Why so few views?

tom breay

I have been on BidStart/Hipstamp for a little over a year. My store has slightly over 1600 stamps in it. Many of these have 1 or no views. I am puzzled by the lack of views. Do I have bad breath? I have a feedback of 590 or so. What should I do to improve the traffic to my store? (Tom's Stamps) Is it a question of not knowing me? I have not done any marketing per se and perhaps that is the root of the problem. Or are collectors not interested in the material I have? I appreciate any comments you may have. I do think my prices are reasonable and in some cases a little low. Thanks Tom Breay

John John H. Talman

Just happened to note your question. I went to your site and the first thing I noted was Hong Kong 1935 silver Jubilee Mint NH at US $120. Where items are listed they have a place at the top to show all listings for all sellers for this set in the condition you mentioned. Though there were listings with prices for this item at cheaper prices I also noted that the price of $120. you had used was not included here and I am not sure if you have a different price listed or if for some reason you are not listed where a buyer might look. You should check into this if for some reason (perhaps your own fault thru no great fault of your own but just not informed) and see if you can be listed in all places buyers might look. At the moment I am working on this for my own items for sale!

Henry Brooks

Tom - I just typed Hong Kong 147 into the search bar at the top of the page and sorted by price, high to low - your set is the 4th one from the top and the price is shown at $120 so it looks like whatever you did to add the price to search worked. Just wanted you to know.

Dennis Jorgensen

Are you sending out any emails to your past buyers to let them know what you have available and what you have recently added to your store? You get an email address with every Paypal payment so it is fairly easy to build a email mailing list. Don't be like a major Philadelphia area stamp firm that sends out emails daily ( to the point where I ignore them), but once a week, once every 2 weeks, once a month - play around and see what brings results for you. Hip stamp is doing a fairly decent job of sending out advertising emails, but you need to work your own customers list - If they bought from you once they may well buy from you again. Don't forget the import number is the number of buyers, not the number of lookers.

Ron Lenke

I'm not understanding how a store can get "lost" in the sea of listings with the search mechanisms in place on HipStamps. Once one finds a particular item of one's liking through a basic filtering search it seems quite easy and natural to check out the seller's other offerings by a simple click to access their store. I'm persuaded that my multiple item purchase orders resulted from just such a pathway. On the other hand, there are listings at a small fraction of catalog value which may be even the lowest on HipStamps that just languish unsold- an example of supply/demand or just the rude reality of our stamp market health.

John John H. Talman

Just to clarify my earlier comments. When I went to "Members Area" above my listings and I guess yours you can use
"Search All Items From All Sellers" to try to find your listing. I checked there under Hong Kong #147-150 Mint VF-NH and found listings for this and then I tried Hong Kong 1935 Silver Jubilee Mint VF-NH and found more listings. M. Jaffe at $80.
was the lowest and Varisell at $144. was the highest. Marlen was at $119.93. In all I found six listings described as VF-NH there but I did not find your listing there though I did find it in the larger Browse section at $120. You may want to find out why you are not listed in the place I went to although six others are. Did not try S.G. numbers and prices in pounds for same item. All the best,

Mark Rosenberg

Hi John,

Just to note - there's no issue with Tom's listings showing up in relevant searches. The "Search All Items from All Sellers" you're referring to is the main search bar that appears on every page on HipStamp outside of the forums (it's not specific to the Members Area, or any other page). From the main search bar if you enter "Hong Kong #147-150" Tom's listing you're referring to does appear. In fact, it's now the fourth listing (because it's presumably been viewed many times by people in this forum thread now):

https://www.hipstamp.com/search?keywords=Hong+Kong+#147-150&parent_id=0

If in addition to "Hong Kong #147-150" you then start narrowing your search by adding additional keywords which are not found in the title of that specific listing, it would no longer show in the search results - that's how searching works. So, for example, if you search for "Hong Kong #147-150 MINT F-VF" you wouldn't find this specific listing because this listing is not listed with "MINT F-VF".

