Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

I hope all forum members will take a look at BIDFERRET online auctions (www.bidferret.com) and make an honest evaluation.

Rest assured anything spurious we are alerted to will be immediately de-listed and the perpetrator investigated, and de-registered if thought appropriate.

The big brother approach of eBay does not gel well with us, and we aim to build a user friendly online auction system.

Cheers

Kevin Morgan.

Yo ! Boss, Don't forget to login when you post .. lol

Go BIDFERRET

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Stamp Collecting does not have to be Expensive to be Fun ! - . IPDA Member 2012/13
Stamp Mall over 35,000 items in my Online Store !! on 128 bit encrypted SSL Secure Server.

I was logged in/am logged in, but for some reason I am treated as a guest!

Here we go again!

I hope all forum members will take a look at BIDFERRET online auctions (www.bidferret.com) and make an honest evaluation.

Rest assured anything spurious we are alerted to will be immediately de-listed and the perpetrator investigated, and de-registered if thought appropriate.

The big brother approach of eBay does not gel well with us, and we aim to build a user friendly online auction system.

Cheers

Kevin Morgan.

I just had a quick look at BidFerrret and must say I'm impressed by the fee structure. Has anyone used the site to sell an item? I'm just wondering what the traffic is like. Also, I'm from Canada so is this international or geared mainly to Australia?

Great to see bidferret starting and perhaps we can get ebay to change its practices. I once bought a stamp from a seller on ebay , only a low price, and it didn't come and the seller wouldn't reply to emails. I went through the tortuous process of using the ebay complaint system and it was a joke. When I bought the stamp the sellers feedback was positive but by the time my month was up before I could complain there were about a dozen negative feedbacks. Ebay were not the slightest bit interested. More people got ripped off and the end result was that eventually ebay said the seller had resigned from ebay. No cancelling his registration

One comment on bidferret, surely you could list in OZ dollars?

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KGV tragic

Maybe it is US based software they use? No idea .. Kevin might have some input on that one.

I have listed thousands of eBay stamp items over the years and have sold more than half to counties outside Australia taht use USD comfortably. I suggest that Bidferret would lose business if it used AUD because Americans in particular have little interest in other types of dollars and would just pass by the item.

eBay have a currency converter for calculations. I would suggest that Bidferret might have one also (might even be there already). But here's the difference. The exchange rate you get at the bank if you walk in with UDS is not the same as reported on the telly each night, nor the same as PayPal's.

Maybe Bidferret will come up with a Currency Converter facility that refects what you can actually convert small sums of money for in practice, not a theoretical rate that you lose on every time as a seller.

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Anything can be done; but nothing can be done for the first time. (Sir Humphrey in "Yes Minister").

Also just to add to that, if we choose to sell some stuff, what are the payment and billing options between buyer and seller.

I couldn't find any info about this...all info appreciated

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very friendly ebay seller and buyer

Glad to see some interest. As you know Bidferret is run by Kevin Morgan. I have yet to see anybody "Slip one past him", so you can expect a secure level of moderation on the site. You do have to remember that the Sales are made between individuals, just like eBay and normal precautions and common sense need to prevail.

However there is a lot of potential in Bidferret as it is run by a Stamp Trade person, that it will fulfill a specialised niche quite well. All the questions on how to use the site and billing details can be found by accessing to Menus on the RIGHT hand column of the Front page
http://www.bidferret.com/auction/

It is set up in US $ because that is really a global currency, and the Stamp Trade is definitely a global market. It was a conscious choice to set it up that way. If you make payments by Paypal then the conversion is done for you, otherwise in transferring funds the currency converter at
http://www.xe.com is fair and gives a true current conversion rate to whatever currency you like.

In it's early stages Bidferret NEEDS the active support of as many people as possible, both to list and to buy. Clearly as a new start up it doesn't have huge listings. I took the Stamp and cover listings over the 500 mark with new additions today. There are plenty more coming on from Kevin and myself (an employee of his, who sells in my own right using the same handle as on this forum).

Your additions and support with listings and/or bids or purchases will ensure a constant and steady growth in a Safe Moderated environment.

It has great potential. The software currently in use is the Public Domain version, but there are a huge number of addons available that take it up to and past the eBay or Oztion standard. However they do cost somewhere in the region of a Small car, so The volume will have to come first.

