HOME

ABOUT ME

INFORMATION FOR COLLECTORS

BEYOND THE CATALOG

FIRST ISSUES OF THE WORLD

FREE ALBUM PAGES

STAMPS AND POSTAL HISTORY FOR SALE

WHY I MOVED MY ON-LINE STORE
TO BIDSTART.COM

eBay announced their latest round of fee "reductions" effective April 1, 2010. I ran my 2009 listings and sales through their fees analyzer and discovered that my fees paid to eBay would have been 240% greater than before. 

Should I stay with eBay and raise my prices 5% or 6% to cover their fee increases? Of course not! Raising prices is terrible business policy, especially during such tough economic times. So I searched the internet for a new on-line store home. I've found bidstart.com to be my — and your — best option. Bidstart used to be known as stampwants.com and has been around for quite a few years now.

Bidstart has many advantages, for both you and me: 

First, much lower fees will help keep my prices down. This is despite Bidstart's frequent full color, full page advertisements in the philatelic press, something which eBay seldom does.

Second, I can accept checks and money orders on bidstart. eBay eliminated this in 2008. Many collectors prefer these options over PayPal. And, once again, I can ship to foreign buyers without fear of PayPal seizing funds from my account when I have to ship via registered mail to countries with dicey postal systems, like Italy and Brazil.

Third, you can order search and category results into alphabetical and then Scott catalog number order if you want. This makes browsing a delight. This is also something eBay vendors had been asking for since at least 1999, to my knowledge, and probably before.

Fourth, bidstart vendors and buyers enjoy an exceptional level of communication and customer service. A perusal of the bidstart discussion boards shows just how committed they are to keeping the website running well and implementing suggestions for improvement.

Fifth,  I'm enjoying the company at bidstart. Lots of the best eBay sellers have left eBay for various reasons over the years. Many of them are at bidstart. Bidstart usually has about 2,000,000 philatelic items for sale. I've run many searches: I'm impressed by the variety, quality and prices of bidstart offerings. 

So, with all these factors in bidstart's favor, It became a total no-brainer for me to move my on-line store.

Here's the link to my bidstart store: 

Mostly Classics at bidstart

Also, do yourself a favor and check out just what bidstart's other sellers have to offer you. Here's the link to the home page:

bidstart.com

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

— Tom Kendall