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