You Have to put the Ferret before the Cart

Thanks Steve

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Stamp Collecting does not have to be Expensive to be Fun ! - . IPDA Member 2012/13
Stamp Mall over 35,000 items in my Online Store !! on 128 bit encrypted SSL Secure Server.

Thanks to all at Bidferret - it looks to have great potential and I wish you Good Luck with it.

One very minor gripe - there seem to be a lot of "Reserve Price" items there (I bid on a few myself before the penny dropped ). You might want to have a look at the "Reserve Prices" thread...

No-one seems to have mentioned this part anywhere? :

Until June 9th, Bidferret is free. No conditions, ifs or buts. Free. And then, all our registered users will receive US$50 credit towards future sales fees! That should be enough to see you through another $1000 of sales. Free. No catches. Free!

http://bidferret.com/

Yes, as for the reserve prices, they have to be there while Bidferret is in its early days, because traffic is coming from a Zero start. The reserves that are set are just below a market price for the item. Not giving them away yet, but they will be at fair price as they hit reserve. Those comments hold for Morganst listings.

There are also a whole new batch of listings coming on with very low start prices, a heap of Scouting covers, there will be quite a few in there that are well and truly worth the opening pricewithout reserve.

Like I said, early days but growing, as the traffic generates the bids, so the reserves will drop to reflect the gaining strength in bidding. So get in there and bid, you may be surprised when it suddenly says "reserve Met" !!

I do have firmly in mind comments from eBay sellers who put items worth many dollars in and the go for 99c, so from the point of one seller, these are a reasonable Low Market reserve so that both Bidder and Seller end up with a Deal

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Stamp Collecting does not have to be Expensive to be Fun ! - . IPDA Member 2012/13
Stamp Mall over 35,000 items in my Online Store !! on 128 bit encrypted SSL Secure Server.

I should add that there is a FULL PAGE ad in the next issue of Stamp News. That will alert a large number of collectors to the sites existence.

Currently those 'in the loop" have found it, a bit like the growth on this Forum. There are opportunities for Sellers to get some items listed before the Ad comes out.

The listings can be set to automatically relist if unsold, and of course there are no listing fees, so it costs only a bit of time to try it out.

Also as noted there is no cost for the first $1000 of sales within the Opening Offer Period

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Stamp Collecting does not have to be Expensive to be Fun ! - . IPDA Member 2012/13
Stamp Mall over 35,000 items in my Online Store !! on 128 bit encrypted SSL Secure Server.

When is the next issue of Stamp news out?

I might give it a go with some of my 99c no reserve stuff

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very friendly ebay seller and buyer

Kev is the man for that, but AFAIK Stamp News is mailed latter month. So mailed any day now I'd guess?

Last month was an aberration as the Arthur Gray supplement was messed up by printer and needed be done again at $6000 cost.

It is already printed I think as Kev told me today his entire editorial all got printed in LATIN (true!) and not English due to some quirk at the printer.

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Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!

message for fletches1

just been onto bidferret, you have your GB EdVII stuff listed under EdVIII, only 3 items but thought you might like to know...


cheers

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very friendly ebay seller and buyer

Aw Shucks! I thought they were undiscovered new issues

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Stamp Collecting does not have to be Expensive to be Fun ! - . IPDA Member 2012/13
Stamp Mall over 35,000 items in my Online Store !! on 128 bit encrypted SSL Secure Server.

Hey there - I'm the guy who built (gave birth to?) Bidferret. I'll answer a few of your questions here!

Pricing: The free until June 9th thing is exactly that. Free. Everything! After then (assuming you have already registered) you'll get another US$1000 of sales free. No conditions or anything.

Site mission: We're not trying to be a clone of eBay, cos they'd do it much better than us! We want to offer something a bit different. eBay started as a simple idea, and down the years, more and more modules and features and rules were added. Even as a computer literate guy, I find understanding today's eBay site pretty difficult! So we're aiming for simplicity. No messing around. A single price for everything. Absolute freedom to describe, direct people to your own website, whatever, just as you wish. And we're a lot cheaper!...

Pricing: should you ever use up your free $1000 of sales, you will then be charged a flat rate of 5% on any future sales. Light users may pay immediatley via a link in the auction-ended email, or heavy users can wait for a monthly invoice. Which will also be a tax invoice!

