You know, I see these kind of comments all the time on this forum. I always ask myself if it is even worth responding...and I usually decide not to.
But....it is getting kind of old. And it seems that it is usually the same folks with the same gripes. The site is slow. All my listings are gone. My store disappeared. The coders suck. They need to sandbox it for testing. HipStamp never responds to my support requests. PayPal is blah blah blah. EBay sync doesn't work. And so on ad nauseum..
HipStamp hosts over 1100 stores right now. I know many of the store owners personally. I will not speak for them but I simply do not and have not experienced any of these issues that some report over and over again. Yes, as with any website, there are very occasional times when they do have issues but those are systemic and not isolated to just a few stores and those occasions are rare and resolved in short order.
So I will defend this site as an exceptional platform that works very well for both dealers and customers on a consistent basis. Their support staff has never failed to respond to my requests...not once. Now I may not always like their responses, but they do respond. I have never had a single issue with store items or my store itself disappearing. The EBay sync this is just a dumb thing from the beginning. These are two completely different selling platforms run by two different companies who are essentially in competition with each other. EBay and HipStamp should have zero motivation to accommodate any kind of sync function between the two. I say if one wants to sell on both platforms....do the work on both and don't expect either platform to do the work for you.
I will also say that if one doesn't like this platform, one is free to leave (for Scott's noted greener pastures) or stay and work within the system.
SO having said all that...HipStamp works very well and I expect it to continue to do so going forward.
Let the attacks begin...I'm a big boy...I can take it.
Add me to the "no problems here" column. I've created hundreds of new listings since Jan 1, without a glitch. Last month I reactivated my store from vacation mode with no issues. I always have to wonder how many of these problems are 710 errors.
I'm in the same club, Greg and Ted. I've been 'here' since close to the beginning of StampWants and have never experienced a problem that would send me whining to the Forum!
I echo Greg et al. Most of my problems when I started were my own. The few actual problems I encounters have always been addressed. Maybe timing not always the best (but I'm impatient anyway, but always addressed.
What does that mean Pete? Is it some kind of condemnation of the several hundreds of dealers and thousands of customers who use HipStamp that do not seem to have any issues with the platform? Or do I misunderstand your comment?
Ahh what the hell, it's only 2c. This newbie likes Hip, no problems on the store side. Like most stamp sites, as a buyer, I do lurk around Decampe and Stamps2Go from time to time, but don't find what I'm looking for there, so don't go often. I did look at selling on them before selecting Hip. If I lived in Europe I might have given Delcampe more consideration.
Bonaparte, please accept my apologies for hijacking your thread. I should have posted this on a new thread. But I do stand by my comments. I guess Steve's post just got me going. Ted might chime in as I think he has recently tested or contemplated testing a couple of other sites.
What Greg said, with one minor adjustment. OF COURSE, this site will have some bugs appearing occasionally. What site doesn't? There's no such thing as a bug-free, perfect platform to sell on. What's important is how the bugs are handled once they crawl out from under the carpet. As Greg mentioned, Hip-support resolves issues as fast as if not even faster than any site I've ever used. My cynical side makes me wonder how many of the uber-complainers here are actually 'plants' used by competing selling platforms to stir up sh*t.
I have been with Hipstamp/Bidstart/Stampwants since 2005. While it is not perfect it has been a better selling platform than many of the alternatives over the years , except for the Reign of Error by that British outfit that seems to keep shooting iitself in the foot. I tried the Boys in Belgium but never got much in the way of sales. I still have a small Feebay store, and a store at the CSDA site just in case Hipstamp goes down in flames - I want a ready alternative. I also tried Shopify which was easy to use but did not get that much in sales, and cost more per month. Hipstamp is actively advertising, and it's advertising is more targeted to stamp collectors than the Feebay ads I get pushing computers, clothing and other non philatelic rubbish.
