5 important tips for getting the best deals on Africa stamps from eBay sellers

From: Africa-Stamps.com

eBay has a huge, thriving Africa stamps for sale section. Every day, tens of thousands of stamps are for sale in eBay's stamps category; many of these are from long-time, well-known sellers, and there are always many examples of great, rare African stamp listings on eBay that can't be found anywhere else.

As a corollary to that, though, there is a lot of competition for things for you, the buyer and collector. Most of the time, if you've seen something that you really want, odds are lots of other people have seen it too. If it's a bidding-style item, you may be outbid many times over, and if it's a set-sale item, you may not even see it before someone else does and it gets sold out from under you. This is especially frustrating when the item is something that you really would like to add to your African stamp collection.

An example search for "egypt" in eBay's stamps category shows the relevant listings spread over several, often-unexpected categories.

Here are five important tips to help you get an advantage over other buyers. If you follow these pieces of advice religiously, you will be able to add African stamps to your collection that you would have otherwise missed — or paid much more for.

1. Look for miscategorized stamps

There is a dedicated African stamps section on eBay, and within that category there are several country-specific subcategories. However, most countries still don't have their own dedicated category on eBay; sellers may use the "Other" category, or a nearby country, or something else. Even if there is an appropriate country category, an item may be listed in another. Every seller is different. (Note also that Egyptian stamps are listed in eBay's Middle East category rather than Africa. Fair enough, but many buyers don't know this.)

What you want to do is find all the stamps that fit your criteria, no matter where they are. For example, let's say you are collecting Ethiopian stamps. As of this writing, in the "Ethiopia" category on eBay there are 110 listings. Not bad, but a little more digging reveals that there are actual several hundred Ethiopia stamps on eBay — many outside of that country's category, or even outside the Africa category.

On Africa-Stamps.com, our Ethiopia stamps category finds all of these disparate listings and collects them under one section. (As of right now, for example, there are 719 listed.) You can further filter these listings by MNH, FDC, error stamps, overprints, and others.

The stamps are there on eBay, it's just a matter of collecting all the listings from separate categories under one section.

2. Be aware of misspellings and abbreviations in listing titles

This listing has Egypt misspelled as 'Eygpt' — twice.

Sometimes a seller will misspell something in his listing title, or abbreviate something for brevity's sake. For example, sellers sometimes spell 'Ethiopia' as 'Ethopia'. Similarly, the former name of Democratic Republic of the Congo was (in English) 'Belgian Congo', which in Dutch is 'Belgisch-Kongo'; this is sometimes written in English on eBay as 'Belgish Congo'. A too-long title may result in the country name being lopped off:
MINT NH STAMPS DINOSAURS-PREHI​STORIC #S-064-2 (MADAGASC
was recently spotted on eBay.

Another thing that keeps some buyers from seeing all the available listings is the simple demonym issue. (The demonym is the adjective form of a country's name.) For example, the demonym of Madagascar is 'Malagasy'; if a seller only uses 'Malagasy' in a title and not 'Madagascar', you might not get that sale in your 'madagasc*' search results on eBay.

Performing a search on eBay is a good way to find stamps independent of categorization, but you will still miss a lot due to misspellings, abbreviations, and things like that. Check the Africa-Stamps.com store to get a fuller picture of what's available on eBay; our custom software ferrets out these hidden listings and can give you quite an advantage over other buyers who don't check this site.

3. Keep in mind that eBay operates in multiple, non-English speaking countries

This listing of a Moroccan cover is listed under the Spanish name for that country, 'Marruecos'.

The English spelling often differs from a non-English spelling for country names, and these stamps can be listed on eBay.com (the US version) alongside the domestic listings. If you perform a search for "western sahara" you will get listings for that country returned, but think about that country's name in other languages: it's Westelijke Sahara in Dutch; Sahara Occidental in Spanish and French; Westsahara in German; Saara Ocidental in Portuguese; et cetera.

Many international sellers use the English in their titles to appeal to the widest possible buyer pool; many do not. At any rate, keeping all this in mind can be maddening; make it easy on yourself by checking the Africa-Stamps.com listings to see all of these non-English listings included. (Most international sellers will ship worldwide; check individual listings for details.)

4. Keep at it — be vigilant!

You should check back regularly — every day is what many collectors would advise — to see the latest listings. As mentioned, with thousands of stamps for sale every day on eBay, there is a constant stream of new listings. You can sort any of our store pages by recently added; bookmark this version of the page and check it every day, scrolling through the new listings. You'd be surprised how many buyers don't bother with this, or don't know how to do it right. It's easy on Africa-Stamps.com; just a simple click sorts the listings like this for you.

5. Know the former names of countries

This stamp lot is from Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso.

Bechuanaland, Belgian Congo, Upper Volta, Rhodesia, et cetera; the twentieth century was especially volatile, geopolitically, for Africa, with colonies gaining independence, countries merging and splitting apart, and names shuffling around when new leaders came into power.

So if you're collecting Zambia or Zimbabwe stamps for example, you might also want to check on Rhodesia stamps if they fit into your personal collection. For a collection of Rwanda or Burundi stamps, you may want to see listings of Ruanda-Urundi stamps. In the Africa-Stamps.com store we include listings from a country's former incarnation(s).

Good luck and have fun!

The sheer volume of Africa stamps for sale on eBay at any one time is overwhelming, which is quite a good situation for a buyer and collector. Looking through these listings should, like collecting in general, be a fun mix of hunting, discovering, and appreciating your treasures. Use the tips in this guide to get a leg up on the competition... and good luck finding some great stamps on eBay!