Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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"...There are a great many many people here who sell on HipStamp... "
To the HipStamp sellers...I am curious to hear your thoughts about the CEO of HipStamp (selling under Rosenberg Philatelics) also competing with you as a seller on HipStamp. A potential conflict of interest exists and includes being able to direct the most buyer views (via ranking/search results) to their own listings and having access to very helpful buyer metrics that other sellers do not have. I would imagine that if eBay started their own stamp store and was competing with other stamp sellers there would be many opinions on this topic.
Don
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It's not the CEO, it's his uncle. He sold there since it was StampWants.
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Michael,
Mark Rosenberg - HipCommerce CEO & Founder
Rosenberg Philatelics - Principal, Mr. Mark C. Rosenberg, CEO
Do they have the same name?
Don
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'
Critics of Amazon (a cottage industry) point-out that Amazon also enjoys access to that same sort of data when pricing & selling their house brands.
They can a) see a buyer's interest, and b) see the sellers' prices , and c) set their own price before they d) create search results.
Mel Brooks: It's good to be the king.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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Hi ikey,
Nothing illegal or even unethical about this, the thread was about ‘thoughts about buying stamps’ and I was curious about folks who trade on HipStamp and their thoughts on this situation.
Given as much as folks love to hate eBay, if they were doing something like this I assume that there would be much discussion about it.
Don
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"... Nothing illegal or even unethical about this ..."
I never said there was.
Illegal? However, one should be careful before issuing blanket absolutions.
Amazon operates in a zillion jurisdictions, some of which have laws that might surprise us.
Unethical? Depends on the promises, representations and, of course, those magnificent disclosure statements.
Place an order with your stock broker to buy X and, if they've buried the words "we make a market" anywhere in their pages & pages of agreements & disclosures, and they are free to receive your order, buy the stock, mark it up, and sell it to you.
And, then, collect a commission.
As you say: "... Nothing illegal or even unethical about this ..."
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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In the US, ‘vertical business models’ are not illegal, but it is true that if you get to a certain size it draws the attention of politicians in Washington. There certainly is a history of Washington ‘breaking up’ very large vertically orientated companies in the past and there are currently rumblings about Amazon. But for a small company it would be hard to argue with a ‘we want to be as successful as Amazon’ mission statement.
My finger is in the air trying to understand which way the wind is blowing.
Don
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Getting back to Hipstamp for a minute – whether Mark has an interest in Rosenberg Philatelics or not doesn’t bother me in the least as a competing dealer. Let’s dismiss inventory and pricing because everyone is free to do their own thing and customers tend to migrate towards dealers who carry items of interest.
First – Hipstamp promotes many sellers with large inventories of more expensive items who pay a premium store price – no secret there and just good business practice.
Second – they use algorithms just like every other site. I didn’t list in December as I was listing higher dollar items on Ebay. Sales dwindled to nothing. In early January I listed 5 covers on Hipstamp that didn’t sell on Ebay and woke up the next morning with 3 sales totaling 65 stamps. Listing a few items every day increases sales – no surprises there.
Third – I do not experience the Ebay phenomenon of roving blackouts where suddenly you get 4 or 5 sales from different people in one small geographic area.
Of course you are asking if I would be upset if he were using a custom algorithm to drive business to HIS (or his relatives) store. That “store” only auctions stamps (better – high value stamps) all starting at 1 cent during promotional auctions. That model and the site layout does not appear to lend itself to much manipulation of visibility as near as I can see.
Lastly some forum postings have included references to items listed by the store being discussed which have fairly significant discrepancies and those postings have not been modified or deleted.
I’ve gone through Bidstart, Stampwants, the SG reign of terror, and now Hipstamp. I have found that the amount of attention given to the “little guy” has always been exceptional and that every issue I have ever had has been resolved with a couple of working days. Certainly there are things I would like to see changed but it is definitely a big step up from the others ( Stamp O Rama excepted – this is a phenomenal site that serves multiple purposes which can all be rated “exceeds expectations”.
That’s just my two cents and I hope it answers the question without straying too far from the subject.