I would suggest that, what's important is, does the platform attract the right buyers and sellers for the material you want to buy or sell? This is the meat, We left "the Bay" after 23 years there because the material availability was turning into a cesspool. They abandoned all their fraud prevention, and they wanted to take control of "payments" which was just a yard too far. We came to Hipstamp 2ish years ago now, and yes, there are the occasional glitches (as mentioned, all sites have at some point), but we have sold more here, at better rates than we ever did at "the Bay" AND we have much less problems with bogus buyers ("my stuff never arrived") and buyers leaving negative feedback for reasons that were ridiculous (i.e. "Took too long to arrive from Japan" here.
Depending on where you are in the world, and who you are selling to can make a big decision in which site you list on. For instance, if you're a stamp dealer in Japan, dealing with Japanese buyers of Japanese stamps, you want to list at Yahoo Auctions. (Kid you not, it is THE online selling platform in Japan). There would be little point in those dealers listing at Hipstamp. If you are a French dealer, dealing exclusively in French material, then some site in France may be your best bet. But choose where the buyers and sellers are, and where quality if listings are, and not "I find this function on this site to be " for whatever site you use.
Just seen this thread Totally agree with Greg's comments.. in fact I would go as far as to say I often feel left out when I read the many threads that talk about issues and complaints. What am I doing wrong I ask myself
I have probably listed on more sites than most. Starting in 1999, my listing history has been as follows:
EBAY Stamp Head Auctions StampOffers Delcampe Bidstart Stamporama HipStamp
Some were very small sites often handled by one person (Stamp Head Auctions and StampOffers). If something happens to that person, the site goes dead.
But my main reason for shifting sites is that their policies change over the years, usually with the intention of making more money for the site operators. Nothing wrong with that, I can understand their reasoning. it is just that I sell mainly very low priced material, with many of my listings priced at under 10 Cents all the way down to 3 Cents. Most sites don't want my business as they have minimum charges per item sold, often times much more than my actual listing price. What I prefer is a site that bases their percentage of sale fee on the total sale rather than the selling price of each individual item.
I sell what most don't, with all stamps listed individually. Most others don't want to bother with the chaff that I deal with, or if they do, they sell these items at higher prices or grouped into large lots. I have had many sales where the buyer has intentionally picked out the least expensive example of an issue available, even if that item had faults listed. So there is a market for this material although don't expect to make any money doing so. But then I do this as a hobby, not as a business.
I have found a site that gives me what I want, with the selling fee based upon the total sale total, not the price of each individual item. They also do not charge any fee on the shipping charge. The problems with this new site are that it appears again to be run by one person and the site activity is very low. But I am going to give it a chance. I am presently moving my material over to this site and will reduce my HipStamp presence to less than 100 items, with those items swapped out for new items once a month. I will be listing my best material on HipStamp, with everything else and what does not sell on HipStamp being listed on this other site.
If HipStamp would just get away from a minimum charge per item sold, I would have absolutely no issues with this site.
Greg Doll, you did not hijack my thread. Actually this has all been great. Yes all sites have their pros/cons and problems, Delcampe would be no exception. I was expecting someone to explain some of the great features of Delcampe, but I got none. so I will put more stuff on Hipstamp. And as for Hipstamp management ,don't let all this praise go to your head, there are still issues out there that seller would like to see resolved, and thank you for making this site what it is. :-)
Bonaparte, thanks. I am not claiming that HS is perfect...far from it. Their workflow is pretty good. I think the presentation of stores is actually really good. I also think where they fall down quite a bit is in the policing of their own terms and conditions for selling. There seems to be a kind of "mission creep" towards turning a blind eye to the actions of some, shall we say, less than ethical dealers. That, IMO, is a detriment to the HS reputation and to the reputation of the many ethical dealers hosted by HS.
Comments
But....it is getting kind of old. And it seems that it is usually the same folks with the same gripes. The site is slow. All my listings are gone. My store disappeared. The coders suck. They need to sandbox it for testing. HipStamp never responds to my support requests. PayPal is blah blah blah. EBay sync doesn't work. And so on ad nauseum..
