Have your sales been dead for the last 2-3 weeks

I was getting 4-5 orders a week until they started pushing the penny and premium auctions
Now, 1 a week maybe
Anyone else seeing this?
How does one get in on these?

Comments

  • 17 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Russ: Not sure what caused it but my sales have been down for the past week. In the old days the wholesale price used to be cheaper than the retail prices. Around Sept.15 to 20th we sold two lots of 100 each Canada #383 Mint NH for CDN. $12 each. One dealer is selling Canada #383 Mint NH at US 10c each. At the time of my sales with the exchange 10c US is about 12c Canadian. It would be nice to see retail prices that are higher than wholesale prices. By the way Canada #383 mint has always been a popular stamp and I have sold many thousands of them.
  • Gosh .......I wish I had one a week
  • The last two weeks have been the BEST I have had in a while.
  • Some weeks are better than others. Some months are better than others. Its the same with my old fashioned mail order pricelists. Don't panic over a slow week - if it ends up being 10 slow weeks then you can panic. For the new sellers - patience. It take time to become known here and to build up a feedback rating. While it is slow list new material. New material always seems to bring in new buyers and get some old buyers buying again.

    Sometimes going on vacation can stimulate orders. In March we normally head south to celebrate our wedding anniversary and I put the store on vacation. This past year as we were on the return home leg I managed to sell a high value Canadian Victoria Jubilee stamp from a "closed" store.

    https://www.hipstamp.com/store/fatdanes-stamp-store
  • In the last two months my sales were approximately one a day, and I've just come back from a 14 day vacation and still got 10 sales!
  • Thanks to the new Store Stats I can easily see that Sept. has been my best month for those listed. Up over 28% from August and about the same over July and both months had shown a big increase over the earlier months. Having said that I will report that my sales were down from Sept. 21 to 30. New order arrived on Oct. 1/17 and I wonder if there is something to Russ Romei's comment about penny and premium auctions affecting sellers end of Sept. sales. I sell stamps in many ways and my overall sales in Sept. were the highest month this year. Now to work on October sales!
  • Towards the end of the month many seniors, a large part of the buying base, are waiting for Canada Pension, or Social Security, Company Pension etc. I have several standing order customers with instructions to bill their credit cards after the date that their pension money comes in.
  • Dennis: Not sure if pensioners are a big part of my buying base. Many of the people I sell to are still working these days despite being of retirement age. Companies want to keep them working due to their sharp stamp collecting minds that helps their business. During the past hour here I have received an order on the phone for a Newfoundland item ($600.) and an E-Mail from Saudi Arabia from a customer who resides in Cyprus for over $100.00 in Canadian stamps. There seem to be many stamp collectors around the world. Russ Romei and I were just wondering why we had a slow down in business at Hip Stamps at the end of Sept. Perhaps your comments are right for buyers at Hip Stamps.
  • I have also noted a drop in sales since the push for the Penny Auctions. My theory is to wait them out and eventually they may run out of stock. Having the patience of a Saint has proven worthwhile in the past.
  • Russ Romei: Sales for Oct. were larger than July and August but were just a bit below Sept. sales. End of Oct. seemed a bit low and
    except for my sales outside of HS they are down to start first three days of Nov. A couple of sellers have pointed at Penny Auctions as the cause. How did Oct. end and Nov. start for you Russ? John
  • In my case, Oct sales were higher than Sept in qty, a good thing since I was on vacation 14 days in Sept, but they were the highest ever in orders, but especially in dollars. November started off normally with a little over one sale a day...but dollar wise, very very low!
  • Yeah, seems to come and go, had a banner week last week
  • This morning (Nov.4/17) found an order for 17 Canadian lots on HS. If this keeps up it looks like Nov. will be our best month this year. Working hard to increase sales on HS without trying to race to the bottom (in pricing) as some sellers seem intent on. Remember you can clear out all your items if you give them away. I like to make a profit if I can. We should all work with Mark to keep improving this site.
  • Interesting comments about old folks and their pensions. Does any of the dealers have young buyers, or of course, would they know? I am still thinking of my own comments as to the lack of young collectors. There has been nothing here to disabuse me of my ideas about stamp collecting as a "senior" hobby in N America, anyway!

    The Chinese, well, that's another case:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/03/philatelists_republic_of_china.html
  • Over the past 15 years (to bring things closer to today) I personally have bumped into many young stamp collectors. Mr. Fields you seem to read the Forum and might want to take another look, or first look, at Chatter - Teaching Students About Stamps Started by E.J. Foley. He will run classes on Stamp Collecting at 3 public schools in Calgary - with over 100 students between 6 and 15. Other comments in this thread should interest you. In the Sept./Oct. 2017Canadian Philatelist a young collector has written an article "The Young Collector". Author looks like a teenager to me and he states "Something I especially enjoyed at the start was searching thru the bucketful of stamps at club meetings. I sent a copy of the article to Mr. Foley along with some cheap stamps for his classes. The hobby is alive and well and you don't have to be a kid to take it up. Many great collectors started as adults and many still are doing this.
  • Well they are still teaching about stamps in school here is a recent example:
    stampq


  • A slow start to the month but today's sales (Nov. 10/17) have made November our best month at Hip Stamps this year and we still have 20 days to go. HS is doing something right and now that we are putting more effort into this site I see our efforts are paying off as well. Onward and upward and Mark have I recently suggested the following for your site...... .............John H. Talman
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