Ebay VS. Hipstamp

Wayne Alexander Jr

AS a seller on ebay and here at Hiptamp I was wondering what some of you that sell on both, think is the best and why. I am not trying to start something bad, I was just wondering what you prefer. I think they are both good at times and both bad at times. I might have to choose between the two soon and only use one and was wanting suggestions.
Thanks for your info. wkaj

Keith J. Bowen

I tend to use ebay when I can't find what I'm looking for on HipStamp or when I have the Scott number on a single item I'm trying to find.a single stamp. (The Search function and Filter functions refuse to coexist, annd you can't even get rid of what you put in the Search field.) If neither produces a result I head on over to Delcampe, which is even more tedious to look through. Note that I am a buyer, not a seller.

Henry Brooks

Based only on my experience it depends what you are selling. For a storefront selling stamps generally under $5 or $10 Hipstamp can't be beat. Check out what your monthly fees would be on Ebay to list what you list here for a very nominal sum. Hipstamp still realizes that dealers are it's customer for the most part - Ebay thinks they own your stock....and you are treated as if they do.

Where I use Ebay is for auction format on more expensive items or where I feel that there may be value but I am not certain. Everything from better hard to find stamps, early lithographs, letterheads and most better ephemera brings market value and of course there is no "Hip" site available or I would list here...Over the years I have sold several pieces of postal history that I would have put in my shop at $5 to $10 for anywhere from $50 to just shy of $200. In the early days of Ebay (back when your user ID was your email address and no pictures) I sold a fishing reel that I would have been happy to get $25 for for $380.

My rule of thumb is that most stamps and postal history get listed here in my store. Larger lots and anything that I am not sure of go on Ebay.

Hope that helps

Wayne Alexander Jr

Thanks Carol.

Dennis Jorgensen

I sell at both sites but much prefer Hipstamp now that the dark days of SG are well past. I can list lower price material here that would be uneconomic to list on Ebay. The staff here reacts to queries & problems in a reasonable amount of time and do not reply with scripted answers. Hipstamp does not continually change things, something that Feebay does with regularity. And speaking of fees they are a bit lower here. Ebay does have the advantage of a wider buyer base but I try to get Ebay buyers to become Hipstamp buyers. I have been selling here ( Stampwants, Bidstart, SG, & Hipstamp) since 2005 and prefer it here.

George DeKornfeld

A recent, to become effective "mid-March", change announced by eBay will be the death knell for me using them as much as I do, and from what I've read on some MB's, I won't be alone. Our friends from Down Under' know what I'm talking about since eBay Australia has already implemented the change, to whit, BIN items will no longer have seller-selected durations. All BIN items will now run GTC unless cancelled by the seller. In other words, if you don't have the time or forget to cancel all your BIN listings before 30-days pass, they'll all relist whether you want them to or not, and if you're out of free listings, you'll get hit with relisting fees. Who has the time to keep track of when dozens of different listings end each month? I would run my BIN listings for 30-days. Those that ended unsold, I would let rest for a while before listing them again. Now that automatic option will no longer be available and anything I want to let rest I would have to end manually.

If you follow any of the eBay chat boards, you can watch as their monkeys attempt to defend this change that some feckless techie a-hole came up...with while sellers jump all over them.


My sales here are picking up nicely and for a multitude of reasons, like Dennis said...I prefer it here.

Ted Tyszka

I agree with you, George. I have the least expensive store option on ebay, which only allows me 100 listings a month. However, I take advantage of every 100, 200, and 500 Extra Free Listings promotion that comes my way. I can see where a lot of small-timers like me will be caught asleep at the wheel at the end of 30 days, finding their 500 listings renewing automatically at 25c a listing ($125.00).

I watch my ebay listings as diligently as I follow the minute-to-minute changes in the stock market. Yet, there are times when life keeps you distracted with other matters, and you go back to ebay to find your GTC listings just renewed 11 hours ago. That forces you to close your listings with 3 days left, to ensure against your forgetting. Then you wind up cheated out of 10% of what ebay promised you.

Tania Radley

I sell on both sites and sadly ebay knocks Hipstamp out-of-the-park sales wise. I mostly deal in first day covers but also have a massive stock of stamps that need selling. I would say with my FDC's/stamps listings I sell 95% on ebay and only 5% here? It's funny as on ebay my overseas buyers are quite prepared to pay for expensive tracked postage but on this site I offer the same items with untracked postage/shipping but that makes no difference to my level of sales?

