StampWorld is great as a catalog resource, especially so with the search function.
But be very wary of their price listings. I believe they are "asking prices" for retail sales and may be way out of whack. I unfortunately thought I was brilliant to use their prices on about 20 recent Auctions, factored by 50% to make it a great deal and then found only one item sold. When I double-checked a catalog later at the library I discovered I was still in some cases about 2x over CV.
As you will see on another discussion thread, this can bring firebombs of outrage and calls for expulsion from some members (which I somehow managed to dodge despite being a huge PITA here) so just be cautious of that usage.
There is SB 'Stampboards.com', which is probably the largest. It originated in Australia and spread worldwide.
Some of us have been, or are, members there. It is an astonishing source of information, if you are adept at searching the forum. There are some very expert collectors and dealers in just about any collecting field you can imagine.
Posting rules are pretty strict and all posts are monitored by a posse of regional moderators (the owner of the site is known as the Sheriff).
The site does not offer approval or auction sales. Members can sell at a fixed price or offer swaps once they meet the 'postings made' and 'time served' criteria.
Posting of images is 'heavily' encouraged. Unfortunately, these must first be hosted on sites such as Photobucket or Imgur and then linked to the post.
Many current, or former members of SB prefer to be on this forum as it is has a friendlier atmosphere. There are other sites but I am not qualified to give any information as I don't frequent them.
"American Philatelic Society - Useful members-only sales"
APS changed its policy to allow anyone to buy on StampStore. Non-members pay a 10% surcharge and additional shipping fees. All buyers must register a user account in order to add items to a cart.
I have checked out, joined numerous other online forums, but stamporama is the only one I visit now. Everyone is friendly and knowledgeable enough here that I don't have to put up with the attitudes or condescension at the others.
I find some of the Facebook groups on stamps quite useful if you have time to weed out the ones that are littered with for sale posts. Have made some good friends from FB groups who I can bounce questions and ideas with. I like the fact I can quickly message a friend who I know specializes in a certain field and will get a notification when they answer.
Ha ha! Just signed up at TSF, based on a referral here, and found 90% of the names I recognized from here! Guess I better start making up some new stories! (And keeping details the same on old ones).
Starting to wonder if there are only 18 stamp collectors in the world but we all belong to the same groups using 87 aliases each...
"Yes, lots of experts who let you know the're experts"
That's really untrue if you are implying that members are rude and arrogant. On occasion there has been a member or two that is curt with answers, but generally the members, myself included, will take those rude fellows to task and ask them to be more civil.
But the truth is, there are quite a few US experts on the site, so often the responses can be quite detailed or the poster might be encouraged to search the existing threads first. Most of the common questions (such as do I have a rare 596 or a special printing) can be answered by a little research. Those folks you call experts are almost always very polite and helpful. The late Bill Weiss was a member and his input was always helpful.
Its not a site to just chit chat so its less of a club and more of an information exchange site.
I am a happy member of "Stampboards". You should be aware,however, that some of our antipodeian friends can be somewhat "robust" (syn. "rude") in their delivery - and their sense of humour can be somewhat abrasive - so a broad back is an asset !!
However I have only once been the recipient of this rudeness,quite undeservedly, and the person involved was soon taken to task by others defending my position.However I never take the easy route - I do as much internet research as I can before posting a question - and this is much appreciated - no-one likes being taken for granted.
The knowledge is awesomely detailed ( especially to a world collector like me) - in fact there is almost too much information there, and even with an in-house search engine it is not always easily accessed. Stamporama is much "friendlier", although I have had friendly conversations on the other board too. However other than for U.S., which is under-represented there, the body of knowledge and expertise of the experts there tends to be greater than on Stamporama ( and this is not a criticism - you would expect with the much larger membership they have).
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