Buying stamps on eBay - risky or not?

I have bought quite a few items on Ebay. The main problem I have had is the condition is sometimes not as described eg very fine unmounted mint turns out to have toned gum. The answer is to contact the seller. Some sellers have problems with mail going missing to some countries. Perhaps check if that applies to your country.

An interesting article.
i think common sense must prevail.  If it sounds too good to be true, beware. Ask questions when in doubt and pass if you do not get satisfactory answers. I like to think most sellers and buyers are honest. I have had a few disappointments in my buying over the years because I did not do my due diligence. I prefer to go through an established dealer for the more pricey items. Generally I have had positive experiences with all online sellers. I have never return items or made any claims through the seller site.

David

I buy frequently from ebay, though now my purchases are inexpensive items (less than £20), and I'm 99 per cent happy with what arrives. I collect stamps for enjoyment and not for investment - most are used, and I learn a lot about history geography, social matters etc., and I hope one day to be clever;-). But, if I were of the investment sort, then I doubt that I'd use ebay - I have paid out sums like £300 - £400 on odd occasions for a brief period a year or too back and fortunately didn't get fingers burned, but reliability has lessened and the risks are now higher that something will go wrong. I don't want to leave items of high value for my survivors to have deal with, and buying at a lower level means not worrying that a bad deal could be expensive. In the U.K. there are some very reliable and trustworthy dealers from whom purchase can be made both with recourse if there's a problem and comforting because they are sellers of integrity in the first place. We must remember we are collectors because we enjoy the hunt, but sometimes falling off happens - buyer beware.

Thanks for the feedback it is most appreciated. I can purchase from the UK dealers but find the costs very high and the postage charges much higher than on eBay. My first 2 orders arrived yesterday and from what I can ascertain are as described and in great condition so no complaints so far, 2 more orders to come and hopefully the same will be true. 

“Buying stamps on eBay …risky or not?”


I’d say no riskier than buying anywhere else . I have 1000s of trades going back nearly 20 years and happily continue. I have met the occasional rogue but the vast majority have been decent and honourable. I would hope my buyers all feel the same about me.

forth May I suggest that you leave a neutral feedback for those transactions. In my experience I have encountered numerous sellers of "sliders", that is stamps with defects that should have been noticed but were "overlooked" by the seller. And be specific in your feedback description. It's for everyone's benefit.

And please institute a return of purchase through eBay. The sellers are obligated to refund your purchase price as well as shipping (at least domestic US)

Jeffs
The two sellers with the creased stamps are giving me a replacement and the other a refund. I am still waiting for the unmounted mint seller to reply. I mostly buy on Ebay. only sold about 6 items that I did not want. 99p start and end bid. No problem.

At least on EBay if you file a complaint you are almost guaranteed a refund. BUT it is exasperating to think you’ve finally found THAT stamp you’ve been searching for only to receive a crappy copy. Very annoying! I’m selling right now and I know that it is easy to not catch every fault, but that’s a far cry from not even making an effort to check them or worse yet, trying to pawn them off on unsuspecting buyers. Maybe we should have a list of sellers who list damaged goods as intact with the follow up to complaints noted. Did they issue a refund asap, apologize, etc.

The seller of the unmounted set is sending a replacement on Monday. It all means I have not lost but is disappointing when you are expecting as described. Thanks for all replies.

Very sorry to hear of your Amazon problem, Alex (vikingeck ).

As for your credit card, you shouldn't have to get it replaced or anything.  You should be able to simply contact the card issuer and tell them you want to dispute the charge in question.  If it is a reputable provider, there should be no problem doing that.  You can easily explain the exact situation, which is that you paid £40 using the card but never received what you paid for.

I have done this a couple of times in the past, and it has yielded good results.  I hope this may help.

Sounds good, Alex (vikingeck ), I wish you good luck with it.

It is interesting to note that although you may well have been the victim of a fraud in this case, that isn't at all what fraud refers to when it comes to credit and bank cards.  The Fraud Dept. in a credit card company is there to monitor when your card may have been lost or stolen, or when the details are compromised such that someone else can fraudulently use them to make charges on the card that are not authorized by you.  That's what they mean by "fraud".

In your case, you have what I would call "non-performance" by the vendor of your item in making it impossible for you to get what you paid for, so disputing the individual charge is the way to go.  When you do that, the card company will remove the charge from your account and get in touch with the vendor to tell them that you are disputing it.  Then the vendor will have to prove to the card company that they delivered the item to you in order to get the charge re-instated.  It sounds to me like they won't be able to do that, since you have evidence that it was delivered to the wrong city.

I sure hope that the card company will help you with this, but it sounds pretty clear cut to me.