The Internet Philatelic Dealers Association, Who are we? Why are we? Are you ready to be a Member.
Some of the sellers on Hipstamp are members of the IPDA. Hi to you all. I am proud to say I am one of them. Why? because this Association is one my colleagues and I think is needed in the philatelic world we live it.
A world where the only qualification to sell stamps is, let’s be honest, that you have some stamps. ok and an internet connection :-)
Please give me a few minutes to read the following:
There are some fantastic dealers here, some brilliant sellers with great business models, history, reputation and, content and quality for collectors who want to buy a few stamps to improve their collection.
But are you a Member of the IPDA and do you let the buyers know? Do buyers ask or even know if a seller is an IPDA Member and one who they know will abide by a Code of Ethics which will ensure the buyer is buying from a seller who for example has pledged to accurately describes their material for example?
Well if not and you think you should be an IPDA Member perhaps the following will encourage you to join.
The IPDA has been through a difficult, let’s say inactive 18 months. But we are back with a new Board of Directors, yes, including me, and new ideas, a new web site under development and a new commitment to make sure stamp collectors, can buy with confidence that they are getting what they order.
You can read a little about the IPDA and our Code of Ethics on our website ipdastamp.org As dealers, as stamp sellers, all Members abide by these ethics. I will go further and say we really believe in them because we want the buying community to have respect and trust in stamp dealers whether they be full time or part time dealers.
Sorry for such along winded text but this is not just a 30 second hello how are you, please sign up message.
So, as I say, the IPDA was largely inactive for the past 18 months and to rebuild we have decided on the following.
1) All current members, and those former members who wish to renew their membership at this time, will receive full member benefits for the entire calendar year 2018, at zero cost.
That is correct. The membership fee, normally $20 per year, has been waived for this year.
All members of record as of May 30, 2018 will only have their next dues of $20 requested in December of 2018 for the calendar year starting January 2019.
2) And, at our recent AGM a new member, one time, joining fee of $10. was approved.
We hope this small fee will encourage Philatelic Dealers, full time and part time, to be able to say they are Members of the IPDA
This only applies to new, never before, members from this point (May 1, 2018) forward.
OK, we acknowledge, it is not the financial sum acquired by membership fees that we are interested in. After all, a $20 membership fee is nominal compared to the 10s or 100s of pounds or dollars one has to pay to join some other philatelic organisations. This is just a small way to say we want you to join and support what the IPDA stands for.
And, just to remind you, all former members, no matter the reason for not being a member at this time, if they wish to rejoin, need simply to inform the Membership Secretary (Tony Tripi at email: tripi@earthlink.net) of their decision by the end of May, 2018 and they will be reactivated as a member at no cost.
Do you want to join us and help give buyers the confidence they should have when buying from sellers on, for example the Hipstamp portal? do you want to proudly display the IPDA logo on your web site?
I do hope so - I look forward to hearing you have sent an application to our Membership Secretary - just visit our website at ipdastamp.org and click the Application button. Thank you
Michael Dodd cddstamps.com IPDA Director and General Secretary.
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps
A world where the only qualification to sell stamps is, let’s be honest, that you have some stamps. ok and an internet connection :-)
Please give me a few minutes to read the following:
There are some fantastic dealers here, some brilliant sellers with great business models, history, reputation and, content and quality for collectors who want to buy a few stamps to improve their collection.
But are you a Member of the IPDA and do you let the buyers know? Do buyers ask or even know if a seller is an IPDA Member and one who they know will abide by a Code of Ethics which will ensure the buyer is buying from a seller who for example has pledged to accurately describes their material for example?
Well if not and you think you should be an IPDA Member perhaps the following will encourage you to join.
The IPDA has been through a difficult, let’s say inactive 18 months. But we are back with a new Board of Directors, yes, including me, and new ideas, a new web site under development and a new commitment to make sure stamp collectors, can buy with confidence that they are getting what they order.
You can read a little about the IPDA and our Code of Ethics on our website ipdastamp.org As dealers, as stamp sellers, all Members abide by these ethics. I will go further and say we really believe in them because we want the buying community to have respect and trust in stamp dealers whether they be full time or part time dealers.
Sorry for such along winded text but this is not just a 30 second hello how are you, please sign up message.
So, as I say, the IPDA was largely inactive for the past 18 months and to rebuild we have decided on the following.
1) All current members, and those former members who wish to renew their membership at this time, will receive full member benefits for the entire calendar year 2018, at zero cost.
That is correct. The membership fee, normally $20 per year, has been waived for this year.
