Excessive High Prices

[seahorsefanatic 10]

I have noted over the last year that some sellers have starting bids way in excess of what the lot is worth. This is becoming common practice with some dealers which I am glad to say are in the minority.

 

One dealer in particular, PTACoinsJewellery repeatedly prices items at excessive prices. I have querried this direct with the seller on numerous occasions only to be told to stop bothering them or lets see what it sells for.

 

This seller has a so-called collection for sale with a starting bid of R2,500. The sellers product code is: Complete Fine Collection (sic). There are about 83 stamps in the lot with at least 6 or more that are broken and damaged. The stamps in question are mostly half penny, one penny and two penny stamps which are extremely common. To top it all, the union material is all in singles ( and not bilingual pairs )

 

The entire lot is probably worth R50 !!!!!!

 

This type of abuse should be stopped. The seller in question should be doing their homework as to the value and not guessing.

 

No value is claimed by the seller but then thats not the point. Sooner or later some poor buyer is going to be sucked in. The product code should also rather be: average used

 

What do others think ? Please look at the item in question. I would like the input of others.

 

One can always take the attitude of: " I know enough not to get caught by this type of lot so who cares if someone else gets caught " The point is we should care because its the right thing to do. We all have stories from the past where we've been caught when buying a lot on auction or believing what this or that dealer has told us.

 

I bought a lot 2 years ago from the East Rand Fair that was intentionally misdescribed as most of the good stamps were damaged. I brought this to the attention of the auctioneer and the lot was returned to the vendor and I was refunded. The vendor was also given a warning for the future. As this was done intentionally, I will never buy from that vendor again and they have lost future sales for many years to come. Unfortunately some vendors just dont care.

 

This is not the first time that I have raised this point and Im sure it won't be the last

[kennyn 10]

Hello Dave

You are of course correct in what you say,but unfortunately Bid or Buy cannot control the asking price(we have had this discussion before),only if the seller misdescribes the stamps.

Of course it is debatable if a seller describes a lot as a fine lot and the lot is full of rubbish as you state(ie Union singles).

All we can do is keep alerting collectors to these people who either list lots at high prices by design or accident(wasnt that diplomatic!).

The rest of the sellers on bid or buy who do not get involved in the forum should also be aware that if someone buys stamps at inflated prices and finds out,he will undoubtably tar all dealers with the same brush.So can we have some input from the silent masses?

See you Saturday,sorry about the Ceylon,I will bring you its sister with the inverted watermark on Saturday

Cheers

Kenny

[seahorsefanatic 10]

Hi Kenny and others

 

I agree with you that complacency would reign in this case. I think I will be listing cancelled single Union definatives ( 0.5 penny, 1 penny, 2 penny ) in pristine condition, say 10000 or so, claim the catalogue value of R1.00 each i.e. total catalogue value R10,000 and put it up at a bargain basement start price of R2,000 ( 20% of catalogue ) and when someone buys it, try not to blush. A lot like this to me would only be of value to someone looking for minor varieties or postmarks. If I got R500 for it, I would consider that a good price

 

Seriously, I am going to start soon with listing some bulkier lots of material that I have already gone through ( Poland, Malawi/Nyasaland, Austria, Canada, SWA/Namibia, France ). Am currently putting them together but having problems loading the pictures due to the compatibility of our software with that used on the BoB site.

 

My approach would be to rather list the items at a low start and see what happens. Let the market decide.