Ebay has far greater traffic and many more potential buyers than this site and as already said ebay auctions can produce some fantastic results. I need to make a living online so ebay also allows me to "mix it up" a bit and also sell other items such as antiques, collectables, badges and vintage jewellery which bring me in some income when stamp related items are not selling. Really it's somewhat unfair to compare the 2 sites as Hipstamp is a specialist site while ebay is more generalised. Hipstamp is a much more friendly site where as ebay's attitude to sellers is "take it or leave it". Fees here could and should be cheaper. 8% is just 1% lower than ebay's final value fee ( perhaps Hipstamp have to pay ebay a % for importing listings when they sell?) I also feel that more bargain hunters visit this site and they are catered for with copious listings for very low value stamps.

All that said - this is almost my 2nd. year on this site. I like it even although I am not doing well here. I now just use Hipstamp as a "shop window" for my stock. I have had sales which easily cover my monthly subscription and leave enough profit to cover several months of further subscriptions. I just look at it as cheap advertising which one day "may" become a more profitable and worthwhile business?

In summary - Hipstamp and Ebay are like "chalk & cheese" - the both have their purpose. My feeling is that canny sellers should have a presence on BOTH SITES!

Michael Duehr

Tania,

Trying to compare Ebays FVF vs Hipstamps does NOT tell the whole story. You have to figure in also your store subscription and also any listing fees to get the whole story.

On Hisptamp there are no store listing fees. In the US on Ebay if you go over your monthly allotment they start at 30 cents each and go down from there. (That's for the starter store which only includes 100 fixed price listings. Auctions are NOT included for that subscription) Many of the sellers would be in the basic size store which ONLY includes 250 fixed price and 250 auction listings per month. Any other listings you would get charges at 25 cents each.

Stores on Ebay are priced per month as follows with a subscription and the number of monthly listing allotments
fixed price auctions
Starter 2.95 100 0
Basic 21.95 250 250
Premium 59.95 1000 500
Anchor 299.95 10,000 1,000
Enterprise 2999.95 100,000 2,500

Hipstamps store fees per month

Basic 5.00
Featured 15.00
Premium 45.00

The problem with Ebay is the store fees with the limited monthly allotments. Which do you think is less being able to run 10,000 listings for $5.00 or paying Ebay $300 per month for those exact same listings? Which do you think is easier to make back? How much extra time,supplies and effort is it going to take for you to make up the extra $295 per month?

Tania Radley

Michael - Please don't get me wrong. I do think that ebay is an expensive site to sell on. However I find sales results there are faster, greater and of higher final value than Hipstamp.

I'm about to take advantage of an ebay 500 free BIN listings for 3 months which has just come in time as I was going to upgrade to a featured shop (1500/300) for £65.00 - however if you actually use up all your monthly free allowances every month they are worth £245

Items just seems that items sell faster there. Only last Friday I listed an early Penny Black Cover for £165 + shipping and it sold within hours. I don't find that this happens on this site? It may sound like I am putting this site down - I'm NOT - I am
still here selling! (well trying too)

Michael Duehr

And I have found that Hipstamp has blown out Ebay by leaps and bounds especially over the last year and half. Last year I didn't do anything with Ebay and I had my best year ever online on Hipstamp. I also do this full time and I have found that many of the specialized items are now starting to sell here and I could never sell them on Ebay. But it didn't get there over night.

How much the listings are "worth" means nothing to your net after you get done paying your fees and store subscription.

I never said that on some items that Ebay wouldn't be better than Hipstamp. It all depends on your mix of items and also your average net price of the items you're selling. And it also depends on the number of items you're listing. Another factor is always going to be how much effort are you spending on your store?

As far as international sales here you need to give them an incentive to buy a number of items to justify the shipping cost.

Victoria Thompson

I have had other sellers on bay come on and harass me for what I post and the values. It is not worth the headache and hassle to put up with that. I just took everything down and reported the problem to Ebay. While they assured me they would take care of it they did not. I do not need to put up with guys being jerks about stamps. In addition Ebay does not let me post "buy now" for less than a dollar. I do not sell stamps for a few cents, those need to not be listed or tossed as not collectible so doing auctions on Ebay are not worth it either. So watch out for the self appointed stamp police on Ebay - they are stalkers and absurdly rude.

Victoria Thompson

A local broker I took stamps to said "Ebay stamp sellers are by and large hacks making money on shipping costs." Not that I agree with him, generalizations never really fit, I do think that serious stamp collectors avoid it like the plague. He confirmed I was correct about the stamps I was accosted about on Ebay and bought them from me. I guess I should be glad it happened because now I have a nice working relationship with a local expert.