Mark Rosenberg

Hi Tom,

As a Featured Store, there's a few options you have available to help increase sales. I'll have one of our Account Managers follow-up with you.

Dan Shilcrat

Hi Tom, You asked a very thoughtful question to open this thread. It is a real concern shared my myself & many other Sellers here. My comments are only meant to help. Following the link Mark provided today I looked at the Hong Kong listing. There is an old saying 'One Scan is worth one thousand words' I am only seeing 1/3 of 3/4 of the four stamp set. Take the time to remove the stamps from their stock card & display them neatly & scan in entirety. When your pride of ownership is reflected in your listing it will soon have a new home. Best from the desert, Dan

tom breay

Excellent comment Dan. Thank you. Most of my material is fully scanned. I had bought the complete set of the Jubilee issue. They were housed on Vario sheets 4 stamps on the left side and 4 stamps on the right side so I did a short cut when I scanned using the Vario sheet and as they were. Had not given it a second thought but you make a very good point. Thanks again. Tom

Dan Shilcrat

Your OK to do that with the less expensive sets.. but not at the $120. price point. You have good material & good presentation Tom, many nice topicals from seldom seen countries. If/when I get customer requests or questions about things I have seen but do not stock I will refer them to you. Dan

John John H. Talman

Mark: Thanks for your input. I am trying to learn as well and this information certainly helps. The way I entered it only some of the people with a set of Hong Kong #147-150 Mint VF NH showed up but with your way some more showed up inc. five of the people I originally found but I didn't find Tom's set on my original way of searching for his set. Certainly gives a bit of an advantage to those who wind up on both lists. Still learning and will have to be more careful on the way I list so people can find listing in many ways. Thanks again.

Tania Radley

Yes Tom I have the same problem. Only been on this site for a couple of months and only one sale is disappointing. Also - like you - a large % of my stock has had no views. I would say about 40% of items with no views and the rest with between 1 to 7 views but no sales?. Granted a lot of the 40% are GB listings which may not be so popular on this site.

I listed some US mint stamps at under 50% face value which I thought might sell for cheap postage (GB/UK ones sell very quickly on ebay as people buy them to use for cheap/reduced postage) but they have not even moved. I assume its OK to use old mint stamps for postage in the US as it is in the UK? The only thing that I Have not yet had time to do yet is list some low start auctions - I wonder if that will help to create interest in my store stock and drag-it-along?

Luree Hughes

Tania,
One thing that would help, place the link to your store when you post. Some people would like to visit, but have no direct link.
Luree
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/dianealthea

Tania Radley

Thanks - https://www.hipstamp.com/store/stampsfirst-day-covers-and-curios

andrew Hellenschmidt

Tom, you have some nice stamps in your store. I think the site favors high inventory sellers with better positions on the store list who seem to hog most of the views. Best way to get more eyeballs is post more stamps at reasonable prices and provide excellent service. You can also start some auctions or add featured stamps if you are ambitious. I am just getting my toes wet there.

https://www.hipstamp.com/store/johnhstamps

Ralph_Anavy

When I search for a specific stamp, I will always look at all similar items by price, from low to high. (By the way Mark, can we make the list display choice sticky! PLEASE! It is a pain to have to reset it every time!)
If your items shows up among the lower priced items on the search list, I may explore your store, if I am interested in that specific stamp from you, and if it is not available from my prefered sellers.

If your stamp lists high in price, relative to others, I will not look at it, or at your store. If you constantly list high in price, I will ignore all your items in the future. By the way, I do look at shipping charges, and if your low listing price masks an outrageous (in my opinion) per stamp add-on shipping charge, I will boycott your store. I am quite firm about this, even if it seems like a bargain!
I think any low cost listings, with hidden per item shipping add-ons are unfair to other sellers!

