Ebay

The story of philately over the last twenty years is the story of the Internet and of EBay. Its hard to quantify EBay’s philatelic success (as they keep their numbers for each of their divisions to themselves) but its clear they offer millions of lots per year to hundreds of thousands of buyers on behalf of tens of thousands of sellers. EBay probably sells more dollar volume worth of stamps than all of the other stamp auctioneers and web sites combined. Ebay has lowered the barriers to entry for all new sellers. In the previous generation, companies like Apfelbaum, with our large mailing list and years of customer satisfaction, had the stamp auction business locked up. New companies had a very difficult time finding material to sell, finding good customers to sell to, and having a clientele who could rely on them. EBay was wise to put its emphasis on customer satisfaction rather than seller satisfaction. EBay has strict rules and they almost always go back to the same guiding principle-the customer is always right. Dealer sellers have long carped about this orientation of EBay, not realizing that it is because buyers know that their satisfaction will be guaranteed that these buyers flock to EBay in the first place. EBay’s attitude is sellers will always want to offer their product in an environment where there are the most and best buyers so attracting and satisfying buyers is their first priority. Still, there is a difference for most dealers between being on EBay and being successful on EBay. Ebay’s fee structure makes it hard to make money if you wish to establish some kind of floor price for your product, as the listing fees for unsold lots are steep. Most newer dealers start on EBay and use it until they can either establish a platform of their own or find another selling venue that is less costly. Still, a new seller who has never sold a stamp before can have his product up in front of hundreds of thousands of the world’s keenest buyers in a matter of minutes. Truly, EBay and the Internet platforms like it, are among the most amazing evolutions in the history of commerce.