Catalog Numbers and Postage Charges: It's Kvetching Day
Folks, ladies and gentlemen, cats and kittens, I'm just a regular customer here among all you dealers. I enjoy the company, and I hope I never test your patience or your hospitality. Today, however, please let me voice a couple, well, honestly, complaints. Not about any in present company, but about things I have observed in browsing around hipstamp.
The first is about using the correct Scott catalogue numbers when identifying stamps offered for sale. Read this: the Scott stamp catalogue number is the first group of digits in the entry. The second group, typically the A--- number, is the design number. This number does not identify the stamp at all. AT ALL. This is something I have seen often in the collector sites I visit, and I have assumed it was a result of all the new folks that have entered the hobby recently. But dealers should know better. Do not offer a 2c red Washington coil perfed horizontally for $25 and simply call it A140. Do your homework.
Read the entire front section of your Scott catalogues. READ IT TWICE! You will learn something new each time you read it. But frankly, my dear friends, when you show that you do not even know how to identify a stamp, you do not need to be in this business. And you do not deserve our business.
And on to the second matter. Today I was prepared to place two orders with dealers I had not dealt with before. The first was for 9 items at a total of $27. The total postage and handling charge was for $1.50, very reasonable and even less than I had expected. No problem, I placed the order.
The second order was for 5 items and a total of $8.00. Postage was another $5.00, or $1 for each item. These were cheap items, just some things I needed for my collection. But I was not desperate for them, and I'll wait to find them elsewhere. I know that your postage charges are your business, you have the say. But if you cannot be troubled to combine postage for several items, you don't need my business.
Ok, perhaps it can be said that the dealer doesn't understand how the system works. That's not an excuse, that's an accusation. This is your business, sir. Figure it out! Or perhaps that dealer is willfully taking advantage of us customers. That only works once with most of us.
Alright, I'm done, thanks for listening, good night, America, and all the ships at sea....
The first is about using the correct Scott catalogue numbers when identifying stamps offered for sale. Read this: the Scott stamp catalogue number is the first group of digits in the entry. The second group, typically the A--- number, is the design number. This number does not identify the stamp at all. AT ALL. This is something I have seen often in the collector sites I visit, and I have assumed it was a result of all the new folks that have entered the hobby recently. But dealers should know better. Do not offer a 2c red Washington coil perfed horizontally for $25 and simply call it A140. Do your homework.
Read the entire front section of your Scott catalogues. READ IT TWICE! You will learn something new each time you read it. But frankly, my dear friends, when you show that you do not even know how to identify a stamp, you do not need to be in this business. And you do not deserve our business.
And on to the second matter. Today I was prepared to place two orders with dealers I had not dealt with before. The first was for 9 items at a total of $27. The total postage and handling charge was for $1.50, very reasonable and even less than I had expected. No problem, I placed the order.
The second order was for 5 items and a total of $8.00. Postage was another $5.00, or $1 for each item. These were cheap items, just some things I needed for my collection. But I was not desperate for them, and I'll wait to find them elsewhere. I know that your postage charges are your business, you have the say. But if you cannot be troubled to combine postage for several items, you don't need my business.
Ok, perhaps it can be said that the dealer doesn't understand how the system works. That's not an excuse, that's an accusation. This is your business, sir. Figure it out! Or perhaps that dealer is willfully taking advantage of us customers. That only works once with most of us.
Alright, I'm done, thanks for listening, good night, America, and all the ships at sea....
Comments
Face, palm. Palm, face. Glad to meet ya.