A business model, none the less..............

Hello and welcome to cddstamps rantings today. To me stamp collecting, philately, is a wonderful hobby and one to be enjoyed by everyone, from children to us old folk   😀  

Sadly in this day and age, and I guess there has always been an element of this in all walks of life,  there are far too many sellers out there in the many philatelic marketplaces whose only goal in life is to take advantage of a buyers wallet!  

From very carefully and deviously executed ways of advertsing and selling, to middle of the road snake oil salesmen to the plain and useless sellers who don't have a philatelic clue in their tiny heads. All trying different ploys and tricks to get you to part with your money.

I am ranting about this because I don't like to see collectors, how shall I say it, conned, that seems to say it all don't you think.   

A business model used by many sellers is, inflate the listing price and offer a HUGE discount.   You must have seen them.  Maybe you know some of them.   Maybe they have attracted you to buy.  OOOOPS .... over paid for that didnt you,  even with the HUGE% discount. And let's not even start on quality, or shipping fees, or ....  another ranting topic maybe 😀

So when you see a HUGE% discount on a stamp you want for your collection, first check the catalog listing.  I know those prices are often considered inflated, generally speaking, but they are a guide none the less and when the listing offered is at twice or three times the Cat listing think carefully, that is what you might call inflating an inflated price  😀    

Have a look around a few other sellers, find the ones with integrity, with face and reverse scans,  with full stamp quality descriptions, with fair shipping costs, with experience behind them, with genuine philatelic endorsement credentials, with a history, basically a history of honesty, not "conesty".  Nice new word of the week that I madeup, it means "not free of deceit".  Go for the honesty sellers, those sellers free of deceit 😀

cddstamps has our store on the Hipstamp market place here and the fact we have over 54,000  listings, some 40,00 with face and reverse scans,  and 100,000 positive feedbacks and do not offer HUGE discounts should not stop you popping into the store and browsing around. 😀

Enjoy your stamps as I do mine.      Michael cddstamps

cddstamps will be at the IPDA Branded Hipstamp sale September 25th to 27th see you there I hope

Hello,  this to promote a special cddstamps sale coming up very soon.  The IPDA Branded Hipstamp weekend special -  25, 26 and 27 September – a sale of just IPDA dealers stock, and, as I am sure you know, cddstamps is an IPDA member.

A special sale weekend,  22% discount on all listings,  and that is in addition to any other discount you may have applying to you.

But a few comments:  I really feel this is worth stating -  especially given some of the practices I see on many philatelic market places :

1)      We DO NOT inflate our prices to give supposedly huge discounts -  I was looking at some Hipstamp listings this morning and saw just that practice.  For one, I don’t think it is ethical or honest, and two it is trickery. Plain and simple as, I mean,  who can discount a listing by 75%  Be serious!  Oh and I  have to add, we do not “DUMP”,  yes you might find a stamp cheaper elsewhere:  there are sellers  who are literally just dumping their collections at stupidly low prices,  5% cat and less, and even on higher cat prices, so yes you might pick up a bargain,  but  check condition, face and especially the reverse -  what no reverse image  ... oh dear  ……      and especially the shipping charge. There are many sellers  making money from shipping charges while basically giving away the stamps.  Different business model I guess.  And on a positive note , hopefully, with over 52,000  listings in the cddstamps store, perhaps we just have the range of countries and issues that you will be looking for.

2)      We describe our listings – as best we can and yes occasionally we make an error -  but we do not just say, for example,  unused. And leave it at that. What is unused? Mint hinged, mint never hinged, mint heavier hinge,   no cancel no gum?  I don’t know and neither do you.

3)      We show face and reverse images of the stamp we are listing, and of every stamp we list,  because we believe you should be able to see what we are offering and what you might be buying.

4)      We  show images of all the stamps we are listing, especially, say, in a set of 4 stamps  just by example. We don’t just show, for example, one stamp of the set,  or  show 4 stamps all overlapping  so you cannot see each stamp. We don’t  leave you guessing what you might be buying.

5)      We pack all mint  stamps in black mounts, or equivalent.   Simple as and no exceptions.  Why?  Because we have learned over many years that gums differ and stamps placed next to each other can stick together.  In fact only last week I received a stamp I bought for my collection.  Mint Never Hinged,  full gum.  In a 102 card  and  guess what, I could not remove it from the 102 card because the gum had stuck to the card.  The seller said, oh must be because of the weather.    Honest,  that was what the seller said -  End of discussion.   Another seller off my Christmas card list    You won’t ever have that experience from cddstamps, especially since over the past 2 weeks I have personally listed 600 stamps and packed every one of them  in black mounts. That is our commitment to you.

I could give more examples but let me finish by saying cddstamps is proudly an IPDA  member and we do our very best to offer quality at sensible prices, correctly described and well packed as I believe do all IPDA accredited dealers.

So please,  start looking at cddstamps store, build up a cart and then buy on 25th through 27th September to save and we hope to help you add some lovely stamps to your collection during the IPDA weekend special sale.

Thank you for being a valued cddstamps customer.

 

Michael    cddstamps

commemorative definitive decimal stamps

would you buy this????????????? I hope not!!

