Summary
StampWants.com is an online marketplace and community connecting stamp collectors and dealers around the world; offering auction, fixed price, and store inventory listings as well as free tools and services. StampWants.com stands out in its industry with unrivaled customer service and low selling fees.
History and Features
In March of 2005, StampWants, LLC launched StampWants.com and began working toward the goal of being the number one online marketplace exclusively devoted to collectible stamps. In September of 2006, StampWants, LLC formed a strategic partnership with Gary Posner, Inc. and began an aggressive advertising campaign. Throughout, StampWants has remained more than just a marketplace, but a true community of stamp collectors and dealers.
StampWants.com offers sellers of collectible stamps the option to sell their items in auction, fixed price, and store inventory formats. All the features these sellers would expect from an online auction site, and more, are available to them, including gallery images, image hosting, best offers, reserve prices and listing upgrades. By implementing minimal tiered insertion fees, StampWants has been able to maintain a high quality of items listed online, while at the same time allowing sellers to list their entire inventories.
For the collector, StampWants.com offers a wide and comprehensive variety of stamps for purchase, along with free tools and services such as want list management software, community forums, and monthly stamp giveaways.
The founder, President and CEO of StampWants is Mark Rosenberg, who has over 8 years experience in selling stamps on the internet. He graduated with highest honors from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in computer science. He has created many professional dynamic websites and computer programs for several companies, as well as directed operations and created complete business solution software for a several large stamp corporations.
General Company Description
Background
By the 1920s, the children and teenagers who started collecting stamps decades earlier, (after the first postage stamp was issued in Britain the “Penny Black”, 1840), had grown into adults and stamp collecting became one of the world’s largest hobbies. In the decades that followed, the most common way to purchase stamps for one’s collection was to attend a stamp show or visit a stamp shop. This greatly limited the amount of exposure and variety because physical travel to stamp shops and shows often relied on proximity or travel expenses. Such distance and expenses can have a negative impact on the ability for a stamp collector to collect stamps in both variety and cost, and can hurt dealers by limiting the amount of collectors they can reach.
The only other feasible options for collectors and dealers to this point have been either:
- Mail Order Catalogs, which can be costly to produce and mail for dealers, and still not reach the largest collector base possible. Additionally, collectors may not receive all the catalogs they would like, and sometimes they may even have to pay for such catalogs.
- eBay, which has continued to raise prices which cut into dealers’ profits, limiting the variety and raising the price of items on eBay for collectors.
- Other online auction sites, such as Yahoo Auctions and BidVille, where stamps are only a handful of categories among tens of thousands of other categories, and sales and exposure are so low that it is not worth listing or browsing in the stamp categories.
StampWants offers a new, better choice for both stamp collectors and dealers to buy and sell stamps. StampWants offers dealers much greater affordability than eBay and mail order catalogs, and dealers can still retain a healthy profit in the process. We can also offer collectors a wide variety of stamps because we can attract so many dealers, and since dealer costs remain low, the prices of items on StampWants can be competitively lower.
For the collectors, this means they can find the item they want on our website at a lower price than on eBay, or through a mail order catalog. For the dealers, this means they can sell their items on StampWants and gain exposure to the entire world, and in the process take in higher profits than they could achieve exploring other outlets.
Concept
By focusing on one niche market, stamp collecting, StampWants can cater to a specific consumer group and direct our marketing and gear our community toward this group. This allows StampWants to stand out against other larger auction sites, such as Yahoo Auctions and Ubid. These other auction sites aim to directly compete against all of eBay, but such an endeavor would require significantly greater funding than these companies have available to spend on auction sites. Neither these companies, nor any others including eBay, would ever be able to create the strength in community and customer loyalty created by StampWants focusing on one specific market. StampWants' current motto is, “We’re Here for You, the Philatelist.” By browsing through our online forums, one can easily see just how true this is. We answer all emails and questions personally and promptly. In fact, many of the features available on StampWants were directly created based on members’ comments and suggestions.
Mission Statement
- To provide an affordable platform for amateurs, novices and experts to buy and sell stamps and other philatelic items in auction and fixed price formats in a community exclusively dedicated to their philatelic needs. This includes helpful information, friendly forums, free philatelic services and monthly philatelic giveaways. We use our experience and leadership to provide and maintain an elegant, professional and easy to use website and community.
Products and Services
StampWants offers a feature rich website as platform for users to buy and sell stamps in auction and fixed price format. These formats currently include:
- Auction
- Fixed Price
- Stores
- Best Offer
Auctions can last 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days, and start at a minimum bid. Buyers can then place their bids on the item. The highest bidder when the auction closes at the set closing time wins the auction. Bidding is done by proxy, so buyers can put in the highest amount they wish to pay for an item, but only need to pay one increment over the next highest bid. Increments are scaled accordingly depending on the current bid, though sellers do have the option to set their own increments on a per auction level.
Auctions can also have an optional Buy It Now price set, which is an amount higher than the minimum bid that a buyer can choose to pay and forego the auction process. This option is only available to buyers while the current bid remains under the Buy It Now price.
Fixed Price listings are the same as auctions with buy it now prices, the difference being that the minimum bid and the buy it now price is the same. This effectively means that a Fixed Price listing is never bid on and can only be purchased for the Buy It Now price. This is appealing to some buyers and sellers because there is no wait time or chance in winning an item, it can be purchased instantly.
For sellers who wish to place items online at a fixed price that they do not expect to sell within 1-10 days, we offer stores. Stores are suitable for these sellers, as well as sellers who want to be able to put their entire inventory online. With a store, sellers are required to pay a monthly store subscription, and can create fixed price listings that are Good Till Ended. These items only end when they are purchased or when the seller ends them. The insertion fees for these items are minimal, and are charged monthly along with a required monthly store subscription fee. The store subscription also allows sellers to have their very own homepage on our site that they can completely customize. The store homepage also allows buyers to exclusively browse and search a particular seller’s inventory. Stores also come with a URL link, such as www.stampwants.com/stores/theirstorename. This serves as a direct link to a seller's store, and they can use it in their emails, business cards and other promotional material. Store items are listed after all auction and regular fixed price listings when browsing and searching. This is because the insertion fees for auction and regular fixed price items are higher and are meant to be more active on our site.
Another feature StampWants provides to sellers is Best Offers. Best Offers can be applied to all of a sellers Fixed Price (both regular and store) items, or on an individual basis, and allows the buyer to make their Best Offer. If the seller accepts the best offer, the item is sold at that price to the buyer. If the offer is declined, the buyer cannot place another best offer (as it is their best offer) on that item, but can still purchase it using Buy It Now.
StampWants also offers listing upgrades on all listings and stores including: Featured Store Subscription, Gallery Image, Second Category, Additional Pictures, Highlighted Listing, Bold Listing, Border Listing, Icon Listing, Category Featured, Home Page Featured and Reserve Price. For a complete list of fees, please see the site fees page.
There are many additional features and services StampWants provides to users at no cost. These items include:
- Monthly Stamp Giveaways (which often include items donated by StampWants users)
- Community Forums, where users can discuss philately, help each other identify stamps, hold friendly discussion and more
- Want List Management Software
- Bulk Upload Software
- StampWants My Messages
- About Me pages
- Games
