A first for me....knew it had to happen.
Couldn't locate a sold stamp. Sales have picked up a bit of late. Every time I go to fill and package an order, I wonder if this will be the one I can't find. Arghh! I KNOW the damn thing is here somewhere.
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I'm SO envious of this. My first job at 14 years old was working in a library (which I did for 3 years). This was back when we not only still used card catalog files, but we RELIED on them, and they were awesome (though tedious). Now, having something like that for storing listed inventory... man, we are NO longer friends.
Seriously, I wish I had one of these, though it's not conducive to my Tokyo office in terms of convenience of size. If I could find one here, I would snap it up though. Great reuse of an outdated object. Love that.
Now I'm going to look around for one.
To keep inventory of my stamps I put them into 107 cards and each one has a number like this 010722_00001 obviously includes the date first and then the countdown from Hip so once a day I change the date and then it automatically counts the inventory as I enter it. This serves me 2 purposes....first is the date I entered it into inventory so if I get an offer on a stamp know how long it has been sitting around and can make a quick decision even if I am not at my computer. The second number is from Hip Auto Generate Private ID from the Preferences box on the selling page. Has been working great since I came aboard in March of this year. Just wanted to chime n on this one to say something constructive. Regards to all.
Not always a strategy to sell both items together.
Just a curious question for you. Would you take the time to scan and list 100's of common unused postal cards as single listings showing each card as an individual listing? Or in some cases is discretion for those type of items a better option?
If a dealer has built a successful business and developed a customer base that is content to buy without seeing actual scans, far be it from me to begrudge their success. I, myself, have a dealer from whom I regularly buy, who scarcely includes any scans. I’ve come to trust him, because I know I will not be disappointed in what he sends me.
On the other hand, there is another dealer with a similar selling style from whom I bought, a couple of times, but who also sent a disappointing number of stamps I would not have bought, had there been images included in the listings. Needless to say, he is no longer someone I look to, to fill my blank spots.
The original question was by someone wishing to start selling on HipStamp. Starting with a customer base and reputation of zero (and, likely, a very small store inventory, to start) I feel that listing items with no images or stock images will get you nowhere very quickly.
It really isn't a matter of whether it's worth the time and effort, it comes down to a practical matter of being able to handle lower value material quickly and easily otherwise you won't make it. If your minimum price point is 25 cents per item sold, in order to take in $20 on those type of items you have to process 80 items to take that in. If the seller is trying to become a full time dealer, it is not always practical to scan and list every single one of those low value items. Especially on items like low value postal stationary that doesn't have any difference between them. If the seller is trying to go full time the worst part of this business is dealing with the low value items. For a full time dealer there are really only about 4 ways of handling those low value items. One is limiting the number of those items you list to a bare minimum, lot them up some way to blow them out, lot them up to donate them, or to list them as quantities with a sample scan.
As far as your last statement you're forgetting that many of the larger sellers on here at one time or another were selling on Ebay back in the days when Ebay charged you for each and every listing.. Many of those dealers used sample scans due to that fact,. otherwise their fees would eat you alive.