This is not the first time this has happened to me and probably won't be the last. Several weeks ago I bought a couple of stamps from one of the larger sellers on Ebay (and I won't say any names but the seller professes to be a physician or a retired one). And, this wasn't the first time I bought from this seller or the first time I had to return a purchase from this seller. Today I went to bid on another of his stamps only to discover that he had placed me on his "blocked bidder" list.

Now I don't typically do this myself (place bidders on MY block bidder list) unless there are certain circumstances - such as non-payment.

But, the reasons I generally return material is that they are improperly described or improperly identified. In one case, from this particular seller, I had bought a rather expensive plate block described as Never Hinged only to discover that two of the stamps had been rejoined rendering the block to be worth considerably less than as had been offered. Another item had a rather large filled thin which I felt any experienced seller worth his salt would have been able to detect. I returned the items and was provided a prompt refund. So, I basically had no beef with the seller other than the inconvenience of having to return the purchases. I guess the seller had had enough of me returning their "sliders."

I am frequently amazed at the number of times I have to return purchases from sellers that, supposedly, have enough experience to detect and describe any faults. Yet, time after time, I see this is not the case. It makes me wonder (and I do not mean to sound arrogant here) if I am the only seller who actually takes the time to closely examine the items I sell, dip them in fluid to determine if there are any faults, check for regumming and reperfing and so on. (I know this isn't the case as I know a number of very honest sellers who do just these things). But, you would think that the larger volume sellers would have people working for them that can properly describe the stamps they sell. It really makes me wonder if they are just trying to take advantage of buyers' naivete! And, I am not talking about the $5 and $10 items. I am talking about the stamps that sell for hundreds of dollars! I see so many obviously regummed and reperfed stamps that are not described as such that it makes me mad!

When I see such stamps offered and sold, I will often write to the buyer letting them know of my opinion and suggesting they have the stamp expertized. If we cannot police ourselves, then there will be no one else to do it. Educate yourselves. Read my guides on regumming and reperfing. It's your best defense against buying suspect material here.

I found this scenario to be pretty telling if not amusing. I am in the process of moving and, so, I had decided to sell off most of my inventory rather than worry about moving it. So, I wrote a letter and sent it to all of the BIG full-page advertisers in our favorite trade paper. You know, all the ones that offer to "buy your entire collection, accumulation or stock at the highest prices!" I figured that I could get a pretty good price for my stock as it was a very clean inventory (much was NH) with little to no junk and almost nothing in low catalogue value stamps or high catalogue value clunkers. I noted that I had neatly kept the inventory sorted by country on 102 approval cards and the buyer (if there was one) could easily integrate this inventory with their existing inventory if that was what they wished to do. I had also noted that I would not be willing to part with the stock for less than 20% of catalogue inasmuch as, in my opinion, the stock was not a 10-15% (or cheaper) stock. I have seen this kind of material sell for as much at 40% of catalogue IN COLLECTION LOTS. I was sure that, for the right buyer, this material would easily salable at 60% of catalogue or more as most of the stamps were from highly popular countries.

Anyway, to make a long story short, wanna guess how many responses I received from the 10 letters I sent? OK, time's up. I received one call from one of the dealers graciously telling me that they were not interested. I received nothing from any of the other nine BIG guys. Now, I know that whenever I receive so much as a hand-written note from a seller, I always extend the courtesy of a reply. After all, the seller took the time to consider me a potential buyer and took the time to write and send the letter to me. The least I could do would be to let them know whether I was interested or not. But, what did I get from the BIG guys? Bupkis. If they thought I was asking too much or they weren't interested in what I had to offer or didn't want to make the trip down to view the inventory (I was not about to ship it anywhere), I think the least they could do would be drop me a quick email (I provided that contact point) telling me to "Go Fish" or something.

This reminds of me of when I used to go job hunting. Worse than getting a rejection letter was getting nothing. You're waiting and waiting for a reply and nothing comes. Is there anything less courteous? But, I bet if stated in my letter that I was looking for the first buyer at 5% of catalogue, they would have been busting down my door. I guess a potential profit of over $50K is not sufficient anymore to pay for these guys' trip. Oh, well. I have sent most of the material to an auction house to be sold. I'm sure I will get what I think the lot is worth. I just would have liked to sell it all in one shot. But, I will keep this in mind for the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. At the end of the month, my wife and I will be leaving beautiful South Carolina for the midwest. As such, my listings and offerings will be suspended until I can set up shop at our new destination. If I can somehow manage to keep the auctions coming I will do that but I'm not sure that I can do that in the midst of all the chaos. Also, I may not be able to ship any items for which payment was not received before the 27th until I set up shop at the new location. So, I heartily encourage you to make sure that payment has been received for any items you purchase before then. I will not be listing any auctions after the 15th so this should give you ample time to ensure that payment for any and all auctions reaches me before I close shop here.

Once I set up shop in our new location, I anticipate getting back to business as usual in short order with lots of new material. Thanks for your business and I look forward to getting back into the swing of things very soon.
  Gary

Be sure to read my Guides to Detecting Reperforating U.S. Stamps and to Detecting Regummed stamps. Just click on the View My Guides link at the left. More guides will be coming as I can get to writing them.

I don't know what Ebay is trying to do with the new rate increases (besides the obvious tactic of making more money) but, in my opinion, they are going to drive yet more sellers off the site. And, I am sorry to say it, but I know I will have to adjust my postage rates in order to compensate for these exorbitant increases. I know my buyers won't be happy and, in the long run, I may decide that Ebay is no longer a viable place to sell. They already had shot themselves in the foot as far as I am concerned several years when they raised their rates. At that time I pulled most of my store inventory and opened my own website. I'm figuring that cost them about $20K per year in commissions just from the sales they lost. And, they did not make that up anywhere else with my sales. So, I have to wonder how many other sellers took the high road at that point. I'm sure many more sellers will do the same with this latest round of increases. Ebay used to be a fun place to sell through but they are making it all but impossible to continue to run a profitable business through their listings. There are other avenues for me to explore and it may just come down to that. That's just my opinion but I'm sure others feel the same.