All members of record as of May 30, 2018 will only have their next dues of $20 requested in December of 2018 for the calendar year starting January 2019.
2) And, at our recent AGM a new member, one time, joining fee of $10. was approved.
We hope this small fee will encourage Philatelic Dealers, full time and part time, to be able to say they are Members of the IPDA
This only applies to new, never before, members from this point (May 1, 2018) forward.
OK, we acknowledge, it is not the financial sum acquired by membership fees that we are interested in. After all, a $20 membership fee is nominal compared to the 10s or 100s of pounds or dollars one has to pay to join some other philatelic organisations. This is just a small way to say we want you to join and support what the IPDA stands for.
And, just to remind you, all former members, no matter the reason for not being a member at this time, if they wish to rejoin, need simply to inform the Membership Secretary (Tony Tripi at email: tripi@earthlink.net) of their decision by the end of May, 2018 and they will be reactivated as a member at no cost.
Do you want to join us and help give buyers the confidence they should have when buying from sellers on, for example the Hipstamp portal? do you want to proudly display the IPDA logo on your web site?
I do hope so - I look forward to hearing you have sent an application to our Membership Secretary - just visit our website at ipdastamp.org and click the Application button. Thank you
Michael Dodd cddstamps.com IPDA Director and General Secretary.
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps
Comments
Like the idea..send be more info..paypal is how I pay.
Lee
Let me know..
Look forward to hearing from you.
Sorry Michael but, let's start it off with getting one fact straight. The IPDA was not founded in 2002 but, in 2000. I know because myself and 7 others were the founders. However after 2 years it nearly fell apart by some board members wanting to turn it into an auction site and in 2002 Alan D. stepped in and held it together. I will use initials to protect the guilty as well as the innocent. lol
And yes, about 18 months ago it did start coming apart again. By this time I had been elected chairman and was informed by our then secretary Bill L, that the board didn't run the IPDA , he did. To be blunt, everything turned into a confused mess and I tendered my resignation stating the line from the old Kenny Rogers song "The Gambler". I felt like I was on "a train bound for nowhere".
I wish you luck Michael and hope you and the new board members can bring back the great organization we had. I don't know of any other organization that held 24 hour or sometimes 48 hour marathon chats around the world for collectors and dealers. I also recall that on one of them we had Seb Delcampe as one of our moderators.
My apologies for the long winded message but, this looks like a very good thing Michael and the new board members are doing.
Bob Bechtel
Packetsplus
Now, it is soliciting old and new members to join/rejoin for a fee attached. What assurances can the newly, presumably self-appointed officers of this resurrected group give to ensure signing on/paying members that the group won't crater in 12/18/24 months, and what use is put to the funds collected?
It is said that membership in the group is to give confidence to buyers. I submit that the first objective of the group should be to provide confidence to its members. Worry about the buyers second.
Thanks for everyone taking an interest in this.
Bob Bechtel
Packetsplus
Michael IPDA General Secretary
.. Quote .... "From reading this, the group stands on some very shaky soil where it tends to collapse as special interest groups attempt/take over the group, and then it proceeds to cycle around only to collapse again. Not a good reliable history.".... end quote
It is so not nice to see someone write in the negative and creative an even more negative perspective. I suppose it is easy to do, easier then being positive and looking at the glass half full. I think this is an exaggeration and I am saddened to read such a view expressed, when it is not based on facts. Over the past 18 year this has happened once in the very earlier yes as Bob pointed out and then again about 2 years ago. For the rest of the time the Association was trying to represent Dealers and from my recollections was moderately successful. It is always a challenge to get people to participate in any association or group but the quality of the members and the intent has never really wavered. So we had two disturbances over 18 years. We have not hidden that. We have accepted that and have good people who want to do something positive again .
Now, it is soliciting old and new members to join/rejoin for a fee attached. What assurances can the newly, presumably self-appointed officers of this resurrected group give to ensure signing on/paying members that the group won't crater in 12/18/24 months, and what use is put to the funds collected?
We are trying to rebuild the Association and in particular attract both old members who may have not renewed because of the way the Association ended up being largely a one man influenced Association. In part one might argue that this was because there was insufficient member participation. I would accept that. Today we have some new Directors who care enough about what the IPDA stands for, what it wants to offer dealers and what it wants collectors to recognize. I tried to explain that in my introduction so will not repeat.
