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If you had approx. 200 stamps dumped on you to sell ... how would you go about selling them? I have just begun to inventory them from an estate. The project is making me feel overwhelmed already. Is there a site I can enter in names or bar codes and figure out what they sold for originally or if they might be in high demand due to retired etc. ? Anyone that has experienced this or if you just have ideas, pls let me know what you think. Thanks in advance.
I've moved your thread into the General Stamping area of our forums for more discussion. ;)
I do not know of any website that helps one to find the original costs of stamps/sets. If you're interested in doing a bit of research before listing your goodies for sale, how about using the 'search' function here within our Buy/Sell forums. That will give you an idea of the asking prices that seem to sell here at SCS. I'd suggest also searching eBay for successful prices. When it comes right down to it, a stamp set is worth whatever a person is willing to pay for it.
If you should decide to list your stamps for sale here at SCS, you'll find the complete list of guidelines right here in our Site Posting Rules. Or if you have other unanswered questions, please feel welcome to send a PM and just ask.
I've been looking for Hero Arts Happy Birthday Sayings CL340. Don't know why but just fell in love with it and can't find it any where. The only place that had it was in the Uk and they don't ship accross the pond.
Thanks for getting me over to the right area. I have been working on just writing them down for a couple of hours the last two days and just have so much more to go. I will look for the search feature. Still new here a bit. Love the site. Been so busy working have not had time to play or even just look thru some of the beautiful work here. :p
I've been looking for Hero Arts Happy Birthday Sayings CL340. Don't know why but just fell in love with it and can't find it any where. The only place that had it was in the Uk and they don't ship accross the pond.
I mainly have a lot of stamps on wood and it's way more than 200. I was just guessing but now that I have gone through two boxes and have several more to go it's probably 2000. I checked out the Hero Arts stamp set you mentioned and I don't recall seeing this one the first time I loaded it all up in to containers and boxes a few weeks ago.
Once you've priced them a lot of people take photos of batches of the stamps when they're individual stamps rather than sets. I would group them by manufacturer and topically if it were me. Another way I've seen them sold is in lots where you could put 5 or 10 together to sell as one unit. Good luck. BTW-The individual ones that I've heard of selling for top dollar are old PSX floral stamps. Here's a link to a short article on ebay about them.
You can always search EBay by the manufacturer. Try to check the closed listings, that will tell you what a stamp has sold for. It's going to be somewhat difficult with that large of a number. Are these older stamps? more recent? Is this a large number of SU? Searching Google image by the stamp name may also be helpful.
__________________ Denise
"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.�
― Spider Robinson
Hi... thanks I had not thought of just pricing them and doing the group thing. Most of these are stamps bought over the past 10 or so yrs I am guessing. Since she had so many stamps you can imagine (I am guessing ) who much other crafting "stuff" I have to try to sell or recoup $ out of the craft room I cleared. There are SU sets and lots of other too. She sold Creative Memories too for a period. God Bless you all that offer up ideas to help me. Have a nice day.
From your comments I've concluded you went to an estate sale of some sort and basically "bought" the craft room contents for a set amount. Then packed it up and brought it home and are trying to figure out how and for how much to sell this stuff to get your money back or perhaps make a profit. Going with that; you've been given some great advice.
When I am just trying to sell off older or retired stamp sets I always check Ebay to see if there are many like it out there already; and I check the completed listings to see what the general sale price has been. That gives me a good idea of what to ask to start my auction. Don't forget to provide the postage calculator so buyers can figure the shipping costs ( you want the buyer to pay for all postage ). And remember that Ebay takes a fee out of your sale and if you receive payments via Paypal they will take a small fee as well.
As another poster stated retired stamps from the company PSX are a hot commodity so be on the lookout for those. It will be worth your time to research what the going price is for stamps from them.
If you have a bunch of single stamps from various manufacturers, as a crafter myself if I'm looking for a particular flower image or two I would rather see a grouping of flower images offered as a "lot" that would contain what I am after. Even if I get a few i hadn't cared about if the price is right for the group I'm happy. And creating "lots" on Ebay saves you a little time and effort in creating the listing and in shipping.
I've sold some things here on the Buy Sell Trade forum as well. Pictures are MOST helpful, especially on older sets that most of us might not be familiar with. I've had nothing but good experiences with my sales here. Just charge actual postage costs and everybody is happy and it saves you from losing some money to Ebay fees. Depending on your and your buyer's preference for payment you may save the Paypal fees too.
Good luck!! Would love to get a look at what you have once it's all organized!
So much great info Cobby. Thanks ! I inherited these items and the mess. I promise to do my best to share with you all here first. Due to lack space to work freely in that I can leave to "just be" till I can get back to it all is a lot of my frustrations. I also am a care giver to my disabled father. We are very fortunate to live in a beautiful part of SC which is a lot like the area I come from in S.E. Georgia. I'm excited to have remembered SplitCoastStampers web site as I began this. All your replies are helping me keep my spirts up through this process. Hope you all have a great day.
I would definitely search eBay. There are quite a few stamps that are no longer available and fetch fancy prices on eBay (I've bought a number of these myself on eBay...).
PSX (flowers and others images) as mentioned above, cat stamps with images from artist B.Kliban, stamps with images from artist Pamela Silin, stamps with images from artist Patience Brewster, some stamps from artist Laurel Burch, some stamps from Mostly Animals, some stamps from VIP (Visual Image Printery) just to name a few.
;;;;;;
Now on to my eBay personal preference as an ebay buyer: buying 'LOT's vs. individual stamps.