HipStamp hosts over 1100 stores right now. I know many of the store owners personally. I will not speak for them but I simply do not and have not experienced any of these issues that some report over and over again. Yes, as with any website, there are very occasional times when they do have issues but those are systemic and not isolated to just a few stores and those occasions are rare and resolved in short order.
So I will defend this site as an exceptional platform that works very well for both dealers and customers on a consistent basis. Their support staff has never failed to respond to my requests...not once. Now I may not always like their responses, but they do respond. I have never had a single issue with store items or my store itself disappearing. The EBay sync this is just a dumb thing from the beginning. These are two completely different selling platforms run by two different companies who are essentially in competition with each other. EBay and HipStamp should have zero motivation to accommodate any kind of sync function between the two. I say if one wants to sell on both platforms....do the work on both and don't expect either platform to do the work for you.
I will also say that if one doesn't like this platform, one is free to leave (for Scott's noted greener pastures) or stay and work within the system.
SO having said all that...HipStamp works very well and I expect it to continue to do so going forward.
Let the attacks begin...I'm a big boy...I can take it.
Have a great weekend eneryone
Well said, Greg!
My cynical side makes me wonder how many of the uber-complainers here are actually 'plants' used by competing selling platforms to stir up sh*t.
Hipstamp is actively advertising, and it's advertising is more targeted to stamp collectors than the Feebay ads I get pushing computers, clothing and other non philatelic rubbish.
We left "the Bay" after 23 years there because the material availability was turning into a cesspool. They abandoned all their fraud prevention, and they wanted to take control of "payments" which was just a yard too far. We came to Hipstamp 2ish years ago now, and yes, there are the occasional glitches (as mentioned, all sites have at some point), but we have sold more here, at better rates than we ever did at "the Bay" AND we have much less problems with bogus buyers ("my stuff never arrived") and buyers leaving negative feedback for reasons that were ridiculous (i.e. "Took too long to arrive from Japan" here.
Depending on where you are in the world, and who you are selling to can make a big decision in which site you list on. For instance, if you're a stamp dealer in Japan, dealing with Japanese buyers of Japanese stamps, you want to list at Yahoo Auctions. (Kid you not, it is THE online selling platform in Japan). There would be little point in those dealers listing at Hipstamp. If you are a French dealer, dealing exclusively in French material, then some site in France may be your best bet. But choose where the buyers and sellers are, and where quality if listings are, and not "I find this function on this site to be " for whatever site you use.
EBAY
Stamp Head Auctions
StampOffers
Delcampe
Bidstart
Stamporama
HipStamp
Some were very small sites often handled by one person (Stamp Head Auctions and StampOffers). If something happens to that person, the site goes dead.
But my main reason for shifting sites is that their policies change over the years, usually with the intention of making more money for the site operators. Nothing wrong with that, I can understand their reasoning. it is just that I sell mainly very low priced material, with many of my listings priced at under 10 Cents all the way down to 3 Cents. Most sites don't want my business as they have minimum charges per item sold, often times much more than my actual listing price. What I prefer is a site that bases their percentage of sale fee on the total sale rather than the selling price of each individual item.
I sell what most don't, with all stamps listed individually. Most others don't want to bother with the chaff that I deal with, or if they do, they sell these items at higher prices or grouped into large lots. I have had many sales where the buyer has intentionally picked out the least expensive example of an issue available, even if that item had faults listed. So there is a market for this material although don't expect to make any money doing so. But then I do this as a hobby, not as a business.
I have found a site that gives me what I want, with the selling fee based upon the total sale total, not the price of each individual item. They also do not charge any fee on the shipping charge. The problems with this new site are that it appears again to be run by one person and the site activity is very low. But I am going to give it a chance. I am presently moving my material over to this site and will reduce my HipStamp presence to less than 100 items, with those items swapped out for new items once a month. I will be listing my best material on HipStamp, with everything else and what does not sell on HipStamp being listed on this other site.
If HipStamp would just get away from a minimum charge per item sold, I would have absolutely no issues with this site.