standards for sellers?? should we have some standards?
When I think I have seen it all I find something to top it! Seen by sheer chance……. and this time I thought I would make an observation, ask for thoughts and even make a suggestion.
Yes it is obvious this is damaged, actually damaged ain 5 places that are obvious LOL -- and yes it is advertised as damaged although the selling price is 3 times the catalogue value, and the catalogue value is 10p (GBP)
But seriously, two things concern me 1) is that someone thinks this is acceptable to list for sale, and 2) buyers who are starting their interest in philately might, (but I really hope not) think this is acceptable since it is available to buy on a respected philatelic portal.
Surely there needs to be some standards, some ethics from sellers? Am I dreaming here? ok don’t answer that:-)
It is all very well saying caveat emptor, but surely listing this for sale is wrong by any measure.
I realise I shouldn’t present a situation without offering a solution, so perhaps Hipstamp should have a moderator, who, if advised of this type of material, could, after due consideration and at their own judgement and with all due respect and courtesy, advise the seller with reason, that it is not acceptable material for listing on Hipstamp and block it from being listed.
Do we as sellers, and Hipstamp as an organisation, want this type of material, which could perhaps be seen to reflect poorly on the standards of sellers in general and Hipstamp as a Philatelic portal?
Or, do we all just ignore and let the buyers decide what is rubbish and what is not? and let the buyers decide it only reflects on the seller and not all sellers?
Michael cddstamps
Comments
BenjaminRSA (I normally would not comment on Forums (Chatter) as it takes too much of my time. Internet should have more debating sites but I have been invited to defend my Queen Elizabeth. Ownership comes with responsibility) LOL
My dear fellow Seller, I see that terrible stamp in my store (for the first time in 15 years again) And am made aware of your serious concern regarding the market place's image.
Not going to go into detail regarding the why, when and how, so I will just remove it for you.
Is that ethical enough for you? An article I read in the The Guardian, "Can you be too ethical?" by Andrew Brown in 2013. You should read it.
Thanks and happy selling !!
Should anyone find any more of these terrible over priced stamps could you please inform me of them.)............................
benjamin
benjamin
What reflects poorly on this Community is the unwelcoming elitist attitude that is starting to pervade through this Forum. All should be welcome here not just the buyers/sellers that you deem worthy.
Mark, thanks for your comments. I couldn't agree more.
Benjamin, you're not alone. A good portion of the Community is really tired of this.
Impressive store and a perfect reputation since 2007. I salute you.
It takes hard work and many hours of research to maintain a store of that size.
My Queen Elizabeth stamp is one of a few hundred that are clearly described as damaged.
My Queen Elizabeth's price is now available at under $1 as millions of stamps with a low Scott value. Ebay minimum price for a single stamp is 0.99c if you sell it from your store.
Thank Jeri, Appreciated.
benjamin
Thank you, that stamp is as freshly listed as 20 minutes ago.
My Queen Elizabeth comes from 1997 when I was an amateur seller and any stamp at that stage was perfect to my eye.
Appreciated from a member of the American Philatelic Society - APS #218885
Stamp Standards are their business.
benjamin
I've been selling for a long time, and I can say that if you ask 10 people what constitutes an acceptable condition stamp you are likely to get 10 different answers. I've encountered people who are fine with a stamp that was ripped in half and taped back together again on the back! So what is the definition an acceptable condition stamp? Once one tries to create rules for something like this, what is and isn't ok, becomes very hard to determine and police because there are so many perspectives as to what is acceptable.
Personally I think the first step in a situation like this would be to send a note to the seller advising of the stamp and one's thoughts on the relative condition. If that had been done here, the seller would probably have removed it anyway because they now know that it is not ever going to sell, and it might put off other buyers. Each "advice" a seller gets has to be balanced with the senders perspective too given some senders may have inordinately high expectations. (ie the seller may be quite correct in doing nothing depending on what "advice" was given.
I'm reminded of a relatively recent situation where I received a very terse and strongly worded message that a bankers box of Great Britain machins that I had priced at $300 (delivered) was simply a box of garbage/rubbish and I should be embarrassed to even be thinking of offering such for sale at all, let alone the price I was asking. A couple weeks later, a machin specialist purchased the box at that price. I so much felt like sending the sold notification to the "advice" giver, but of course refrained.....
For discussion purposes this is maybe a good one.
The question is: Do I list it or do I chuck it?
Please notice the post mark?
Is this stamp valued on its catalog value or on its uniqueness.
Did the Postal worker have anything to do with this? 15 Sept 1944
benjamin
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I had no intention of presenting an "elitist attitude" I was just making an observation on the subject of standards, a subject well addressed in SG and Scott and other catalogues I am sure, but not, it seems, accepted on this portal. That is ok as well. Everyone to their own view I have no problem with that.
As for the 25 September 1944 cancelled stamp, sure, list it, with explanation of the significance of the date and Oosterbeek cancel.
