is needed so your prices can be a bit higher than the amount most buyers are quoting - again it depends on how much I want the item. If you have classic stamps you can usually get a bit more. For example I just picked up a really nice New Zealand #9a for around half Scott CV. Offer stuff like that and I would be very interested!!!! Good luck!
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re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
TO ALL SELLERS:
Please keep in mind what Roy posted above and also note -
Sanctions may be imposed for those sellers that are found to be not complying with SOR rules, including;
"K1. Sanctions imposed are:
• seller's item(s) closed
• access to sales platforms suspended for 6 months
• access to sales platforms permanently suspended
• expulsion from Stamporama"
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this post
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Rules are necessary, but I must admit that I'm bamboozled by this one. What is the defining logic behind it?
1 Member
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Approvals
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
I only sell my stamps in my books/auctions on SoR, so I don't find need to worry about it.
And anything I sell outside SoR is NOT in the system.
Not sure why it is needed like this though, but I did not write these rules...
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this post
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Some sellers do list the same stamp or stamps in a few sites, and some even blatantly tell us about it, breaking this this rule along with not listing damaged stamps is regularly abused and it will keep being abused until some of the penalties are enforced.
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re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Is there one person in either the approvals or auctions that consistently sells the most?
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01:55:10pm
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Ernie:-
Define the "most".
Is it the number of stamps? The number of items? The value of stamps? The value of items? The average value of each sale?
One figure that is available is the no of items an individual member has sold since they have joined stamporama.
The only other way is to calculate what each seller has sold on a monthly basis which takes a heck of a long time.
Since I joined Stamporama in 2015 I have sold 138511 items, and bought 2018 items.
You have not sold a single item but you have bought 321 items since 2015.
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Auctions
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Dave,
"Rules are necessary..... What is the defining logic behind it?"
We've had people list their stuff here and on other sites, simultaneously. We don't want to be in the position of adjudicating a sale that's now obligated in two sites.
We're up front about it, so, assuming folks read the rules, there shouldn't be a problem with it.
David
4 Members
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re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Ian,
Wow! That's alot of transactions. I know Greg sells alot also.
Maybe if I was retired I'd take a crack at it.
SoR should place a s all ad in the American Philatelist advertising our auctions and approvals.
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02:23:56pm
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Ernie:-
Since my last post I went through the current Approval sellers and I can say who has sold the largest number of items. I am sad to say that the person who has sold the largest number of items across both the Auctions and Approvals is one whom I can refer to with the use of the perpendicular pronoun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-s-Y4xA ...
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09:09:39am
Approvals
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
Hi
I know what you mean about becoming discouraged. I am now at the stage where I have lost the will to list stamps here.
I have sold on here for some time now but on and off. I was introduced to the site by the late Liz Jones (Patches). I find these days that whilst listing modern Canadian issues, in the main, not listed by anyone else, I do not get many, if any bids or even views of listed items.
Could this be more due to the general decline in collecting rather than bad images, too high prices etc. as I am finding with my eBay account. I do try to list at as reasonable prices I can, not expecting to male a fortune but to offload duplicate stamps I have.
Plantman
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Back when I had a bunch! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
04 May 2025
10:10:15am
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
I see many newer issues listed here and not anywhere near as many classics, and when there are classics most are quite common. There are exceptions, of course. But I really think that most of the buyers here have cut off dates for their collections, as I do. For Canada my cutoff in normally 1988 and for the US it is, with a few exceptions, 1976. With my other areas it is normally 1956 because I use the first 3 volumes of Scott's International albums. Could this be part of the reason while sales have gone down? For a while I eliminated a few sellers who seemed to only list newer material but I put them back when I started looking for the odd bit of newer stuff! We seem to need more collectors who want to ignore the classics, mostly because of price, and concentrate on newer material. Good luck with that!!
EDIT: I was just checking my information and I have been a member for just over 6 years and have bought 5386 (averages to about 2.5 stamps per day) items from 104 different sellers, some unfortunately no longer with us. This doesn't count the many items I have bought from members here on a personal basis. But the numbers are going down as the stamps I need for many of my areas also goes down.
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re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
"But I really think that most of the buyers here have cut off dates for their collections, as I do."
I've noticed a tendency on this board for people to project their collecting style onto a club as a whole. Going off what is posted by regular commenters on the board colleccting to cutoff dates would seem to be a thing, but the majority of people who buy here never post in the Discussions (except very rarely when there is a free giveaway), including a handful with well over 100,000 items purchased.
I buy modern stamps and I often have to compete with other collectors for such stamps from certain sellers. My impression is that a lot of buyers stick with just a few sellers as regulars. I'm not sure how you break in to that group as a seller (I don't sell).
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Back when I had a bunch! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
04 May 2025
10:56:55am
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
"I've noticed a tendency on this board for people to project their collecting style onto a club as a whole."
I'm just mentioning this as a possibility, not a fact. I could be totally out to lunch and am not generalizing. I just see the number of newer stamps increasing and again I have no stats to back this up.
EDIT: I'm not sure what the "official" definition of a classic would be. I have always assumed in was a stamp issued in the first 100 years of adhesive postage stamps, i.e. 1840 - 1940.
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12:49:14pm
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
"I have lost the will to list stamps here."
I think we all go through phases, even as buyers and sellers, of varying emotions with our collecting/selling.
When one thinks of the number of stamps that have been issued in the past 185 years (it must run into millions) and if one limits ones collecting area, and have been collecting for years, it is no surprise that one finds it difficult to purchase more.
It is even more difficult for a Seller to guess what is required.
Here most sellers are selling their duplicates or buying lots at auction, keeping what they want for their own collection and selling the remainder. Therefore the sellers ranges of product are limited.
The quickest way to sell on here is through the Approvals. It is far easier for the Seller to list there than in the Auctions for a limited period of time.
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01:12:52pm
re: Trying to sell but getting discouraged
I collect used US and Canadian stamps. Any seller who can offer used copies of 2023 or 2024 or even 2025 issues would find me as an avid (or rabid) customer. Some of the sellers in Canada use current issues as postage but alas most arrive without any postmark.
Try to find postally used copies of the US pinback buttons set or any current Canadian souvenir sheet. How about UN stamps? Mint all over the place, used not a peep.
But it is a challenge. I write a lot of letters to ..... myself.
Tad
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