Sales, Swaps, Auction & Approvals/Auction Disc. : What to do if...
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Harvey I think, therefore I am - I think! 27 Oct 2020 04:20:12pm
If I see an item I believe to be grossly over priced should I email the seller or just ignore the whole thing? I assume I would be doing the seller a favour by getting in touch, but maybe not!
Harvey I think, therefore I am - I think! 27 Oct 2020 06:37:36pm
re: What to do if...
I'm going to sleep on it and decide what to do first thing tomorrow. I belong to a site called Worthpoint, a site that gives you prices for sold items. I found it very valuable when I was an antique dealer but it also covers most stamps. They buy up sold prices from on-line auction sites and many other areas as well - a very useful thing to have access to and I highly recommend it! If I see an item that seems more expensive than I think it should be, that's the first place I go. Does anyone else use it?
I used to subscribe to it several years ago but they changed their format and it became less useful for the non stamp items I deal in. You also need to look at the dates of sale and use some common sense.
I found on postal history it was fairly useless on locations as a lot of counties only have one or two people collecting them and when they move on the covers they were paying $50 to several hundred dollars for (RF8's and 9's) were bringing $10 or so at auction on Ebay. Rarity does not affect pricing if there are no buyers.
"Overpriced" stamps maybe in the eye of the beholder.
The seller names his price and if you think it is overpriced then do not buy it.
I would never be so forward as to suggest to a seller that their item is so called overpriced.
The stamp in question may be a variety (watermark, perf etc) that is not listed in your catalogue.
Stanley Gibbons' Stamp of the World catalogue is famous for putting in the value of a variety for a common stamp. (see the Portugal Ceres series) A seller may take the catalogue value as gospel.
The beholder could actually be totally wrong and end up with a red face.
Feebay has the offer system which is a pain in the neck. I have had stamps starting at £20.00 and I get offers of £10 for the item. I take it as a total insult and refuse their offer. (The labourer is worthy of their hire)
Yes there are "sellers" who list common stamps at high prices. I wouldn't waste my time on them.
If one uses the principle of telling a seller their item is overpriced then surely to keep to ones principles one MUST tell a seller when an item is UNDERPRICED!!
Let me tell you a story:-
Many, many, many months ago I sold half a dozen Hawaii stamps for $700. I had started them at 99 cents because at that time I had no idea what I had. I was surprised that two people had bid that high for them.
On this Discussion Board I showed the stamps and nobody knew why anybody let alone two people would bid that high.
The moral of the story is that you may think it is overpriced but you could be wrong!!
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Harvey I think, therefore I am - I think! 27 Oct 2020 07:43:14pm
re: What to do if...
Ian - I signed up for this thing at least 10 years ago and it was nowhere near that much, they charged me for a couple years and haven't taken any money out since then. So I now have access to the site for free. I don't want to take advantage of the site, but if anyone really needs an item looked up send me a personal email or message and I'll look it up for you. It really is a great site, if you look up an item it almost always has the item and goes back at least 10 years! Of course, you have to take the year into account and know that some things are going down drastically, especially glass and china.
Edit: I doubt if I'll email the person. Ian has a good point - money really is in the eye of the beholder. If you want it, buy it. If you don't want it, leave it! Who am I to comment on an item if I don't know the whole story? By the way, I swear by Worthpoint. I have used it mostly for antiques and find it very useful. I've only used it for stamps a few times and found it useful there, so far.
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President - West Essex Philatelic Society www.wepsonline.org 31 Oct 2020 03:18:33pm
re: What to do if...
I know I wouldn't be upset if someone let me know something was overpriced. I have accidently missed a decimal point and something that should be $5.00 is listed at $500. I have more than 14,000 items in my HipStamp Store. If I don't catch that error and nobody tells me, the item obviously will never sell.
You can let them know. A while ago I listed something, don't remember, but was supposed to be 25.00. Somebody let me know that I had it listed for $25,000. Guess I missed the decimal point?
I mostly use Stanley Gibbons Stamps of the World catalogue for pricing the stamps on here.
Gibbons only give prices for Unmounted Mint and Used.
I listed a MH item on here for $45.00 as the catalogue value in Gibbons is £230 ($299 at the current exchange rate) for unmounted mint so I thought 15% of catalogue was a good price.
Imagine my horror when a member here told me that Scott's "value" was $100 for unmounted mint, $42 for mounted mint.
It is a direct comparison as the item has no possible differences in perfs or watermark.
I went onto Stampworld.com and their "value" was £224 for Unmounted Mint and Mounted Mint had no figure entered at all. (I checked the sellers on Stampworld. Average selling price for unmounted mint was $84)
The question is did I "overprice" the item?
The answer is Yes and No.
Yes in North America and No in the Rest of the World!!!
I did withdraw the item from here.
Who would be a seller? Its a bloomin' minefield out there.
Bang!...OOHHHHHH!...Bang!
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