Newest acquisition

I just picked up a set of J1-5 Plateblocks of 12 from an auction (Cherrystone). Plateblocks of 6 and 9 are listed in Bale, but not 12. However, a set of singles catalogs for about $85, so 12 sets of singles would have a catalog value of roughly $1000, without any premium for the plateblock. I paid significantly less than that, even when you add the buyers premium and outrageous shipping charge ($18!) in. In fact, I have seen a set of plateblocks of 6 for sale at the local stamp show for a firm price of over $500, which is about double what I paid for my set. I haven't been able to win a set on E-bay, despite trying for the past year or so. I was kind of shocked that I won this set for the minimum bid.

Julie's first stamp show

My five year old daughter, Julie, has been "collecting" stamps for a few months now. I gave her a few spare cover albums I had collecting dust, and she went through a box of covers I had set aside to one day put on E-bay, pulling all the ones that interested her and placing them in her albums. It was fun to watch her trying to build a collection like daddy's. She has been asking me when I could take her to a stamp show.

This weekend was the time. There was finally a show in Sacramento, the Easter Seals benefit show, that was perfect for her. There were 8-10 dealers selling stamps, but the main attraction were the tables and tables of 2 cent stamps laid out throughout the room. These had thousands and thousands of used stamps. There were pint sized containers that you could use to put the stamps in, and she filled one to the brim! She went for flowers, horses, dogs, and birds. Not just one of each, but as many as she could find!

Originally, I had thought we would be there about an hour. We got there just after the show opened at 10, and I thought we would leave around 11:15 or so, get lunch, and go home. Well, that plan wasn't going to work. She spent over 3 hours at the tables, then wanted to grab a quick lunch at the show, and go right back to looking at stamps. We didn't leave until after 2:30, close to 4 and a half hours after we got there. The last time I went to this show alone (probably 10 years ago) it took me about a half hour, since I ignored the 2 cent tables and merely shopped the dealer tables for Israel stamps, finding almost nothing, and I never bothered to go back. Now, however, it looks like we will go back every year.

Not only did Julie find about 600 stamps for her collection, we also shopped at the table of donated supplies. We bought her a bunch of stockbooks and glassines, as well as another cover album. I even managed to pick up a pair of nice sheet albums for a dollar a piece. I think we spent a total of $35, including the $12 we spent on lunch at the show, but it was worth every penny. Julie called it a perfect day, and now we are spending some time together putting the stamps in her stockbooks. If I could only get her to understand that she doesn't need 50 of the same stamp in her album...

Costs of doing business

I was answering a question on the Virtual Stamp Club about shipping fees, and it got me to thinking. How much does it cost to sell a single item? So, lets look at the costs:

1. E-Bay insertion fee - the cost to list an item on E-Bay, it is not a fixed cost, but depends on the start price. The lowest cost option is to list an item for $0.99 or less, which costs $0.15.
2. E-Bay Final Value Fee - the cut that E-Bay takes of the sale. Again, it is a sliding scale, but for items that sell for less than $25, it is 8.75%
3. PayPal Fees - the cost of accepting a payment via PayPal. Of course, E-bay now requires you accept PayPal, and the majority of buyers pay via PayPal, so this fee is incurred the majority of the time. $0.30 + 2.9% (for all sales under $3000).

So, for an item that sells for $0.99, I would need to pay $0.57 in fees. So, unless I paid less than $0.42 for the item, I am better off tossing it in the trash than trying to sell it on E-Bay.

Of course, that doesn't include shipping costs, which include not only postage, but the packaging material and envelope to send the item in. Most of the time, I get my shipping charges figured out correctly, and the buyer actually pays enough to cover the cost of shipping the item to them. However, in a few cases, I have been surprised at the post office when the postage comes out higher than I would expect. Whether this is because of a non-machinable surcharge, or an envelope being too large to qualify as a letter and going out as a parcel instead, I can never quite figure out. Some countries, like the Netherlands, are just insanely expensive to ship to for some reason as well.

Looking at the fees, it is easier to understand why E-Bay shipping fees often seem quite high. Rather than start an item at $3 with a $0.42 shipping cost, I can start it at $0.99 with a $2.50 shipping cost. Both cost the buyer about the same, but I can save $0.20 on insertion fees by starting the item at $0.99 rather than $3. Also, since the E-bay final value fee is on the final sale price, before shipping costs are added in, I can save an additional $0.175 in fees if the item goes for the minimum bid. I know it is not much, but on a percentage basis, it is huge.

