The eBay Content Cycle Catalyst
The future of the stamp industry is a fundamentally exciting and necessary conversation we should all be having more often. The stamp industry encompasses a wide spectrum of interest, across a vast series of platform engagement vehicles, from ecommerce, to clubs, shows, discussion forums, traditional auctions, and so on, and so on. Central to any discussion of online engagement, we are compelled to acknowledge eBay as not only the prime mover in that space but, clearly elemental in dramatically reshaping the entire industry.
Stamp Market Index notes with interest that with over 200,000,000 (two hundred million) stamp sales since its inception up to and including values into the $100,000's (hundred's of thousands of dollars) for some of the highest price sales ever recorded for singles and/or collections, eBay is arguably the epicenter of the stamp industry.
At these levels, eBay's role, impact and influence going forward in the industry is undeniable. We are convinced eBay's profound marketplace layers of cross merchandising, ease of global access, zero barrier to entry and frictionless adoption has been and will continue to be a foundational distribution network for any serious stamp business or stamp collector.
It happens every day on eBay.
So, if you miss a day, you might miss a spectacular opportunity. It may be a great rarity that has eluded your best efforts and years of searching. Or it may be an exhilarating collection that promises to be the chance of a lifetime.
The eBay content cycle is a daily catalyst.
It's a 7 day window of opportunity. Not monthly, not bi-annual. The benefit of being there every day, can pay huge dividends.
Whereas, traditional auction houses can take weeks or months to process and prepare material, that in many cases is designated for targeted, audiences, eBay auctions tap into the true nature of the thrill of the hunt. The serendipitous experience of browsing eBay's auctions daily contrasts with traditional auction sales of targeted specialized areas interest.
As we now encounter a new world where every human being on the planet has been impacted in some way or another, traditional auction houses are only now discovering and understanding those fundamental experiences that eBay pioneered over 20 years ago.
We're also proud to mention that the experience of viewing 100's of photos on many of our NobleSpirit(collections and mixed lot) listing, in many ways surpasses traditional first hand experience, because the levels of information and engagement amount to far in excess of first hand handling constraints. Even photos of individual stamps we sell on eBay provide immeasurable information on condition that is simply not feasible during first hand viewing.
In the coming weeks we have invited a renowned author, whom has spent decades establishing the tangible values for asset class investment grade stamps to join us on eBay to assemble clusters of recommended stamps based on their historical performance.
It was eBay that changed everything.
Just over 20 years ago, a declining stamp, coin and collectibles industry was transformed overnight by eBay's frictionless global access to world markets. Today, as stamp shows close for business, traditional auction companies along with clubs and all other manner of gatherings place indefinite postponements or cancellations of their scheduled events, it is eBay that has; and, will continue to change everything going forward.
The migration from the real world to the virtual world has already commenced, and in many respects will probably never return to the world as we once knew it. Not only do we see a tremendous surge of adoption to stamp collecting by younger generations born and raised on the Internet, those of us with our fair share of grey locks certainly plan to take extra precautions before venturing out for safety's sake. As masses of dealers and collectors once again descend on eBay, as they did all those years ago, so also is that shift taking place now, like never before. Like never before, eBay has never been so relevant for our industry or so profound and necessary for any aspiring entrepreneur with a dream.
What the Analysts are saying about eBay
4/13/20 "Our proprietary tracker of eBay.com GMV suggests that volumes increased both on a dollar and Y/Y growth basis since late March (three consecutive weeks of volume growth), reaching the highest level of growth in our tracker in more than a year."
4/9/20 "More broadly, we believe eBay has a competitive advantage in e-commerce outside of "new in-season" products, which is largely the domain of eBay's individual and SMB seller base."