What assurances can we give. Well let’s be honest, we can give no assurances. That is life. The only assurance I can give is that the sun will rise on the morning and set in the evening. Such is life. I can give the assurance that the current Directors are all committed and if over the years we get more Members willing to support the activities, willing to participate and willing to offer their time to promote the association I am confident we will not see the same situation that has occurred twice in the past 18 years.
As Bob mentioned, when we had a larger membership we held chats around the world and these were quite well participated in, by both sellers and collectors. I presume to the benefit of all because people regularly came back for more. People who made online friends and shared their experiences. We had a Monthly Newsletter that as far as I know was well received. We are starting that again. We are trying to provide information to internet dealers that will be of interest to them. We have restarted our Confidential List, where we try to keep dealers informed of bad practices, thefts and any information that we think might be relevant to them in running their online business.
As for Directors presumed to be self appointed. I have no idea why such a comment would be written. The Directors are voted in by the Members. Over the past 5 months we have held an Extraordinary General Meeting and an Annual General meeting. Nominations were called for, names were tabled and votes were counted. Yes there is a small participation but we abided by out Constitutions rules, we had a quorum and we followed a due process.
It would be nice to have more Members be nominated or put themselves forward but as I said earlier, participation and willingness to offer their time is difficult to get. That is not different to many other organisation, be they philatelic or otherwise. We all know that I think.
What use are the funds we collect put to. We are a not for profit organization and our operating costs are low. We do have to pay for our web site so that is one cost. We do have small administrative costs associated with maintaining our not for profit registration in the US. Other than that, in the past the membership fees have been collected and attempts made to try various promotional activities, although again, as I say, participation has not been great. so funds have largely accumulated although not to the scale anyone would say we are “rolling in money”
Today we have a Business Plan for 2018 and included in that plan are initiatives to promote the IPDA and initiatives for Director to participate at Philatelic conferences and trade shows.. These are being reviewed and funding will be approved after detailed costings and working plans / business cases are developed, and presented to the Board for approval or whatever outcome the Directors decide.
end of part 1
Finally, the comment was made . quite .” It is said that membership in the group is to give confidence to buyers. I submit that the first objective of the group should be to provide confidence to its members. Worry about the buyers second." end of quote
This is a misrepresentation of what was written. Again, I find is sad that a few words have been used, rather than a full reading of what was written and clearly intended in my original posting. The original text tried to get a balance between encouraging sellers, both full time and part time sellers. to join. and getting sellers to be proud they could promote themselves as Member of the IPDA while reflecting a view that buyers should want to know they are buying from sellers who abide by a code of ethics and are a respected seller as judged by their peers.
If one wants to find fault with this, be negative, or debate the premises that is easily done. In the past we have been challenged on how easy it is to join, to be accepted as a Member. What qualifications do we have to say yea or nay to an application. All good questions and while we are all debating these nothing changes for the sellers or the buyers. However, participation, acceptance that the IPDA is attempting to do something positive for sellers and buyers is in my view the way forward.
We as a Board review each application, we listen to recommendations, we look at listings, we look at feedback (yes someone will argue that feedback is meaningless, but it is just one factor that might be telling so unless we consider it we won’t know what we don’t know). We look at sales, (yes I know someone will tell me well everybody starts with low sales so how can that be a factor – I give the same answer as I did for the previous point.
We are trying to give confidence to sellers, confidence they can be recognised by being a member and proudly displaying the IPDA logo, and at the same time give confidence to buyers. We are established to support Internet Philatelic Dealers, and as stated on our “About Us” page on our website …. the main intention to allow stamp collectors to trade and interact, (with other collectors and dealers) with confidence to make the Internet a safer place to trade.
Perhaps it would be worth reading that page as the reader will see a strong focus on the dealer perspective, demonstrating our commitment to the sellers while also recognizing the buyer perspective.
Let me finish by apologising for a long response. I do hope you have got here. One final comment.
On a social media stamp group recently, a person wrote “all dealers rip off buyers”. Of course that is not true. While I do not know how many people read that I do know no one responded saying how unfair and untrue a statement that was.
But what an influencing statement that might be to many new collectors.
For the sellers and buyers here on this excellent portal let’s acknowledge the quality of the sellers here and the good intentions they have towards this wonderful hobby and their interest in providing a service to help collectors add to their collections and enjoyment of philately.
If joining and supporting the IPDA helps in a very small way then I look forward to seeing more sellers think about the Internet Philatelic Dealers Association in a positive light.
Thank you …..Michael Dodd - IPDA General Secretary – owner cddstamps
Thank you for the lengthy explanation. My questions promoted such a response, and a short reply would have not reflected well.