Tania Radley

Not true - Hipstamp buyers tend to be penny pinchers who hate paying for tracked postage while ebay buyers will pay it to get "Buyer Protection". What do you mean by "ebay will not let me list BIN for less than a dollar? Surely "less than a dollar = "a few cents?" There definitely ARE serious stamp collectors who buy on ebay. My experience is that serious collectors DO buy on ebay because they have protection and redress.All the cheap stake bargain hunters flock to this site.

Mark Rosenberg

On HipStamp, we have a wide range of stamp collectors, interested in both lower end, and higher end material. We sell several individual items for over $1,000 almost every day, and last week we sold a single stamp for $40,000. With regards to buyer protection, all purchases on HipStamp through PayPal are protected up to $2,500. There's no requirement that a buyer pays for tracking to receive said protection.

Victoria Thompson

Well, Mark, you and your staff are very responsive and considerate. I do not think that same situation that I was hit with could happen here. I think the more serious collectors know the value of the the stamps they are looking for and do not over pay. That is fair.

Michael Duehr

Tania,

Bidstart grew rapidly back when Ebay banned all BINs under $1 and that was back in 2008 if my memory serves me correctly. Auctions can still be started at any value but BINs can not be. They gave us 3 months to either reprice the BINs to $1 or to remove them otherwise Ebay would NOT relist them as they came up for relisting.

Tracking is NOT for the buyers protection it is or the SELLERS protection. Paypal even has that under the user agreement for sellers under the sellers protection. (We just had a thread about the shipping responsibilities and here is the thread)

https://www.hipstamp.com/forums/discussion/2154/shipping-responsibilities#latest

The Paypal user agreement for the sellers protection is listed in full on that thread and it clearly shows that for the sellers protection the seller MUST have a trackable service that shows both the shipping date and the delivery date.

Here are Paypals seller protection requirements

To be eligible for PayPal’s Seller Protection, you must meet all of the following requirements:

The primary address for your PayPal account must be in the United States.
The item must be a physical, tangible good that can be shipped.
You must ship the item to the shipping address on the transaction details page in your PayPal account for the transaction. If you originally ship the item to the recipient's shipping address on the transaction details page but the item is later redirected to a different address, you will not be eligible for PayPal Seller Protection. We therefore recommend not using a shipping service that is arranged by the buyer, so that you will be able to provide valid proof of shipping and delivery.
You must respond to PayPal's requests for documentation and other information in a timely manner as requested in our email correspondence with you or in our correspondence with you through the Resolution Center. If you do not respond to PayPal’s request for documentation and other information in the time requested, you may not be eligible for Seller Protection.
If the sale involves pre-ordered or made-to-order goods, you must ship within the timeframe you specified in the listing. Otherwise, it is recommended that you ship all items within 7 days after receipt of payment.

Item Not Received additional requirements
To be eligible for PayPal’s Seller Protection program for a buyer’s Item Not Received claim, you must meet both the basic requirements listed above and the additional requirements listed below:

Where a buyer files a chargeback with the issuer for a card-funded transaction, the payment must be marked “eligible” for PayPal’s Seller Protection on the Transaction Details page.
You must provide proof of delivery as described below.


Unauthorized Transactions additional requirements
To be eligible for PayPal’s Seller Protection program for a buyer’s Unauthorized Transaction claim, you must meet both the basic requirements listed above and the additional requirements listed below:

The payment must be marked “eligible” or “partially eligible” for PayPal's Seller Protection on the Transaction Details page.
You must provide proof of shipment or proof of delivery as described below.


Establishing proof of delivery or proof of shipment
The following is required as:
Proof of shipment

Proof of delivery

Online or physical documentation from a shipping company that includes:

Date of shipment
An address for the recipient that matches the shipping address on the Transaction Details page
An address for the recipient showing at least the city/state, city/country, or zip/postal code (or international equivalent).
Online or physical documentation from a shipping company that includes:

Date of delivery and ‘delivered’ status
An address for the recipient that matches the shipping address on the Transaction Details page
An address for the recipient showing at least the city/state, city/country, or zip/postal code (or international equivalent).
Signature confirmation, if the full amount of the payment including shipping and taxes exceeds a fixed amount (based on the currency of the payment) from the signature confirmation threshold table below. Signature confirmation is online documentation, viewable at the shipping company’s website, indicating that the item was signed for.

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full