Ok I have not written for 5 months.  Sorry,  too many things to write about.  Why bore you,    just joking.  The stamp scene is full of brilliant stamps and fantastic sellers.  BUT  and this is why I am writing now,  Who in whatever  name you want to think of would buy this.   As listed  I have not cropped it at all.

It really annoys me that there are branded sellers   -  no I wont name this lot but it is beyond credibility they would allow this -  selling stamps in this way.   You buy this listing like this  (or  from hundreds of other sellers where the stamps are not shown .....  yes there are far too many and  all sorts of real poor sellers)    ... so buying this from a branded seller    .... and the stamps arrive and you  find a mess of perf edges,  missing perfs, perf edge toning,  or whatever.   

Don't be tricked into buying cheap if you cannot see the full stamp -  and quite frankly the  face and reverse. of the stamp or stamps.  I know cddstamps in our early selling years did not show reverse on all stamps - just higher valued ones -   but we do now  because that is the way we tell collectors we care and want collectors to feel  VERY confident buying from us.

Just because a seller has a branded name behind them does not mean they are a quality seller. 

Be careful out there  Buy from accredited sellers who know how to list and who list for you to know what you are looking to buy for your collection.

Michael cddstamps    commemorative definitive decimal stamps, 53,000 listings and 98,000+ positive feedbacks on Hipstamp 

priced to sell or priced to get rid of?

The thing about  buying stamps from an online marketplace is, in my humble view,  you get what you pay for.  You can buy a nice set  described as Mint Never Hinged   or whatever terms are used to describe such stamps,  at  really low prices,   up to 5% of Scott CV for example.    More often 10% to 20%  

Again, and in my humble view, that is collectors  getting rid of their stamps.  Hey nothing wrong in that, free market rules apply.  

But what is the quality?  Mint Never Hinged it says but do you see the reverse of the stamp or stamps.  Do you get the stamp or stamps in black mounts or if a set of say six do they arrive all touching in a 102 card - so common with US sellers....  and then the stamps are sometime stuck together, sometimes not of course.  

Me, we,  at cddstamps don't do that, we  look after stamps, we don't take a risk with quality.  All cddstamps mint stamps are packed in black mounts from the time they are listed and packed into inventory.   That is also us precting our investment as well.

But it means our prices are not rock bottom, not give away, not us getting rid of stuff, not us just dumping to get rid of, not us with a don't care for the stamps anymore type mindset.  You think I am being unkind.   Ok maybe.  

Recent example. We saw a Jamaica stamp for sale  Stupid low price described as Mint Never Hinged,  with only an image of the face but described as Very Fine.   So we  bought it.    Just for fun really  and  hey it it was ok condition  looking at the face and maybe it could go back in the cddstamps store easily at double after all our costs.  But when it arrived,  you know the rest don't you.   It had wrinkled gum,  a nice bend showing on the reverse,  generally  very poor condition when you actually saw the stamp.  We returned it politely.  Still waiting for a refund but  hey such is life, not holding our breath. we lose 20 bucks, no worry in the scheme of things.  Good expewrience, provoing what we have seen and heard many times 

So what do we want you to know from this little scenerio.  Don't just but cheap,  well ok you can I guess but not if you really want quality first time round. There are many factors to consider,  quality images, complete descriptions of true condition, shipping costs as well.  credibility of the seller and by that I mean  membership of professional and respected pjhilatelic bodies.

Priced to sell, or priced to get rid of?    What about priced based on sensible assessment of quality and maybe a catalogue guide and the honesty, integrity and reputation of the dealer.  Yes dealer, not some fly by night seller getting rid of their, or relatives,  old stamp album 😉   

Enjoy your philately and Merry Christmas     ... Michael  cddstamps   where we hope 94,000  positive feedbacks counts for something  and 50,000+ listings gives you a pretty good choice  from which to add nicely to your collection.

For the Birds on stamps collector    https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps?keywords=monaco%201323

Dante - a new collecting thematic

 Have you ever wanted to start a new thematic collection.  just for the fun of it ,    and wondered and wondered and wondered   what it might be? I  found it.  Dante.  stunning issue from Monaco.  This is just one stamp from a set of 5 issued to celebrate the 700 anniversary of the birth of Dante.  Stunning,    may you will agree.     Enjoy whatever you collect.

new cddstamps website domain

 Hello,   yes been away from writing for a while    too much happening.  One thing ...I lost my domain.....   don't ask.  Not a  nice story.  So  cddstamps website is now  cddstamps.online      spending and taking some time to update and restore and refresh and  correct a few links and page content but rest assured cddstamps is alive and well.

Merry Christmas and all the best for 2026  from all of us at cddstamps.   You can find us in our store at https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where we have over 50,000 listings with over 93,000 postiove feedbacks  or at the new web domain of cddstamps.online

 

IPDA Branded Sale Event on Hipstamp - October 10th through October 12th

Please visit our store  cddstamps  as we are participating in this event with a 30% discount on all Australia, Canada and Great Britain stamps. This really is a great opportunity to fill some gaps or add some better quality stamps to your collection.

https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps

cddstamps  on Hipstamp  

commemorative definitive decimal stamps

 

PS  if you are in Canada, don’t worry,  get your order in and we will hold it until the Postal Strike is over.