Poor Listings, Poor descriptions and Nil stock and no Feedback

Hi Guys, This mail is targeting the Sellers.
As a Newbie to Hip I have only had minimal transactions, I am simply a collector/buyer of Au pre-decimal and decimal . I have at this stage suffered from poor and misleading descriptions, tardy deliveries (some over 30 days), and my biggest hate is refund "Nil Stock" I don't wish to sound like scrooge but I pay for these nil stock items at the current exchange rate then receive a refund at the list price, the Aussie dollar drops 5% so $5 out of pocket for nil stock for my $100 au purchase. I am also peeved off with lack of description, ie a King George V same denomination, catalogue lists 3 different watermarks, 2 different perforations or different dies can mean 5 different pricings with quite a proportional difference in value. Also how hard would it be to list (some dealers do) NG or OG, I collect Mint to MNH OG and it is very disappointing to receive NG that is not listed. As a result of all the above I am very reluctant to bid on Items any more. Dealers that qualify for all the above are slowly and sadly killing the Hip stamp medium.
I read an earlier thread of a buyer asking for standards on listings, sounds good to me. Having said all this I understand the time consuming process of evaluating Perfs, Watermark types, variations, paper types, colour and dies, but if I am paying $150.00 US for a stamp I expect to see these descriptions. Finally (please don't hate me) how hard would it be to scan the reverse side as part of the description, on most occasions a good reverse side scan will show the watermarks, gum creases and condition.

Yours sincerely without prejudice, Cheers Pete, East Gippsland, Australia.

ps I have not received one feedback on my purchases when I have given them in return, I have not fedback on my last 2 purchases for this reason, my Ebay record is 100% as a buyer for 8 years and I have returned 100%

Comments

  • 16 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Before chunking down that much money on a stamp, I would be sure that it is in the condition that is desired. That would include communicating with the seller. If there is no image of the back and you want to see one, then ask the seller to post an image of the back. If the seller is unwilling to answer your questions or honor your request of posting an image of the back of the stamp, that's a seller you might want to avoid.
  • I was thinking the same as Michael when I was reading through your post. I know it might be a pain for you, but if you have a question about the stamp such as perf, wmk or color, then ask that seller to clarify.
  • Peter,

    Just a quick question for you if you would be kind enough to answer this,one of the complaints you have is when a seller has an item that is out of stock and has to refund you with the exchange rates. How do you handle it when the exchange rates goes in your favor?

    Giving feedback is not a requirement for either the buyer or the seller.
  • Sorry Guys, I understand where you are coming from, but that doesn't change the fact that out of about a dozen transactions, without going going back through them, I have had 3 refunds "Nil stock". Hate that word Nil stock, why should I be mailing sellers to ask if what they have listed for sale is in stock after their site states no offers have been made? Yes, I am now asking, and just recently insulted a Fort Lauderdale seller by asking (he was good about it) if item was OG or NG. Later after looking through his store he was comprehensively listing his items, had top quality scans which even showed the water marks, a dealer that has impressed me and I have marked to return. Even though I am the new Hip Stamp kid on the block I have been collecting mint stamps for 45 years, I have been buying on stamps ebay since 2008 both Internationally and locally in au. I am starting to feel now that I have a new learning curve going on and just simply have to work out who is who rather than rely on information or lack of on listings. The multiple purchases that I make would need a massive amount of mails and time. I am definitely for a standard, and it would not be hard for the hip site to cater for this by having a better layout that would allow the seller to easily enter the required information in fields, after all it is purely a stamp auction site not like ebay selling multiple lines of products. I recently had stamps from Britain that not only had (undescribed info) on MNH advertised stamps they had NG and two of them had fold creases through them that looked ok from the only scans which were face side. As far as returns go, I don't live in another state, I live 13,000 Kilometres (8,000 miles) away.
    I hope I am not sounding heavy handed, all I am asking for is proper listings on high end dollar stamps.

    Cheers Pete, whew, I got a bit passionate about this
  • Peter,

    You should never feel like you are insulting the seller by asking the questions up front. The sellers should be looking at it as we are here to serve you the buyer and not the other way around. The sellers that are willing to work with you will do their best to service your requests. Many of the sellers that were on Bidstart and also sold on SG are aware of the fact that at times some items that were sold on SG were NOT removed from the Bidstart inventory. (It was a glitch in the programming) Some of those sellers have gone through their inventory to fix it and some others have not yet gotten through their listings to double their listings.

    Are you checking the sellers feedback received from their buyers? (If you believe the feedback is out of line where you feel comfortable dealing with that seller then don't)

    This is something as a seller that I feel very strongly about if the seller himself has messed up in someway the seller should make it right all the way down the line INCLUDING return postage. Have you contacted the seller to see what he is willing to do to make it right?
  • Peter,

    I am not sure if are aware that when many of the sellers were moved from Bidstart to Hipstamp listings that had multiple images lost the extra images. (A lot of the listings ended up having only one image after the move)
  • Peter, I would never feel insulted or put out or anything if a potential buyer was asking me questions about a stamp(s) they were interested in purchasing. In fact, I'd rather that would happen if there is a slight chance of a doubt. To me, it saves a lot of ill feelings between the two parties.