This page compares our pricing with eBay's: http://www.bidferret.com/better.htm

Technology: The site is built on a simple system - it's pretty easy to change (should the need arise). As the development of the site began only a month ago, there will probably be some small gremlins to be worked out. But your bids and money are secure, so go for it!

Our next big challenge is a bulk listing tool - we'll keep you informed about this! The wheels are in motion.

Current achievements:

At the time of writing, the site has had 89046 hits.
The 19th April was the biggest day with 11172 hits.
11.6% of visitors hang around for more than an hour.
47.6% of visitors are adding us to their favourites/bookmarks.

The current highest bid is US$250 on a set of 1994 PNG overprints.

Advertising: We will accept banner adverts for any family-friendly company/group on an exchange basis (we'll show yours if you show ours!). We'll even design the banner for you. Alternatively we will host your banner for USD$0.01 per view or USD$20.00 for one month of infinite views if you don't want to show ours on your own site.

Bidferret is being advertised aggressively in Stamp News Australasia and The Australasian Coin & Banknote magazine. Down the track, we hope to advertise in other collectables publications!

I will come back and check this thread periodically to answer any questions and check out your suggestions! If you'd prefer to get in touch with me personally, please email ferret@bidferret.com!

I should mention that this is a seperate user, and not bidferret/kevin morgan! Just to confuse you all. Kevin owns the site, I try to keep it working!

And I try to fill it up. Massed employees!!!

GRRR! Auto login didn't work for previous post.

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Stamp Collecting does not have to be Expensive to be Fun ! - . IPDA Member 2012/13
Stamp Mall over 35,000 items in my Online Store !! on 128 bit encrypted SSL Secure Server.

Incredibly impressive figures if the ads have not started yet.

That is more than I sell at PNG overprint set of 11 for retail, so the prices you get seem very good:

http://www.glenstephens.com/overprints.html

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Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!

Hi Glen,

Sorry that 11% are slow readers like me and take more than an hour.

I've had a few false starts with listing - items disappeared from site - but that will shake out in time.

Sellers' prices where I'm competent to comment are medium to high side of medium, but then we did not want a cheap clearing house for bottom feeders anyhow.

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Anything can be done; but nothing can be done for the first time. (Sir Humphrey in "Yes Minister").

Subscribers issues mailed out today a further 5000 plus in Newsagents from Weds.

Full page ads. in both STAMP NEWS and COIN AND BANKNOTE MAG. May editions

Look forward to plenty of your 99c lots on Bidferret.com

DON'T FORGET IT'S FREE TO LIST AND FREE TO SELL UNTIL JUNE 9!

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

Just looked at Bidferret and its really good - I have registered and as soon as my own domestic IT issues are resolved (moved 1 month ago and still await broadband connection!) I will be active.

It does not bother me listing in $. I am uk based and it may be sensible to offer $ / £ other currency options in due course, possibly euro's as most of europe uses them? However as site is predominantly Australian driven at present guess its not a real issue.

GREAT to see an albeit small rival to eBay emerging with a positive attitude to the issues which we all have on their site, typified by their intransigent / teflon approach to anything.

Well done to those behind this site and every good wish and hope that it thrives!

Peter

Thank you for your interest Peter. The most important thing of all is to tell your exisiting customers where you are listing, and get them to tell others etc. That will give us exponential growth.

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

I see the KM conglomorate also includes a hardware store....watch out Bunnings!!!!!

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very friendly ebay seller and buyer

Yep, buy your tools on Bidferret! If you can't see it there we can supply everything from a single screw to house lots of timber!

Darn, not logged in!

Problem, if you open in a different page to post this system treats you as as guest!

So you need to log in again if doing this, as I just did.

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

I know that pricing in US $ has been touched on in a previous post, but it would be good to have an option for Aussie $, as my understanding is that it is to be marketed locally to start with. Pricing in US$ does actually make items more expensive in $AUD.

Having said that I hope to get some items on there over the next few days and I hope it takes off like a rocket.

Are there options to have your items featured on the home page and how would you go about it. Sorry if I have missed this...

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very friendly ebay seller and buyer

Bidding Process on ferret.

I know I am coming at this from a bit of an ebay angle, but am a little confused by the bidding process eg Aussie 1/- Lyre Bird (s103). Sherro is the only bidder at 15,19,21 & 24 which is clear from the bid history, but the minimum new bid is 25.