Just my approach, but I do also suggest looking at some of your prices and comparing them to others. You will not attract me to your store, unless a specific item I want draws me into your store to find more! Just one buyer's approach, but I may not be very different from others.
rrr.....

Ron Lenke

Ralph, that makes two of us, both as a buyer and a seller.

https://www.hipstamp.com/store/part cat

tom breay

Thanks to all the folks that have responded to my post. The replies have been very helpful. Like any other business, I need to market the store, using eMails (without being a pain), scan the entire set, and utilize that tried and true "SALE" feature. I appreciate the sound advice and suggestions and will be working to improve my sales efforts. Tom Breay

Thanks Mark - Will be following up with Justin shortly.

tom breay

Hi Ralph - I appreciate your comments. I had a per additional set at .15. Based on your comment I eliminated that charge. I have a question for you as I try to understand pricing from the buyers perspective. Is there a point at which you weigh or consider the condition of the stamp, such as centering, or do you look for the lowest price of the stamp you are interested in? As a dealer, I strive to price at my cost plus a small reasonable percentage. I can't give items away, nor can I sell at an outlandish price. Based on your buying experience what do you consider a reasonable price for the Hong Kong Jubilee set? The set is MNH, no faults, nicely centered, nice color, rating at least F-VF condition. Given the scarcity of the set, I felt $120 was not out of line and the buyer could make an offer. It's good to have buyer feedback but in this case maybe my price is high. I think there are 3 priced higher than me. Thank you again for your comments. Tom .

Ron Lenke

Tom, hope you don't mind my interjection. I just looked on eBay for this set. There is a current buy-it-now, free shipping MNH offering from a big seller (almost 100,000 feedback) for $80.10. Past recent sales shows two MLH sets sold for $16.93 and $16.37 again from a very experienced dealer. I was unpleasantly surprised by this too. A new collector can go much further in their pursuits now on the same bucks.

Ralph_Anavy

Hi Tom: From a buyer's point of view...after I list the item I want in a descending list from low $ to high $, I will definitely next look at centering, cancellation etc.. But within a narrow band of the lower prices being offered. Clearly I will pay extra for stamp with few flaws and good centering, but my own feeling is that it will not be much extra. If I don't find what i want at the right price, I will put it in a wanted list and recheck it periodically. New stamps arrive, and sellers discount from time to time, so if I am not in a rush I will find it at the right price and at the right condition, eventually.

FYI, I have 1000 stamps in my shopping cart....I am just waiting for the right price and the minimum critical mass from each dealer to buy (I will not pay more than 10% for shipping...and that may determine when I buy, and from whom! If your shipping is say $3.00, I need $30.00 of material to buy before I process my shopping cart....where as if your shipping charges are $0.75, then I will activate a purchase much sooner...and THAT IS ALSO WHEN I WILL LOOK THROUGH YOUR STORE FOR MORE.)

In today's stamp market, few buyers (certainly not me) will pay 50% of catalog....and often much less will be their guidelines. Again with patience, most serious collectors will find what they want under 1/3 cat...and probably under 1/4, without much wait. For some of the very high value stamps I personally seek, I will bid 15% of cat (which may still be a sizeable sum)...and eventually with patience, I will get them (or not...but then there are so many I seek..)!

Now for the Hong Kong stamps, I really don't know, as I don't collect Hong Kong...but sellers always feel they have a gem, and they forget to look at the marketplace. Search on past sales of the same item, here, on ebay, delcampe etc.., or review all current listings, and that will be my best recommendation for pricing....no matter how exceptional you think your stamps are, they are fairly common..the Jubilee stamps are on sale somewhere today or any time you look. It is not like they are available once a year, and thus should command a higher premium. It all depends how long you want to wait to sell them.
Best of luck
rrr...
rrr...

Michael Duehr

Tom,

Just a quick question. After looking at your presentation of the Hong Kong 147-150 set can you please tell me with the way you presented the set what would make me inclined to buy your set as opposed to buying one of the other sets (Leaving out the differences of price at the moment)?