    Since you are new to Hip Stamp, Welcome to a super site! Don't give up on us, many of us here will be willing to work with you, not against. As Michael D said, once upon a time we were known as Stamp Wants which turned into Bid Start which turned into Stanley Gibbons which turned into Hip Stamp. All that took about 12 - 13 years! WOW, can you believe it's been that long? Anyway, many of us have been here since the beginning. That's how great this environment has been. We share knowledge and welcome more knowledge to the site. With you stating you have 45+ years of collecting, please share.

    Cheers from my Paradise in Florida
    Luree
    https://www.hipstamp.com/store/dianealthea
  • Thankyou all for your replies, and no Michael I was not aware of that, you have enlightened me. I have to withdraw my criticism on that one. I found HipStamp by accident 3rd party through a British dealer a couple of months ago, I liked the amount of Pre decimal high end au stamps that I saw in listings and joined. I have a very comprehensive collection of Australian stamps through to decimal, I am basically filling the high end gaps and chasing the odd variations.

    Cheers and thank you, Pete
  • The last few years Bidstart was falling apart from a technical standpoint which did cause some problems and if someone was not on there at that time they would be unaware of some of those issues. No problem.
  • edited February 2018 4 LikesVote Down
    Welcome, Peter. I do agree, all pertinent information should be listed in the description; watermarks, dies, perf's, etc. if there are different varieties of the same stamp. Canadian issues have many many varieties and I think I've found a good way to let buyers know in a glance -- I've inserted it in the image. With other countries, I also list all info and always describe any faults..

    As Michael D and Luree commented, we've been though considerable changes over the years. Not all these changes were very compatible with our listings , especially the descriptions - which on older listings appear jumbled and hard to read. I also had several issues with "Nil Stock" on this site which I never had before BidStart crashed, wiped out my entire store, and was "supposedly" fixed by SG. We've all had little problems since the transition but it's a great site with a great community and really great responsive management!

    Again, welcome and thanks for your insightful comments.

    Jeri
    https://www.hipstamp.com/store/jers-stamps

  • Thank you Jeri, I am retracting a lot of my original criticism, I can now see it needs to be more directed at the medium instead of the seller.
    Cheers and thanks, the new kid needs to sit back a bit, chill out and get that Hip learning curve more fine tuned :P
  • I am sooooooooooooooooo glad that I took a hiatus during the Gibbons era.
  • Granted there are system challenges yet to be resolved but I wouldn't be so quick to let a seller off the hook for misleading descriptions and nil stock listings. It has been well over a year since the transition occurred -- from my perspective solely as a buyer, more than enough time for the conscientious seller to correct any listing deficiencies.
  • I think I'm a conscientious seller, and even if I went through all my listings a year ago, one by one, all 20,000 of them, this week I had to cancel an item that went unnoticed till now. That item was so old, it was not even listed on my "real hard copy paper listings" which I usually keep updated at least once a year, and it wasn't in my bank of scans which I keep. In other words, it just "popped up", same with another item with no scan, which I found while going through price changes of a country.
    Now, when I sell something, I go back to see, if by any chance the item is still listed by accident, which can happen, if the original available quantity was not reduced when it was sold on Bidstart/SG.
    To make a long story short, its not that easy to be correct 100% with the multitude of items.
    https://www.hipstamp.com/store/directmaildiscount
  • Hi Jacques,
    Firstly, thank you for your comment. I am as a Newbie wearing a bit of egg on my face over this issue and hope this thread goes down the list quickly. I seem to have casted an aspersion on the many when my grizzle was targeting the few, If that is the case I sincerely apologise to the many.

    I do think as my opinion only there should be a standard on this site. As a buyer I also think as my opinion only that Hip could cater more for dealers with a better setup, or more fields with check boxes available mainly to the seller also the buyer. I have been enlightened and I am now fully aware to the problems that were caused by this Sites previous format and major crash that caused a lot of dismay for Buyers and Sellers.
    And yes, nobody is perfect, I am a master of mistakes and foot in mouth (laughing, my wife says it is a male thing).

    What a boring world it would be If we all were all perfect.

    Cheers Pete, (au)

    ps This is a good site as stated earlier, my thanks to the proprietors.
  • Hi Peter
    I tend to agree with you with what you say re: standards and more fields. But I've recently, closed my shop on another site because one of the problems, I feel, was there were too many fields! If you don't have the perfect or exact word you just couldn't find your item. I ran side by side both selling sites with same items at same price and Hip outsold the other constantly...and it was in the early days of Hip. Of course, I'm all for improvements, especially in the Topical fields, but we were promised improvements and I think, the way things are going it will happen.
    https://www.hipstamp.com/store/directmaildiscount
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