Best wishes to everyone. Michael
If people get stuck with a damaged stamp I don't understand why they want to look for another sucker and pass it off to them at a profit. Perhaps some who like to list damaged stamps should think about what this thread is all about. Let me repeat it was for a damaged stamp selling for more than five times what others are selling a sound copy of the same stamp for. Perhaps a few of you could return to the subject and tell us what you think of such listings.
You are assuming that. My point is the very fact that ever since Mark started Stamp Wants these type of threads keep coming up OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. We are now going on 13 years of these type of threads and it seems like every 2-4 months SOMEONE posts this type of thread. The same 2 sides are STILL going at it after all this time and NOTHING has changed. It's like people keep expecting some sort of different results. (Never get there so......)
As far as pricing no one in here can say WHEN someone listed something UNLESS the sellers states the YEAR of the cat they are using.
Two on the pricing I can not ever be sure that the seller intended to list that item at that price UNLESS i ask the seller directly whether or not it could be a TYPO in the listing. (I have done it often enough myself to give the seller the benefit of the doubt unless I ask the seller. Using the bulk lister I missed adding the decimal point a few times and ended up with a few listings that were in the hundreds of dollars instead of a few bucks.)
As far as a seller listing damaged items it's not cup of tea unless it's a higher value space filler and marked as such within the listing. I rather list the same type of material that I myself would have in my own collection. From an aesthetic stand point I think that they look much better NOT being damaged in the first place. But there are those people who are only looking for a picture to put into a book and they do not care to the same degree that I do or they may be buying some of these stamps that hey are giving to fairly young children so they are learning to handle stamps without giving them very good stamps UNTIL they learn HOW to handle the stamps without damaging them. (If they ruin stamps that are ALREADY damaged they can learn from it BEFORE they handle and ruin a $100 stamp.)
There is a place for it but again it is NOT my cup of tea.
I tend to agree, since the seller of the damaged stamp not only already explained himself in this thread, but remedied the situation as well. Congrats. The award's yours...
I accept the award with a smile. Sorry John, you missed it this time.
benjamin
The biggest problems that the one side NEVER deals with is the practical application of HOW Hipstamp would even begin to police all the listings on this site.
#1 Who is going to set the standards of what is a good listing and that which is not? Is it the APS,the German Philatelic society,etc or a small group of sellers and buyers who have different wants and have totally different expectations?
#2 Who is going to pay and train the people who are going to search and check out EVERY single listing on the site?
#3 Is there going to be a person who oversees the work of the staff that would HAVE to be hired to wade through all the old listings AND all of the newer listings that are being added?
#4 Who is going to pay for the staff to be hired or is it going to be a volunteer staff? Are you willing to pay more in fees to have Hipstamp HIRE a staff to search all the listings? (You CAN NOT expect a hired staff to work for free) Are you willing to pay 10-12% FVF to have Mark hire more people to just spend time looking at listings? Or are you willing to spend the time to go through a store that has almost 500,000 listings on your own time?
#5 How is Hipstamp suppose to deal with the listings that have QUANTITIES per listing? (Remember those are SAMPLE SCANS and not the EXACT copy of what a buyer would receive.) How also would you deal with listings that have NO PICTURE
If you have any ideas on how you would do this,Mark may very well be open to your ideas if you have a PRACTICAL and COST effective way of doing it. Until then it's NOT going to happen.
That being said, as noted previously, we do not currently prohibit items from being listed just because they may be of lower value (and priced as such). More specifically, the original item referred to here is compliant with our terms and conditions.
We will make mistakes, please forgive us and move on.
And yes, I think I will just stay away from here for awhile until sanity hopefully once again prevails. What a shame..
And thank you Carol, appreciate your comments. I think you have a grand idea. Staying away for a spell. It's getting too toxic around here.
Carol/Luree, we'll be taking appropriate action to ensure this type of activity does not continue. While the original post by Michael D was not an issue, and certainly welcome for discussion, the type of activity and comments you were referring to are not welcome here. With that in mind, I hope that both the two of you, as well as our other members, continue to enjoy the community we've built together, including here in our forums.
Additionally, if you believe another member's comments are out of line, and do not follow our forum guidelines, please feel free to message me directly.
Benjamin Corporate has come from 1987 as a collector's store and all old listings are still around.
I have just revamped my Rhodesia and Nyasaland listings for all interested.
All 176 old images and confusing prices have been replaced and adjusted.
My plan is to revamp my whole store over a period of time by re-listing and adjust old listings where needed when new listings are done.
I would like to thank all members for their contribution to this thread.
That is a big undertaking! I tried to do that last year and only got so far and the project got put to the side. Every now and then I revisit it for a day and then put it down.
Good luck on your new project.
It should be part of one's new listings depending on the number of listings involved.
I think all dead countries and exotic countries should work out well.
The moving from one site to another is the nightmare with a huge store like mine.
My plan is to hit that hundred thousand mark....a dream come true for me !!!
100,000 listings, wow !! 46 thousand to go.
Nice prospect.