So many listings and so few images!!!

Ross Berger · October 2016

Is there a way to do a search which will eliminate listings with no image... I WILL NOT even bother to look at the item if there is no image...
Almost forgot!!!
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/ross-stamps

Wayne Buza · October 2016

I agree with you Ross. I want to see an image before I buy anything.

Bonaparte Moore · October 2016

I agree with both of you guys, I had the same problem when I sinc all my stamps from bistart to hipstamp, a good 10% of my stamps came over and the images were lost. Thanks to a buyer who asked me for an image that I realized what happened. Just send the seller a message, he could be like me and not know it, then again there are people who don't scan there stamps too.

Ross Berger · October 2016

I dont grade my stamps ; F/VF ect. I let the stamp do all the work as the grade can be speculative. A picture is worth a thousand opinions.

https://www.hipstamp.com/store/ross-stamps

Jacques Famery · October 2016

Same here, I had hundreds a stamps listed which I was not aware that the scans had disappeared. I only found when I scrambled to get ready for the move to Hipstamp. "Blocks" of listings had no scans on particular dates. If nobody says anything, chances are we won't find out till we stumble on it. All my listings indicate if scan is the actual stamp or a similar one. If there is no scan, you'd think someone would ring a bell!
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/directmaildiscount

Jerry Burkhart · October 2016

I have looked around a lot and I agree, there is a huge amount of listings with no pictures. I guess this is something the sellers need to fix? Some of these sellers may not even look at their items. i cant see how or why as they do have to agree to be here with a store? or were they just auto loaded here if so maybe some have not visited the site here ever? so they are not aware that they have no pictures or even a store here? but i guess they will get a bill for the store.. that should help get the pictures fixed, hopefully.

Dave Bennett · October 2016

Jerry! You're still here!

8 days ago you said, "Mark, I am just going to shut the shop down. Your site has way too many issues. Especially the sync and your style of search you created. I will give it a try later when all this stuff is fixed or changed. If the ideas are actually put in place you have promised."

What brought you back so soon?

Jacques Famery · October 2016

"Some of these sellers may not even look at their items." If they do like me, they just keep adding items, and take care of sales. They may stumble by chance on missing scans if they go through their listings to make corrections. If not, why or how would they find out?

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

Wayne Buza · October 2016

Sellers could find missing images by downloading the CSV file and searching for empty cells in the image column.

Ross Berger · October 2016

I dont buy the approach that they havent looked at there listings. 50,000+++++ item brought over in the migration and you dont check you items. A couple of sellers have items in the hundreds of $$$ or more and no image-what the lights are on but no one is home!!!
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/ross-stamps

Michael Duehr · October 2016

There was at least one seller that stated in his listings that he would not scan the less expensive stamps as it wasn't the time to scan them. (And if I remember correctly there was a couple of other sellers that didn't scan all of their stamp)

Some of the scans were dropped by Bidstart, (I had a number of scans lost by Bidstart itself BEFORE they were even moved over to Hipstamp)

Jerry Burkhart · October 2016

Dave wrote "Jerry! You're still here!

8 days ago you said, "Mark, I am just going to shut the shop down. Your site has way too many issues. Especially the sync and your style of search you created. I will give it a try later when all this stuff is fixed or changed. If the ideas are actually put in place you have promised."

What brought you back so soon?"

--------------------------

Yes Dave - i Buy stamps because i sell stamps in places that have buyers, including my website- Would you prefer me not to be here buying? I must assume your post was sarcasm and if not i do apologize. This site needs buyers.. don't run them off. 1/2 of every sale requires a buyer. try to keep that in mind? And yes until things settle down and fixed, i see no reason to sell here.

So i will repeat:" I will give it a try later when all this stuff is fixed or changed. If the ideas are actually put in place you have promised."

I think a lot of sellers are taking a wait and see attitude. the professional ones can sell elsewhere until things are settled down here. It is no easy task and I'm sure Mark is doing his best as soon as he can. I can wait as will a lot of other sellers.

Dave Bennett · October 2016

Good answer!