I do stand corrected on one thing. That is my comment on the 18 month collapse. I read 18 months over and over again in the original posts, and it sounded at the time of my reading that the group was founded, then 18 months elapsed when it collapsed, then two years after that it had a similar problem which brought things to where they are today. That makes a time frame of 3 1/2 years, when you have corrected it to the 18 years. I also saw that in Robert's response. That does change the perspective, and two "disturbances', as you put it, are not critical as long as the group comes out of it having learned from the problems. It appears from your response that lessons were learned and corrections made.
I think it fair for others possibly considering joining/rejoining the group to have reservations regarding what has happened, and to have questions as to how things are going to be better and what changes have been made to set a new course and image for the group. I believe you have helped answer many of those questions at least from my perspective. I'm sure you are willing to be equally as open should anyone else wants to ask any questions.
Michael IPDA General Secretary
After, reading the statements of Bob B and Michael D, it may have been that our applications were not processed due to the IPDA early growing pains. So please understand why many of us are extremely skeptical of this organization and do have reservations about joining. I agree with Michael #'s, right now I too believe your main objective is to instill confidence to the members. Your response Michael D was excellent and I think it will assuage some of our reluctance.
To others who may read. I too was one who left the IPDA due internal politics to use that expression. I gave up I guess.
But today I have more time and seeing what I see on the internet I think - and I know I am supported by others - our current Chaiman and another Director are back as well because they believe the same - anyway I think now is as good a time as any to try to do what the IPDA set out to do.
I am sorry for your past experience Jeri, and any others this happened to, but I assure you the team in place now want it to work.. It is not an easy journey, even, for example, getting our web site back up - we lost the old one - another sad story - - but we are committed and I guess that is all we can be right now. Support and participation is not always easy I know. We can but try. Regards Michael
To join you can go to the website www.ipdastamp.org and hit the Application menu tab on the left hand side menu bar. Click submit and you will hear in due course and with request for payment after accepted through our process.
Any issues please do not hesitate to write to me at cddstamps@gmail.com
Regards Michael
Like the conversation...
Your application received on 7th May is being processed and all looks good from what I have seen I would expect within a week you should hear. You should already have had an acknowledgement ( I certainly hope you did) let me know if any others questions.. you can always private message me cddstamps.. Thanks Michael
1. How does IPDA membership improve a seller’s trustworthiness (in a buyer’s view) over being an APS or an APDA member. In other words, what is the value added?
2. Do buyers have a clue about the IPDA?
3. How is IPDA membership going to become something that the stamp buying masses are going to care about?
I have been mulling over applying but these questions have held up pulling the trigger, so to speak.
In short though, we recognise other Associations, of course we do, ASDA, CSDA, APS etc etc etc and many others, and the value of being a member of them. However we are focused on Internet dealers and internet dealers who adhere to our code of ethics re selling on the internet. I want to ramble on about internet sellers but think this is the wrong forum to do so. Perhaps you will understand it if I leave it at that. and just to say... I have written various thread on this and the IPDA so wont repeat those either.. But one thought process re item 3 . - .... no simple answer but when you buy from a seller who is not an IPDA member or a member of one of the other Associations and you maybe realise the difference when buying from an IPDA member ... and yes that may appear as an exaggeration and yes not necessarily always true, and yes that will take time I agree, and yes lots of effort on all our parts but think of the option.... ........and read the past Newsletters and you will see what I mean, ........perhaps .
Looking forward to any questions you may have - just write to me personally or any of the other IPDA Committee.
Michael IPDA General Secretary
From what I see of the IPDA members and especially the IPDA board members of today, they are not just affiliated with the APS or APDA . Members and board members seem to belong to many international stamp organizations.
Although I am no longer an IPDA member I try to stay in touch with Michael Dodd. I believe it was Michael Generali who stated that many organizations go through some tough times and learn from them. That happened a few years ago with the IPDA and Michael Dodd has done a terrific job of pulling it together and even improving the organization.
Michael and I did settle one error that came to my attention. The IPDA was founded in 2000 not 2002. I know because I was one of the 8 stamp dealers who met in the old Glassine Surfer chat room back about 1998 or 1999. One of our prime concerns was how to warn people and put dishonest stamp dealers out of business.
I don't believe any organization just started overnight. The beginning of the IPDA started with that group of 8 people in the Mike Mills Glassine Surfer chat room. I know Michael Dodd is very busy but, some day it would make a good story about "How It All Began ". Today it is an organization to be proud to be a member of.
Bob Bechtel
Packets Plus