Bill O'Malley - While I don't like the 3 cent per aucton fee it is modest in comparison to a Linn's or Canadian Samp News classified ad, and is more likely to produce immediate cash flow than a classified ad. Listing an auction is a form of advertising. It doesn't matter where a dealer advertises, but no advertising equals no sales.
I have been in the business for over 40 years and I know the cost of advertising and what good auctions do. I have been on the internet for over 30 years and this site is the first time any one has charged for auctions and there is no reason to have to do that. I am also disgruntled over what is going on with this site and the sloppiness with the way they are making changes. It is very unprofessional.
You must not have been on Ebay then. I still have invoices going back to 2001 that shows that Ebay was charging 30 cents per auction back than, which was BEFORE they ever had any stores.
Ted I agree with you. I started on eBay back in 1999 and they did charge for all listings but had no store fee but I don't think the fee was as high as you said. I will have to go dig out my old invoices to see. When they started the the stores I was one of the first to sign up. I was on Yahoo who had no fees and on Amazon before they went to selling commodities. Back in the '80's I used to sell on bulletin boards and I had CompuServe as my ISP. I was also running the Card, Coin and Stamp shows in the Chicago area and had 8 going every month but that started slowing down in the early '90's and I saw what was happening with the internet so I went and sold the shows in '94. I did not realize but I started in the business back in '72 so I am now entering my 50th year and I am just trying to move all of the excess that I have accumulated in that time. I got fed up with eBay last year when they tried to make use their managed payments and I would not sign up so they blocked me and I gave them the one finger salute. I have been with PayPal since 2001 before eBay bought them and have never had any problem with them at all.
I just get upset with all of the cheap stamps that are on here and having to be buried in the listings. I am also getting fed up with how hard it is to do the listings.
I see what you are saying and I believe I was selling stamps on Yahoo back then because of the eBay fees. On eBay I was selling model railroad items then probably because of the fees but again there were no store fees yet at that time and I also signed up for PayPal at that time and that is the only thing that has not changed much except for the increase in their fees also.
While they didn't have store fees back then, tp run 300 auctions on Ebay at that time would have run you $90 a month, yet on Hipstamp you get the store and you can run 300 auctions a month for about $16 a month with a yearly subscription. (What you would have paid on Ebay would now pay for almost 6 months on Hipstamp even with the store subscription fees running 300 auctions per month)
And it doesn't appear like Yahoo had a good business model with their auctions as that part of their business is gone.
Funny, Yahoo auction still dominates in Japan. eBay has virtually 0 presence here. But I don't do Japan auctions because they are all in Japanese, highly focused on Japan only, and so don't attract any US stamp buyers. ><
Yes that is right they still have it over in Japan. Back in the day I did not have to do auctions on eBay since I was only selling items for $25.00 or more.
Comments
Yeah, hard not to love a good auction!
Yes I understand that but there are many that can not afford the higher priced items and love to bid on auctions also.
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/fatdanes-stamp-store
I am also disgruntled over what is going on with this site and the sloppiness with the way they are making changes. It is very unprofessional.
I started on eBay back in 1999 and they did charge for all listings but had no store fee but I don't think the fee was as high as you said. I will have to go dig out my old invoices to see. When they started the the stores I was one of the first to sign up.
I was on Yahoo who had no fees and on Amazon before they went to selling commodities.
Back in the '80's I used to sell on bulletin boards and I had CompuServe as my ISP. I was also running the Card, Coin and Stamp shows in the Chicago area and had 8 going every month but that started slowing down in the early '90's and I saw what was happening with the internet so I went and sold the shows in '94.
I did not realize but I started in the business back in '72 so I am now entering my 50th year and I am just trying to move all of the excess that I have accumulated in that time.
I got fed up with eBay last year when they tried to make use their managed payments and I would not sign up so they blocked me and I gave them the one finger salute.
I have been with PayPal since 2001 before eBay bought them and have never had any problem with them at all.
I just get upset with all of the cheap stamps that are on here and having to be buried in the listings. I am also getting fed up with how hard it is to do the listings.
I am just turning into a grumpy old man. LoL
I will save you the time as I have a copy of my invoice from April of 2001. Here is a small portion of it.
On eBay I was selling model railroad items then probably because of the fees but again there were no store fees yet at that time and I also signed up for PayPal at that time and that is the only thing that has not changed much except for the increase in their fees also.
And it doesn't appear like Yahoo had a good business model with their auctions as that part of their business is gone.
But I don't do Japan auctions because they are all in Japanese, highly focused on Japan only, and so don't attract any US stamp buyers. ><
Back in the day I did not have to do auctions on eBay since I was only selling items for $25.00 or more.