Surely with no other competitive bids the minimum bid is the first increment over $1, which will then escalate as more bids are required to take him out so to speak.

I know there is a section on the site that explains how the process work,but perhaps some worked examples, so both buyer and seller know exactly how much they are currently winning an item for.


cheers

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very friendly ebay seller and buyer

Since there is a reserve, this acts as a bidder for the vendor until the reserve price is reached, exactly as in eBay. So if the reserve is $25, and you bid $19 even though there are no other bids because of the reserve your bid immediately reaches it's limit.

As the buy it now on this item is $26, I would hazard a very educated guess that the next bid will hit reserve

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

I have registred and I have added a link on my blogpage for you.

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Happiness is a journey, NOT a destination.

Oh shucks, Kevin, you've guessed my game plan and given my game away. One more dollar and it's mine! And Richard J's price list has $250-300 on the Ash imprint block of 4. A good buy.

Actually, I was using this stamp to exercise the system and learn from it. I already have a number of MUH examples in this perf so I stopped short of the Buy It Now.

What I will do next remains a secret. Between Kevin and me.

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Anything can be done; but nothing can be done for the first time. (Sir Humphrey in "Yes Minister").

And 200 members of this board.

Nope, it's already been done. Geoff.

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Anything can be done; but nothing can be done for the first time. (Sir Humphrey in "Yes Minister").

A secret between 2 people is NOT a secret - believe me, I know

And now, I have to kill you to ensure it remains a secret.

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Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!

There's no need to do that when eBay is doing it a day at a time. Geoff.

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Anything can be done; but nothing can be done for the first time. (Sir Humphrey in "Yes Minister").

Is it legal to sell alcohol over the net without a licence?

e.g. I win a bottle of Ouzo in a raffle, but don't like it or want it, can I sell it?

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

Just as well, we don't keep alcohol in our house............we drink it all!

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

Would that make you THETOTALLER? No drinking and none left?
Geoff.

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Anything can be done; but nothing can be done for the first time. (Sir Humphrey in "Yes Minister").

Just an update on Bidferret. We are now well on our way to the 1st 1,000 listings and 100 members. A few astounding sale results so far, some above Aussie retail!

Still working on a bulk listing tool and ironing out one or two other glitches.

So...get out there and start listing at Bidferret!

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

Hi Bidferret, wishing you all the success in the world. What I would like to see is an item kept on the site after the auction has finished.

I was outbid on and item and would really like to know what it finished at.

When I went to go back in it was gone.??

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sirwilliamofpennylot - Wanted- red, blue green purple postmarks on pre decimal Australian stamps, old black and white aboriginal postcards. swap or buy.

We did send you an individual reply to your question on this.

The item is still on the site, all you have to do is go to the advanced search!

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

thanks for thaking the time to reply Kev, you must ba a very busy man. I didn't receive the individual reply and I still can't find the item on Biddferret but I will keep trying.

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sirwilliamofpennylot - Wanted- red, blue green purple postmarks on pre decimal Australian stamps, old black and white aboriginal postcards. swap or buy.

Sorry if you didn't get the reply, which most certainly was sent by email on Tuesday.

All you have to do is go to Advanced Search, search closed auctions for the item/s you are looking for and hey presto!

If you just search for "stamps" in closed auctions, all closed stamp lots for the past 60 days will come up.

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FREE sample copy of Stamp News Australasia available on request to all Stampboards members!
Also don't forget to checkout our websites at http://www.kevinmorgan.com.au

Bidferret Closed Auctions

The above link will show you ALL closed items if you fancy a browse. If you're looking for something in particular, use advanced search. Still working on the code to be able to sort this page by column title.

Also remember you can 'watch' auctions and bookmark auction pages (add them to your favourites), so they can be easily found after the sale closes.

Closed auctions stay in the system for 60 days.

Now I know I may touch a raw nerve here but I do believe this could be done a little better...see the attached link...

Mod - Dead link deleted

No sg number, a rambling long description that doesn't describe the stamp, no mention of the awful crease along the top of the stamp, and a starting price of $49USD which is about $60 AUD, not exactly value for money. If I was selling this it would start at 99c and I would be quite happy with 10 bucks US or Aussie...

This is not much better....
Mod - Dead link deleted

I would be ecstatic with 20-30 bucks for that little ensemble

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very friendly ebay seller and buyer