StampWants is Growing!!!

[StampTraders]

It was exactly a month ago that I registered with StampWants. In fact at the time there were 16,698 registered members and at the moment there are 17,729, for an increase of over 1,000 (1,031). Earlier this month a member reported that SW has averaged over 1,000/day in sales for both the months of October and November (to that date), and today we continue to run at just over 1,000 sales per day for the entire month of November.

These stats are most encouraging! As a person who intends to sell on SW, increasing marketplace is everything to me. That these good things are happening in November, a time that has been mediocre at best as a time for selling stamps, is simply astonishing. I'm guessing January thru June are going to make these days look like a vacation...

Congratulations to all, and especially to Mark!

Dave

[oneeaglelover]

Yup,
As sellers, you always wish for a bigger market...But hey, we gotta make this grow! More auctions please
Still loving the fees...I hope we can keep this much more competitive if we can get our previous clientele to cross over...
I keep sending notes to my previous sellers and buyers...some are here

[StampTraders]

November was very successful for SW! We ended up averaging 1,000 stamps sold per day (literally, 998.6 stamps/day), and that's terrific for a month that historically has been pretty much a no-show.

The spirit of cooperation between the buyer and seller communitys on SW is to be commended, and is a major reason SW is, and is going to be, a terrific success story for the stamp hobby...

[bennettoons]

November was very successful for SW! We ended up averaging 1,000 stamps sold per day (literally, 998.6 stamps/day) . . .

Up until Tuesday of this past week it actually looked like we might break last month's all-time sales record of 31,000+ items, even though November has one less day than October.

We were averaging 1038 items sold per day for November, which would have put us over the top had it continued.

But Wednesday, Thursday and Friday saw a big slow-down, and as ST points out above, we dropped below 1000 items a day and waved goodby to the sales record.

StampWants has set new sales records in 8 of the last 11 months (since I've been watching). And since October 1, we've averaged 1014 items sold per day.

Onward and upward!!

[olderthandirt]

To infinity and beyond.

[bennettoons]

more numbers . . .

StampWants, in the last few minutes, just sold its 300,000th item!!

Since this is Day #981 since StampWants opened its doors, that's an average of 305 items sold per day for a period of over two and a half years.

We're at just over 18,000 members - and even though far from that number have been around since the beginning (and of course many only stop here to enter the Jenny contest) -- that's still a very respectable average of over twenty items bought by the average 'StampWanter'.

[StampTraders]

[color=darkblue]more numbers . . .

StampWants, in the last few minutes, just sold its 300,000th item!!

Wonderful!

[gsdstamps]

over twenty items bought by the average 'StampWanter'

Good to know that I'm finally above average for something!!

Steve

[ddownam]

over twenty items bought by the average 'StampWanter'

Good to know that I'm finally above average for something!!

Steve

I was trying to figure out how many I was making up for!!!!!!

[michael78651]

Several days ago, the item lsting numbers went over 2 million. I didn't see anyone mention that one yet.

[bennettoons]

You just did!!

I noticed the two million number too, but I wasn't sure if every item put up for sale here got a successive number.

Let's see, if there have been 300,000 items sold and 518,000 items currently listed, my first guess would be that the item numbers should be in the 850,000 range.

A long way from two million.

Could this mean that over 1,150,000 items have been offered here and then withdrawn??

Maybe Mark can tell us if those item numbers are accurate . . . although he seems to be scarce these days.

[Mark]

If you list an item at auction and it doesn't sell, you can relist it, but it will create a new auction (the old one is still accessible) so the new listing has a new item number. This doesn't apply to store listings, since they never end, so they always have the same id number.

-Mark

[oneeaglelover]

I, being me, is not postin enuff sales, obviously onward and upward...i say...

[LMCochrane]

more numbers . . .

StampWants, in the last few minutes, just sold its 300,000th item!!

Since this is Day #981 since StampWants opened its doors, that's an average of 305 items sold per day for a period of over two and a half years.

We're at just over 18,000 members - and even though far from that number have been around since the beginning (and of course many only stop here to enter the Jenny contest) -- that's still a very respectable average of over twenty items bought by the average 'StampWanter'.

[StampTraders]

A second set of 1,000 new members of StampWants has been added, since I joined 10-26-07. This time it required just 21 days, compared to a full month of 31 days after I joined. Perhaps those saying it's the C3a raffle that's drawing people are right. I hope the greater growth can be, at least partially, because of StampWants advertising and also because buyers and sellers learn of SW existence in proportion to the numbers who successfully use SW. This latter effect might be expected to be approximated by "exponential" growth, so the number of members grows by 5% per month, for example. Hence, with 18,707 members then next month .05 x 18,707 = 935 members would be added. It's just a math model, but it might prove to be correct. Of course, there is an "escape velocity" matter facing every business, and perhaps we've reached it now. If this is the case exponential growth is a reasonable expectation, but the proper rate to fit the next year remains to be seen.

The new feature permitting review of sales in the past 30 days, and also auctions closed in the last 30 days (including unsold lots), is really an important addition. Especially for the novice seller real live prices are involved, when viewing history. The Advanced Search permits viewing history, whereas the search that was here before permits viewing prices obtained during current auctions and also prices set in SW Stores. We realize prices in Stores can be the product of wishful thinking, but historic prices actually happened. Certainly many prices in Stores are entirely reasonable, not to be confused with wishful thinking, but that's what makes it interesting! Then too, there is much to be said for sellers having all there better stamps in their Store, though priced somewhat high. After all, lightning might strike. Then too, if a seller has all his best stamps on display, he can show his banker and perhaps arrange to finance the purchase of a hot dog, or two!

Happily the weekend had many lots closing with a sale, so we're above 1,000 stamps sold per day for the month of December. As of Friday it looked like a Christmas slump was about to set in, which is traditional with stamps. Personally I'm guessing we end December with less than 1,000 stamps/day sold... If we beat that, then expect January to show 1,500 stamps/day; just a SWAG (Sophisticated Wild-Axx-Guess), but wouldn't it be nice?

Speaking of guesses, I suppose I'm just as entitled as the next one to make a few. My guess/hope, as to number of members, is 19,200 by 12-31; 20,700 by 1-31; 22,500 by 2-29; 25,500 by 3-31; 28,500 by 4-30; 30,500 by 5-31 and 32,000 by 6-30. As an overall guess I'll say we double to 37,400 by summer's end. Stamp sale guesses (isn't this fun; I know it is for me!): December 950 stamps sold/day; Jan 1,500/day; Feb 2,000/day; March 3,000/day; April 3,300/day; May 2,800/day; and June 2,300/day. Can I defend any of this? Only in the most sweeping of terms... Want to publish your own guesses? It's a free country; go for it!

Dave