Fees

One of the dampers on the stamp market right now is the the high cost of fees associated with selling. Over the last five years, EBay has nearly doubled its fees to sellers. Many marginal sellers have been forced out of business and many stronger sellers have been compelled to reduce the price that they pay for material so as to increase their margins enough to pay the increased fees. In economic terms, any rent that is paid for access to a market has the effect of sopping up capital that would have been either put into inventory or trickled out as cash to the seller. When EBay first entered the market it was a revolutionary boon for stamp sellers. Never before could any seller have access to the entire philatelic world for only 4% of sales. The doubling of EBAY fees looks steep but, by historic standards, such access to such a broad market is unprecedented for the price. Even so fees do hurt and in the EBAY market where there is so much product being offered such increases are painful. Certification fees have impact too. Any further emphasis on numeric grading will soak up large numbers of dollars that would have been spent on stamps.