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I was one of those who was with StampWants pretty much from its inception, and was in the seller group that helped with debugging and program enhancements. I carried over to BidStart, and then the Gibbons debacle from which I got the boot. I was invited to return when HipStamp emerged like the Phoenix. What does all this get to? Having seen it all in the StampWants and successor iterations, I agree totally with the synopsis that Carol has stated.
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EVERY stamp sales platform has its faults.
Why?
No platform can satisfy ALL sellers/buyers
The result is that every seller/buyer has their favourite/detestable platform because we are all individuals with our own wee foibles.
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Ethics vary between people and only some situations codified into law. You then add that humans can be inconsistent depending on the situation (impacts them or their interest).
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Carol and Michael have stated my view of HipStamp very well. I started with StampWant in late 2006 and persevered through the SG fiasco. I have a small store on the site and haven't been a buyer of stamps in many years. Sure, there are minor issues that I would like to see addressed, but that's to be expected. Mark's business model has worked well for me.
Tom
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I agree with what Carol and Michael said as well - 100%. I started buying from Stampwants around 2006 and in 2010 - I started selling there and except for the SG period never had an issue. Regardless to what some people here think - I am not a professional dealer. I started slowly selling stamps from my father's huge collection after he came down with Alzheimer's and could not work with stamps anymore. I was also a collector and I had my own collection - many of which were duplicates of what my dad had. So over the past 10 years - I have sold off huge portions of the collections. What I am doing lately is buying collections when I see stamps that I need for my own collection and then I sell the remainders here and on Hipstamp. Every so often I decide certain countries I no longer want to collect and I also break them up to sell as well. Right now I am very happy with the combination of being here and Hipstamp. I have several buyers who buy items from me in both places. What I do for them is if they buy and pay for some stamps on Hip - then I invoice them here (with no shipping charge) and just ship the items together. One stop shopping !. It is working quite well for me... Steve
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I saved this image all these years from back in the StampWants days.
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re: Discussion on HipStamp
"...There are a great many many people here who sell on HipStamp... "
To the HipStamp sellers...I am curious to hear your thoughts about the CEO of HipStamp (selling under Rosenberg Philatelics) also competing with you as a seller on HipStamp. A potential conflict of interest exists and includes being able to direct the most buyer views (via ranking/search results) to their own listings and having access to very helpful buyer metrics that other sellers do not have. I would imagine that if eBay started their own stamp store and was competing with other stamp sellers there would be many opinions on this topic.
Don
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this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
It's not the CEO, it's his uncle. He sold there since it was StampWants.
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
Michael,
Mark Rosenberg - HipCommerce CEO & Founder
Rosenberg Philatelics - Principal, Mr. Mark C. Rosenberg, CEO
Do they have the same name?
Don
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
'
Critics of Amazon (a cottage industry) point-out that Amazon also enjoys access to that same sort of data when pricing & selling their house brands.
They can a) see a buyer's interest, and b) see the sellers' prices , and c) set their own price before they d) create search results.
Mel Brooks: It's good to be the king.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
Hi ikey,
Nothing illegal or even unethical about this, the thread was about ‘thoughts about buying stamps’ and I was curious about folks who trade on HipStamp and their thoughts on this situation.
Given as much as folks love to hate eBay, if they were doing something like this I assume that there would be much discussion about it.
Don
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
"... Nothing illegal or even unethical about this ..."
I never said there was.
Illegal? However, one should be careful before issuing blanket absolutions.
Amazon operates in a zillion jurisdictions, some of which have laws that might surprise us.
Unethical? Depends on the promises, representations and, of course, those magnificent disclosure statements.
Place an order with your stock broker to buy X and, if they've buried the words "we make a market" anywhere in their pages & pages of agreements & disclosures, and they are free to receive your order, buy the stock, mark it up, and sell it to you.
And, then, collect a commission.
As you say: "... Nothing illegal or even unethical about this ..."
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
In the US, ‘vertical business models’ are not illegal, but it is true that if you get to a certain size it draws the attention of politicians in Washington. There certainly is a history of Washington ‘breaking up’ very large vertically orientated companies in the past and there are currently rumblings about Amazon. But for a small company it would be hard to argue with a ‘we want to be as successful as Amazon’ mission statement.