This is what makes me happy:
I don't sell stamps and I have zero room for things that I will never use so I overwhelmingly prefer eBay auctions for individual stamps over auctions for a 'LOT' of stamps. I rarely bid on stamp lots unless there's something in there that I cannot live without and the price of the lot doesn't get higher than I'm willing to pay for that one stamp.
Good luck to you - I think the prospect of what you're doing sounds like FUN FUN FUN. From some of the rare stamps that I've obtained through eBay, a number of those auctions came as a result of estate sales acquisitions or, sadly, the passing of a family member or friend who was an avid stamper.
Wishing you lots of success
__________________ "May your mind whirl joyful cartwheels of creativity." - Jonathan Lockwood Huie.
I lean to buying individual stamps on EBay also. I will buy lots when they contain enough stamps to make it worth the cost or go cheaply enough to justify having to dispose of unwanted stamps.
Personally, I think you get a better return on high priced stamps selling individually. I can understand selling in groups to get through and done with them.
Fortunately, whatever you decide, it appears there will be a market waiting.
__________________ Denise
"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.�
― Spider Robinson
Good luck with your inventory listing and selling.
You know, as I get older and look at all the stuff I have I realize I need to make some kind of plan for all of it. I've decided to tell my girls that they can keep what they want and then donate the rest of it to their favorite elementary school art teacher.
I like the ebay sets that will have the auction listing in one big set, but you can buy individual stamps from the set, but it has lots of pictures. I have a few SU! sets that are missing a stamp or two for some odd reason. I would like to find the individual stamps to get the set put back together.
My tuppence (and I will be honest that I don't really use ebay that much) is that I would list individually and be willing to group many stamps together for cheaper flat rate shipping.
Now REALITY - depending on how overwhelmed you are and how much time/effort you want to put into this.
If you want a fast sell then put big lots together - there are people out there that buy just to resell.
It isn't just stamps that sell - crafting tools/paper/cardstock do too if you know what you have.
have you checked first to see if the person who owned them had an inventory list? I know I keep my own inventory on the computer but if there's no computer someone could keep a paper list. I would investigate that first before I put a lot of work into it
The best way to figure this out is to organize by company and then stamp set.
Look up each stamp/set on ebay "COMPLETED LISTINGS." If it's over $30, you have a winner!
The best way to figure this out is to organize by company and then stamp set.
Look up each stamp/set on ebay "COMPLETED LISTINGS." If it's over $30, you have a winner!
Yes! I was going to mentioned the completed listings functions on eBay. I have sold many different things on eBay for myself and family members and the completed listings function is a great way to see if
1) it is in demand
2) what it's been going for
This can help you determine your asking price so you have a better chance of selling it. Can't wait til you get some stuff listed and maybe posted in the buy/sell section here--I'm a sucker for buying up second hand stamps!
Are you looking to make money on them or are you just looking to find homes for them and don't care about the $$ you make from them? You could always donate some of them to all sorts of places like nursing homes or centers for the disabled or senior centers or Ronald McDonald houses....the list could be endless.
If you have stamping friends locally you could have them come over and go through some of them and see if they would like to buy or even just have some of them.
So much great info Cobby. Thanks ! I inherited these items and the mess. I promise to do my best to share with you all here first. Due to lack space to work freely in that I can leave to "just be" till I can get back to it all is a lot of my frustrations. I also am a care giver to my disabled father. We are very fortunate to live in a beautiful part of SC which is a lot like the area I come from in S.E. Georgia. I'm excited to have remembered SplitCoastStampers web site as I began this. All your replies are helping me keep my spirts up through this process. Hope you all have a great day.
I am excited to see another Low Country SCS'err here! I'm in Beaufort, so maybe we could get together sometime to stamp (if you are so inclined to get into this awesome art form)
Try the "sold" filter on ebay rather than the completed listings, that way you will see only what has sold, and not everything that was listed and left unsold.
Also, it really wouldn't be worth listing individually unless they are of a decent value, as the fees will take a major percentage of the money. New final value fees are 10%, plus the paypal fees of about 3% and 30 cents per transaction. You get 50 free listings a month, but after that you would have to pay for each listing, and I believe even starting a item at 99 cents now costs 25 cents to list it, and it tiers up depending on the starting price.
Good luck with your inventory listing and selling.
You know, as I get older and look at all the stuff I have I realize I need to make some kind of plan for all of it. I've decided to tell my girls that they can keep what they want and then donate the rest of it to their favorite elementary school art teacher.
If I had inherited your project, I'd first set aside everything I thought I "might" want to use some day. Then I'd sort it all by manufacturer, and tackle each of those separately. For the SU! sets, you can check the Gallery here on SCS; each set has a super-handy index image that can help you determine if your set is complete.
Check in your area for "yard sales" of stamping and scrapbooking items or rent-a-table flea markets, or hold your own yard sale. You may not get as much for each item as you could on ebay, but avoiding the time involved in listing, emailing, and shipping, would be worth it to me. (Remember that your time is money, too.)
As an ebay and SCS Buy/Sell buyer, I definitely want to see photos of the stamps. There is no way I can remember all of the SU! set names! Front and back photos can be helpful in showing the condition of the stamps, but very time-consuming. When grouping stamps into lots, try to coordinate them -- all one holiday, all flowers, all fishing, etc. I have bought whole lots just to get one stamp that was included; I've also paid a low price for a lot and told the seller just to send me the one I wanted so she can re-list the remainder.
Good luck with everything! ... I'll keep watching the Buy/Sell Forums for your name. :-)
When I've sold stamp sets here that require me to mail in a flat rate shipping box I've added some individual stamps (for free) that I have that I no longer want and don't want to bother selling individually. However, I always ask the buyer if she would like some extras just in case she is not interested or limited on storage space.
Help...I have lots of stamps to sell !
