who are they kidding?

harebearva

First of all, I would not consider myself a prolific stamp collector by any means, but I collect what I like and know what I collect. What's with some of the people on ebay. I saw a #1548 sleepy hollow, in used condition on paper, and the starting bid was $4.99 being shipped priority for $4.50........for a 20 cent stamp. whats up with that? Does anyone ever REALLY fall for that?
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edueku

They sure do! I've seen the most worthless garbage sold for a hundred times what it's worth. The worst are the overgrading shady dealers. Anthonystamps Wmlangs Oldestamps to name just a few. here is an example I bought a "never hinged" 494 pair,I sent it to PSE to be graded. It came back previuosly hinged. All I was offered was my original purchase price even though I spent $15.00 dollars and $5.00 "insurance"(overpriced) and then would have had to insure it to send it back. So I would have been out around $27.00 or so. I thought the gum looked like it had been tampered with but thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt. They should be more experts than me but MONEY always overides ethics when these big dealers sell. I purchased a #270 og from Princeton Philatelics for $250+ it had a tear in it of course I returned it. Next I purchased a #526 MNH from them for around $150 or so. When graded it didn't even make a "90".It's an 85 worth $100 according to the SMQ. I also purchased a #469 og from them it was returned from PSE stating it had a crease. As usual I digress,but ypu can find some really nice stuff on Ebay if you really look. I bought a 319f MNH for $5.00 it graded 95-J MNH. A 98 recently sold for $2,645! I bought an E1 used for $30.00 and it graded 98,there is only one other that grades 98,a mint og example. SMQ lists it at $400 but that's way lower than what it would sell for. The overpriced shipping scheme has been going on forever. Late night infomercials use the same tactic. Like advertising a computer CD as free and then charging $6.95 shipping, when it could be mailed for around a dollar. The scheme on refunds is that the purchase price is the only refundable part so you say you spend $5 on the item $5 shipping and the item cost $1.50 to produce. You only get back $5 and they still make $3.50 profit, even though you returned the item! Must be great to have a business with that kind of return! My wife was a victim of this , she spent $9.95 on "rapid delivery mail",which isn't even a postal classification. She received a tiny envelope with about 50 cents postage on it 2-3 weeks later. She got a refund and didn't get her $9.95 back.
You'll see all kinds of junk stamps on Ebay especially from the UK. They put stamps in such horrid condition that the full Scott retail would 10 to 20% of the list price, less if you were selling to a dealer.
"Scott Philatelics" is one of these. What a deceptive name "Scott" is an american institution! One good thing is that most of the ebay descriptions now show the shipping price right after the start bid. Beware of the "calculate postage" term. Usually they're wanting to charge you Priority Mail to send a tiny stamp. This is great for dealers because they have so much scrap postage lying around,that they can actually "cash it in" by using the postage they could never get rid of while charging you for a service you don't need Well I've rambled on long enough.....

UncleWiggly

Welcome to both of you! It's nice to see a couple more people on the Stamps Forum. Thanks for some heads up on who to avoid on eBay.



Jerry