My finger is in the air trying to understand which way the wind is blowing.
Don
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
Getting back to Hipstamp for a minute – whether Mark has an interest in Rosenberg Philatelics or not doesn’t bother me in the least as a competing dealer. Let’s dismiss inventory and pricing because everyone is free to do their own thing and customers tend to migrate towards dealers who carry items of interest.
First – Hipstamp promotes many sellers with large inventories of more expensive items who pay a premium store price – no secret there and just good business practice.
Second – they use algorithms just like every other site. I didn’t list in December as I was listing higher dollar items on Ebay. Sales dwindled to nothing. In early January I listed 5 covers on Hipstamp that didn’t sell on Ebay and woke up the next morning with 3 sales totaling 65 stamps. Listing a few items every day increases sales – no surprises there.
Third – I do not experience the Ebay phenomenon of roving blackouts where suddenly you get 4 or 5 sales from different people in one small geographic area.
Of course you are asking if I would be upset if he were using a custom algorithm to drive business to HIS (or his relatives) store. That “store” only auctions stamps (better – high value stamps) all starting at 1 cent during promotional auctions. That model and the site layout does not appear to lend itself to much manipulation of visibility as near as I can see.
Lastly some forum postings have included references to items listed by the store being discussed which have fairly significant discrepancies and those postings have not been modified or deleted.
I’ve gone through Bidstart, Stampwants, the SG reign of terror, and now Hipstamp. I have found that the amount of attention given to the “little guy” has always been exceptional and that every issue I have ever had has been resolved with a couple of working days. Certainly there are things I would like to see changed but it is definitely a big step up from the others ( Stamp O Rama excepted – this is a phenomenal site that serves multiple purposes which can all be rated “exceeds expectations”.
That’s just my two cents and I hope it answers the question without straying too far from the subject.
5 Members
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re: Discussion on HipStamp
I was one of those who was with StampWants pretty much from its inception, and was in the seller group that helped with debugging and program enhancements. I carried over to BidStart, and then the Gibbons debacle from which I got the boot. I was invited to return when HipStamp emerged like the Phoenix. What does all this get to? Having seen it all in the StampWants and successor iterations, I agree totally with the synopsis that Carol has stated.
2 Members
like this post.
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Auctions - Approvals
re: Discussion on HipStamp
EVERY stamp sales platform has its faults.
Why?
No platform can satisfy ALL sellers/buyers
The result is that every seller/buyer has their favourite/detestable platform because we are all individuals with our own wee foibles.
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
Ethics vary between people and only some situations codified into law. You then add that humans can be inconsistent depending on the situation (impacts them or their interest).
Login to Like
this post
re: Discussion on HipStamp
Carol and Michael have stated my view of HipStamp very well. I started with StampWant in late 2006 and persevered through the SG fiasco. I have a small store on the site and haven't been a buyer of stamps in many years. Sure, there are minor issues that I would like to see addressed, but that's to be expected. Mark's business model has worked well for me.
Tom
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this post
Approvals
re: Discussion on HipStamp
I agree with what Carol and Michael said as well - 100%. I started buying from Stampwants around 2006 and in 2010 - I started selling there and except for the SG period never had an issue. Regardless to what some people here think - I am not a professional dealer. I started slowly selling stamps from my father's huge collection after he came down with Alzheimer's and could not work with stamps anymore. I was also a collector and I had my own collection - many of which were duplicates of what my dad had. So over the past 10 years - I have sold off huge portions of the collections. What I am doing lately is buying collections when I see stamps that I need for my own collection and then I sell the remainders here and on Hipstamp. Every so often I decide certain countries I no longer want to collect and I also break them up to sell as well. Right now I am very happy with the combination of being here and Hipstamp. I have several buyers who buy items from me in both places. What I do for them is if they buy and pay for some stamps on Hip - then I invoice them here (with no shipping charge) and just ship the items together. One stop shopping !. It is working quite well for me... Steve
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re: Discussion on HipStamp
I saved this image all these years from back in the StampWants days.
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