I also know that a lot of dealers have discount postage around. If they sell US stamps, they can use the scrap from there US inventory to pay for postage. If you are willing to play some math games, you can also find large amounts of lower value US stamps for sale below face (left over $0.41 or $0.39 stamps, for example).

Now I am curious

In volume 1 of the Israel Plate Block Journal, there was mention of 2 different commemorative stamps that have multiple printing dates in the plate block. I went through the nearly 30 years of archives that I got from the SIP, and there was no other mention of what these two issues were, or what the two different printing dates were. Does anyone know what these issues were? I checked my Bale catalogs, and see no reference to this either. Any help would be appreciated.

The blog hits the radio

A few weeks ago, a comment on this blog caused me to post on the Virtual Stamp Club message boards to continue the discussion. Yariv, a dealer in Israel, posted a response to my blog saying that E-bay sellers were driving down the value of Israel stamps. I disagreed, and posted a message on the stamp discussion boards to solicit other opinions, and hopefully get some interesting dialog going. Well, not only did I get some dialog going, but Nancy Clark, host of the APS StampTalk Internet radio show saw the post, and invited me on her show to discuss it further. My 30 minute interview took place on Wednesday, and today it is available for download.

Although there were some technical difficulties at the start of the show (the VOIP system at my desk phone evidently doesn't like the radio system), I think it went well. The only thing I wish I had done differently was that I didn't have my 2007 E-bay data open in front of me at the start of the show. I had thought we would be discussing more of the impact on prices, and less on my data analysis of market trends on E-bay. Oh well, live and learn.

Israel Plate Block Society

I have been collecting plate blocks for a while, and I just discovered a great resource. The Israel Plate Block Society Journal. I am not sure if the society is still in existence, as my e-mails to the president have gone unanswered, but I was able to borrow the archives of the journal from the SIP library. The archives contain almost 1200 pages of material, starting with the first issue in 1978, and ending in mid-2005. So far, I have made it through over a thousand pages, extracting about 250 different items that I need to add or modify in my database. The research done was incredibly detailed. Most issues are listed, with the number of panes per printing sheet, number of printing runs, and information on how to tell where a given plate block came from.

So, given all this information, what should I collect. My current plan is to collect all plate blocks that have a visible difference. For example, the four different perforation types, or different colors of plate number, or different printing dated. For the shekel issue only, I am trying to collect each plate and each printing run, but this is only because I have a fairly comprehensive collection already. I will not be going back and trying to collect the various pane and printing runs for other issues. Otherwise, I could go on forever.

One last thing. I said I discovered this resource. The discovery was made on E-bay. I saw a lot for sale of the back issues of the journal. I lost out, as the lot went for more than $75. I then went to the APRL to see if they had a copy that I could borrow, and I sent a request to the SIP librarian at the same time. Both libraries had a copy, and it was cheaper to borrow it from the SIP, so I did that. Had the lot never appeared on E-bay, I would not even know this resource existed.

Dilemma Decision

Yesterday, I talked about my dilemma. Today, or actually late last night, I made a decision. I choose option C. Of course, yesterday I only talked about 2 options. The third option appeared last night. One of the stamp dealers in Israel listed a large lot of Town Emblem plate blocks (76 different printing dates). I checked the pictures, and found that I need at least 40 of the 76 plate blocks in the lot. And the total Bale catalog value for those 40 is north of $1700. So, rather than spend $150+ on a single landscape plateblock that catalogs around $400, or spend the same amount on a bunch of maxi-cards that aren't even listed in the catalog, I chose to spend a bit more than I wanted on the 76 plate blocks. Value wise, I am paying less than 20% catalog for the items I need, and I will still have 30+ plateblocks that I can re-sell and try and lower my cost basis for the ones I needed. I also listed another dozen or so items on e-bay (currently, I have roughly 25 auctions running). Hopefully, I will make enough to allow me to buy some of the other items I want. Then, I will be back with the dilemma I had yesterday. Unless, some of the lots sell, or are taken off sale by then. 3 of the maxi-card lots I was looking at already sold, so it is a possibility. We will see...