NO Images?
I've noticed a lot of stamps listed on this site without images. am i missing something here? it would not be the fist time i did :-)
seems things would sell better with images and make the site a more pleasant place to visit but i am often wrong on these things? Does this happen on purpose - or is it a transfer of files problem? I can remember having issues uploading csv? files in the old days and a lot of times the pictures would not load. a real pain in... :-)
seems things would sell better with images and make the site a more pleasant place to visit but i am often wrong on these things? Does this happen on purpose - or is it a transfer of files problem? I can remember having issues uploading csv? files in the old days and a lot of times the pictures would not load. a real pain in... :-)
Comments
PS Odd that the post above mine has no text or mention of the author...
Liberty Stamp Shop, obviously a very successful seller here with over 119K listings and a feedback of almost 104K, has lots of listings sans images. For just one example, look at their 4 pages of Malawi starting here: https://www.hipstamp.com/store/liberty-stamp-shop-inc/?keywords=malawi&page=1
The first page starts off pretty good, but once you scroll towards the bottom, more and more listings have no image. The next three pages have even less. Is this on purpose or not? It seems that's an awful lot of listings to have their images squelched by using csv files, but if that's the cause, I'm glad I don't use them.
I use csv files all the time with the bulk lister and unless there is a problem between the picture ID and private ID number or making sure the pictures themselves are uploaded I have never had a problem with the pictures being uploaded to the listing.
Scanning is my personal "choke point" and until i can find someone willing to work for a buck an hour it will stay that way.
Note the ton of sellers that have a standard: "pic coming soon" pic on their listings, just to comply with the pic requirements, but never add one.
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/stampboutique
Personally, I never list any stamps without images, even the many 10 cent stamps I offer. I believe this is appreciated by most buyers and results in more sales.
I am still fairly new to the stamp and postcard business, though been an online seller since 1998.
I considered listing common stamps without pics/scans, but realized it's a waste of my scarce time to even list that crap altogether.
My minimum now is $5 and up and I will take scans of actual items for those.
Anyone selling 5 and 10 cent stamps is a hobbyist. If you don't make at least $10 an hour doing this, you are not running this as a business.
Of course you may have sold more than the $15 listed in your feedback. I only receive feedback on 65% of my sales. Our definitions of what a 10 cent stamp is varies dramatically. Many of yours listed at 48 cents, which exceeds Scott value, I would list at 10 cents. I hope to sell more by offering a reasonable price. Granted, I can't make $10 per hour listing 10 cent stamps with images, but I also list stamps for more than $100 each which generate considerably more than $10 per hour. It's the average that's important to me. This allows me to remain a hobbyist and have fun while doubling my Social Security income. Perhaps you can too, if you stay at it.
(I do sell some stamps at .11 cents each when they are on sale so...) I have been doing this full time for the last 15 years
with out being on social security. (I won't be on social security for at least another 6 years or so.) It all depends on what your mix is. If your mix of items is at 90-95% of your items are under 50 cents each,you are going to have a very hard time trying to make it full time. I do not put the lower value items up as the main items that I am trying to make it on,but they can be a nice add on and it's good for customer service as you do have people that are missing some of those lower value items.
What I have found over the years is that most of your buyers don't just buy 10 cent stamps. (Once in a while you will get an order or 2 that the buyer will only buy the lower value items. Most of the buyers will have a range of items that range in price from the lowest value items on up. And the buyers do appreciate being able to get some of those lower value items as some of them are actually more difficult to locate then some of the higher priced items.)
I gave up worrying about that way back when I was a mega bookseller and the penny seller phenomenon first appeared.
To each their own, I just don't compete with those sellers.
And yes,I made little so far on here. But I also list the same stuff simultaneously on eBay and sold quite a lot more there. I also am not currently pushing sales with sales etc. Building an inventory first. I have a 5 year plan to make a living of my paper biz.
And I actually made a LOT more than $10 an hour on my measly 2000+ listings on hippostcard and hipstamps. It's called investing into an inventory. My current main business is also online sales. And I make good money on stuff that I listed years ago.
Just as I will make lots of money once and when the stamps and postcards eventually sell.
Sure at the end of this month I made no money. Considering fees and buying more raw inventory put me likely in the red. But when I get that $100 sale sometime down the road and it will take me minutes to fill I made a lot more than $10 that hour.
And I disagree with making more than $10 an hour selling 10 cent stamps.
I am sure you make more than $10 overall throughout the month, But you made next to nothing on the 10 cent stamps.
I played with hip when I started just a few months ago, that's where the 48 cent stamps come in.
I gave up on those. Just letting them sit as they don't cost me any extra fees for now.
I completely see how the low end stamps also attract buyers to your inventory.
Def. works as part of the mix. Just not something I feel I want to do.
I am 50 years old and working my ass to death in my day biz. Moving 100s of lbs of stuff at a time all the time. Can;t find many acceptable employees, so a lot I do myself.
The paper biz is my exit strategy.
I am extremely analytical and have spent the last 3-4 months looking into stamps, postcards etc.
Still fine tuning stuff.
All is good and apologies again to whom I may have offended.
like i said it is the - unprofessional look - that new buyers especially get of the site when they see no pictures. not that even 1% of the buyers here would ever buy a stamp with no pictures.
Now I do agree that with this being on the net that pictures should be added as it does look better and for a longer term outlook as the older buyers who were used to buy off of price lists without pictures stop buying,those who have gotten used to having pictures won't buy as much from those sellers.
Lack of a picture is, literally, the least of my worries.
I have found that management addresses most reasonable concerns. To claim that management is only interested in 5% of the shops and that 95% of the sales go to those shops tells me you are frustrated because your sales have not been going well (which I verified).
Perhaps the problem is not with the site, but with the material and method of listing. In my opinion, the key to selling is to list material people want and make it easy for them to find it. Listing catalog numbers is just as important as showing images. How else do you expect people to find them? Anyone listing stamps without cat numbers, shouldn't complain their stamps aren't selling. Listing stamps at the right price is also important. Many sellers don't list at a realistic price. Although this doesn't bother me, as it makes my prices look that much better.
In my opinion, the beauty of this site is that management doesn't dictate what you sell or what price you set on it. The end result is that some sellers will succeed and some won't. The choice is up to each.
"Making it easy for them to find it". Visibility is the key to success and without drawing any conclusions as to the "visibility" issue we all know about on Ebay here is my experience.
I took the month of December off from listing on Hipstamp in order to concentrate on auctioning higher dollar stuff off on another site. Sell through rate was 33% with a couple of surprise 3 figure bids. Without listing on Hipstamp total sales for the month of December were 23 stamps, mostly sold 1 to 3 per order. A couple of days ago I listed 5 covers here and within 24 hours had 3 orders totaling 65 stamps. Could be a coincidence - right.
Just the facts.