Selling Stamps On Ebay 
           
        The question that I am asked most often regarding stamps is “What are
      my stamps worth?” Once an answer is forthcoming, it is invariably followed
      by “how can I best sell them to maximize value?” For many, the answer to
      the second question is to sell them on Ebay.     

      This may not be as easy as selling Pez dispensers. Stamp collectors are a very
fussy group of buyers and then spend their money with vendors who take the time
to accurately and fully describe their goods, provide good scans, and offer
satisfaction guarantees.  In a recent market survey conducted by Linn’s Stamp
they estimated the total stamp market for the year 1999, in the United States
alone, at $967,000,000 spread among 6,830,000 collectors. So, it is certainly a
market worth trying – if you are willing to spend the time needed to market your
stamps correctly. Who knows, you may end up a collecting them yourself.
The vast majority of stamps have little or no collector value. This applies to
virtually everything your great grand dad tore off his envelopes dating from the
1920’s till now. Now, if he saved the whole envelope, called a “cover,” you
might have some luck.  Stamps that do have value are the ones that were not used
to a very large extent.  A Great Britain one penny red stamp issued in 1841 was
used for most domestic mail in Great Britain for several years. It has a value
of about $1 in normal condition. Even the 1840 one penny black, which was the
world’s first postage stamp and was used only for one year, has a normal value
of only $50 or so. However, there was a two penny blue stamp that was also
issued in 1840 to pay the postage on overweight letters. In use for only a year
on a fraction of the total mail sent, it is substantially more valuable at about
$250. Examples of all three are shown on my website.

    A good first step in selling your stamps on Ebay is to evaluate how much money
was spent building the collection. If little or no money was spent, it is
probably worth very little. If “serious” money was spent, it will almost
certainly be worth more now. Then evaluate how much time you wish to dedicate to
selling your stamps. It will be necessary to buy, or find at the library, the
needed catalogs (most United States collectors use Scott’s catalog), learn how
to correctly use the catalog, absorb some of the technical language, before you
can become an effective stamp seller on Ebay. An alternate solution is to find
an auction house to sell your stamps for you. At this time, very few of the
traditional auction houses have instituted Internet auction sites.
If you need assistance in stamp identification, or want to find Internet
resources available to you, a good starting point would be to check out the
famous yellow boxes compiled by members of the Ebay Users Stamp Club. This site
provides links to a wide variety of valuable information as well as
recommendations as to literature needed. Also, Frajola's board for philatelists
is inhabited my some of the most knowledgeable, and helpful, people you will
find anywhere on the internet.
The advantages of selling stamps on Ebay are greatest in the lower value
segments of the market. I have tried to encapsulate my experience in the
following summary.

 The Value Propositions For Buying And Selling Stamps On Ebay
Stamps are perfectly suited to Internet auctions. There is a long history of
stamps being sold at traditional public auctions, which is important because
collectors are already used to bidding competitively when material becomes
available. Also, because certain conventions of description and cataloging are
accepted around the world, a wide audience will understand a description of a
stamp. Stamps are in strong demand from a wide range of potential bidders and
the Internet allows for cost effective cross marketing to a larger audience than
is otherwise reachable. And finally stamps are an easily shipped product. So,
how well does ebay service this segment of the collectible market?
 To evaluate this I have chosen to segregate the stamp market into discreet
units by the dollar level of goods offered.

Value Propositions for items valued under $25.
1.   For seller - good – likely to extract nearly full value. Traditional stamp
auctions cannot afford to run, let alone photograph, individual lots in this
price range because of cost considerations.  Many times items bring more than
they should because of cross marketing. For example, a sheet of common Pharmacy
stamps might bring well more than face value because a real life Pharmacist
might decide it would look nice framed over his counter.
2.   For buyer – usually good – likely to find items of interest that would
otherwise be available only at a far away dealer bourse or my mail at higher
dealer retail prices. Some danger in getting goods that are not as described
because oftentimes the sellers of this level of stamps don’t catalog items
correctly.

Value Propositions for items valued $25 to $100.
1.   For seller – fair – likely to extract 70% of full value if you have a solid
reputation. The bulk of the buyers in this range are relatively sophisticated.
They require good scans, a return privilege, accurate and detailed descriptions,
and discount their bids for a seller of unproven status.
2.  For buyer – good – once they can quickly and accurately eliminate the
miss-described goods that are prevalent in this price range. The patient and
knowledgeable collector can be rewarded with good bargains.

 Value Propositions for items valued $100 to $1,000.
1.   For seller – poor – probably will be lucky to get 60% of value. Even with a
solid reputation and feedback record the buyers at this level discount their
bids expecting something to be not as described. The best of the current ebay
vendors are rarely as reliable as the worst of the traditional auction houses in
describing faults accurately. As a result the buyers tend to favor the
traditional auction houses.
2.   For buyer – poor – there are a tremendous number of incorrectly described
items appearing at this price level. The largest stamp vendors that inhabit this
space often make their profit by exploiting the price differences between the
faulty goods they buy and fault free goods they sell.

 Value Proposition for items valued over $1,000.
1.   For seller – horrible – other than collection offerings with lots of scans,
I have seen virtually nothing priced over $1,000 in Ebay stamps category that
realized even close to real value. This is likely due to lack of bidder
confidence in the accuracy of seller description. Also, many of the stamp buyers
for this range of material are not yet on the Internet.
2.   For buyer – horrible- most of the goods in this range are not as described
or reserved at levels that would not otherwise be supported.

1covers - Richard Frajola - rfrajola.com  (May, 2000)