Jerry Burkhart · October 2016

I would think very few would buy a lot with no picture. I certainly would not ever do so. I would think staff should go through the stores without pictures , they need to be notified to fix it. It looks horrible. a fact

Richard Olsen · October 2016

I found that if you go to the listing and put your icon over where the image should be the scan will appear. Of course, this doesn't work if the seller hasn't scanned the item.

Robert Parkin · October 2016

I'm noticing that if you are creating a manual listing, you have to put an image. You can't continue to the next page.

Ross Berger · October 2016

Perhaps they just dont want to sell there items and are using Hipstamp as inventory management. 1 seller has over 150,000 items and only about 20% have images( just a guess).

https://www.hipstamp.com/store/ross-stamps

Ralph_Anavy · October 2016

Quote: And yes until things settle down and fixed, i see no reason to sell here.
I think the same thing may apply to buyers. I have certainly put things on hold (even with my favorite sellers offering sales), and as I make new attempts to buy here, I am inclined to be a lot more patient (read postpone my purchases). But it is a learning curve, so things will get better in time, I hope....or I will get better at navigating the new undocumented software.

On the matter of scans, some sellers do not put any scans of their low valued stamps, but unfortunately their threshold may be as high as several dollars. What if HS prevented listing of image-less items above a certain threshold (my suggestion above $0.50), or give the seller a grace period (1 month) to add scans to their scan-less listings, before removing them? Yes I know this is harsh requirement, but from the standpoint of a buyer, image less sales items are a waste of time. I won't look at them, except in very specific cases, and then I ask the seller for a scan anyway! Also, with all these scan-less listings, the site looks unprofessional. Now trying to sell a high value item without a scan is in my view inexcusable!

George DeKornfeld · October 2016

Let me start off by stating that I agree completely with those folks that wouldn't purchase a stamp without seeing an image, and if the price of any stamp runs high, I even want to see a scan of both sides.

As a seller, my offerings always include a scan since I believe that is the way to go.

That said, allow me to throw in a devil's advocate opinion: There is one seller on here that has loads of items in their store and states in his listings that he won't be providing scans of less expensive stamps. Regardless of how we all feel about providing scans, this seller's feedback rating is humongous, so it would appear he is making a good buck even without uploading images, so his particular business model seems to be working for him or her. Granted he or she is probably losing some sales due to lack of images, but their time-saving in putting up listings may offset that loss.

Recall that in the old days, many of us would receive mimeographed, and then later, photo-copied dealer lists via snail mail and most of these had few, if any, images. This method of selling worked back then, so it likely functions now in the digital age.

Bottom line: As much as many of want to see scans of potential purchases, I'm not sure we (Mark) should try to legislate how individual stores decide to operate. ...just my 5-cents.

Jerry Burkhart · October 2016

I can see your point of view George.

In my opinion this site is a co-op that is owned by the sellers and buyers and a few of the larger shops are in fact beholden to act in a certain way or guess what? the other sellers and buyers will leave. Posting every stamp in the scott catalog that is under $1 and posting no pictures is one way to ruin a site in my opinion unless they put these sellers in a special category a no picture category that does not mix with those that provide a picture. Of course it is easier for the one that have no pictures as a few seller have already provided scans on most of the listings so the ones not posting pictures can use this labor. In the end the site owner Mark needs to make a decision if he is going to allow this to be what this site looks like. a mess

So it really is about all the sellers -- not just a few that are trying to list every cheap stamp in the catalog with no pictures.

Ross Berger · October 2016

I think the fix for this would be quite simple. When browsing you have several options on how to browse by using the "Sort By" drop down menu by adding with or with out image choice.
no image

https://www.hipstamp.com/store/ross-stamps

Richard Olsen · October 2016

I know I have items missing the image after the migration. If their is an item that you are interested in, please contact me and I will rescan.

Lee J Coen · October 2016

No image=no interest...

Jacques Famery · October 2016

I spent almost 2 months just before the migration to reinstall hundreds of scans. Now after working on my France section I found more. If has you say, no image = no interest, How in the world can we know if nobody mentions the missing picts. I have only 19,000 items to go through....I wonder how someone with more items can track the "uninteresting" items?

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

So many listings and so few images!!!

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