StampBoards.com
http://www.stampboards.com/
Yes, StampBoards does have a bit of the look and feel of the computer bulletin boards that were prevalent in the pre-internet days. It is forum-based, which means that there are specific areas (forums) in which to read and write on certain topics. However, the difference is that unlike the forums of old, this board is active, everyone is treated with respect, and there are lots of helpful users to make even the beginning collector feel at home.
The slogan of StampBoards is "Stampboards.com, Where Philatelists Meet". This is a very realistic statement for the site; stamp collectors of every variety will freely jump in and share their knowledge (and a little humor too) on topics. If you post a question or comment to the board, you will almost certainly get a response.
From the main screen, there are many forums to choose. The first forum listed, and the one in which you are urged to introduce yourself, is nicknamed "Roll Call". The administrators of the site want you to post an introductory message to everyone. While many of us like to lurk (i.e., read messages but not post messages), this process is painless and right away you will get a few hellos from other collectors.
Another forum challenges you to "Discuss stamps - and *anything* at ALL happening with stamps". Based on the number of posts, this is the busiest stamp-related forum. (The humor/recreation forum has a few more ... who says philatelists don't like to have fun?).
Be sure to visit the forum where you can ask philatelic questions ... you are almost guaranteed to get an answer. Some of the questions are very interesting and even though I wasn't really interested in the subject before I saw the question, it got me to thinking, and the next thing I know, I wanted to know the answer myself!
My favorite forum is the Selling/Giveaway forum. Here, fellow collectors list groups of stamps or stamp-related ephemera that they are trying to sell, or in a very few cases, to give away. The prices are very good, often more than half off what you would pay somewhere else, all in an effort to sale their goods to fellow members. What I like best of all, StampBoards.com has a policy that anything listed in this forum cannot be offered anywhere else on the internet for 7 days. I appreciate that gesture, as it gives its members a chance to get a steal of a deal well in advance of just blowing it out to everyone on an internet auction site. If you find something you want to purchase, and it is within 7 days of the initial post, you can rest assured that the seller hasn't listed it all over the internet.
I spent at least an hour on the Selling/Giveaway forum when I first discovered it. The offers are priced to move and seem to be excellent bargains. The sellers have to have 10 messages posted and be a member of the site for 10 days before they can list anything in this forum. Thus, the board weeds out the riff-raff that only cares about selling, and doesn't "belong" to the community.
One thing to note about the site ... even though it is located in the U.S., the board has an widespread international audience. Keep this in mind if you buy or trade anything ... there may be extra expenses in shipping and will probably be delays, unless you live in the area. However, this fact is very-well documented in the sell/trade forums
StampBoards.com is a great site. I'm visiting it several times a week to catch up on everything. Whatever your level of knowledge, I think you will find Stampboards.com to be of your liking.
You can visit his site at: http://www.stampboards.com/
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19 comments:
Very balanced overview.
Hey Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
Great review - just thought I would bring to your attention that although the site may be hosted in the US it is run primarily by Glen Stephens, an Australian stamp dealer - the moderators of the site are all volunteers and come from allover the globe.
except they have rules like you must use capital letters in certain places and your not allowed to use shortened words eg stan gibbs instead of stanley gibbons in the heading of a post to try make it not so long, oh and i hope you dont want too much help or dont want to be of to much help to others because if you post to many times in a day no matter how legitimate you are, you will get a 30 day suspension. i found them to be quite rude
I've recently started using Stamp Board and found the site really healpful.
I disagree.
I belive Stampboard is a forgers paradise for compiling info from potential suckers.
If you have a real rarity, posting a request for info will get you a promt demand that you post a detailed photographic "scan" of the stamp in question - for a billion internet users to view? If, perchance you have a unique oddity/error or show the exact placement of the grill, forgers have all they need for info on where the grill/anomoly would appear on the entire sheet and can fake a reproduction of the grill imprint/secret mark that will fool even an expert.
Also, contrary to what you say, in my opinion, the site is very difficult to use, archaic, poorly designed and run with an iron fist by Stephens - who if you do not comply with his demands will turn rude in a second.
Beware.
Stampboards was founded by Stephens as a honey pot for him to offload junk lots of inaccurately or poorly described, overpriced stamps.
He has recruited a small army of sycophants who join him in his petulant displays of hubris.
Found the owner to be rude and manipulative. Tries to act as if he is an "expert" using only what he finds available on the internet as reference. I and others were banned from the forum for revealing the truth about availability of stamps the owner of the forum is trying to sell at high cost stating they are sold out which is unethical and immoral to the collecting community. The owner uses many user names and the majority of the activity on the forum is his own doing. Beware the forum and do not trust what is being sold there. Most of it is WAY overpriced. An example: An addressed FDC being sold by the owner for $50 which you can buy on eBay and other places from numerous sellers for Half that much or less UNADDRESSED! Do the research BEFORE buying anything there. Just my two cents worth.
Signed up for an account last week after following very explicit rules to get on the site. I opened ONE thread to get information on an uncut block of stamps I came across. Every post I made I received nothing but insults, wisecracks, and unprofessional remarks from a man named Glen Stephens. He complained at length that I didn't use the correct photo hosting site, and is a poor person to deal with.
DO NOT waste your time with this site or this individual. He is extremely rude and likes to pick on people as he has a superiority complex.
True, the site has many friendly and knowledgeable users, but Glen clearly is ruining it for everyone.
Also, take EVERYTHING he says with a grain of salt. I have caught the "expert" in at least 3 incorrect responses and a few lies to boot. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Run by a rude, arrogant, bully, who created the site solely as a shopfront for his overpriced rubbish. Other sites suggest the site's owner, Glen Stephens, is manipulating the market by claiming an item to be rare when it's still available for sale at the Post Office. Go their at your peril
This site is doing little to foster the hobby. Just a few old school fellows hanging on desparately to the old ways and attempting to bring down the new ways (ie: ebay) as they cannot adapt to an ever changing world.
Stampboards is the most interesting, complete and biggest philately forum. It has to be said that Glen Stephens did a great thing when he started this forum and I'm convinced Stampboards gives a bust to the hobby. The forum is clear, understandable and a major source of information regarding philately.
Run by a very rude man who will delete Posts and ban Members at will.( I asked a question of him )
Claims to have 7000 members... the catch... after you are banned you cannot get off the membership list... I am still there 2 years later !There is NO way od leaving the mess.
I would avoid this Site .. UNLESS... You have NO intention of making a Post.
Interesting articles can be found there. After a while you start to notice all discussions are heavily influenced by Glenn Stephens and his moderators. They are incredibly rude, frequently insult people, and will even delete posts they disagree with. I stopped using it after a couple of weeks for these reasons.
Run by an arrogant bully.
Glen Stephens is not a stamp dealer. He is a junk dealer who specializes in lots of poorly described and overpriced stamps. Avoid at all costs.
Constantly bangs on about this item and that item being "placed into stock" but you can never find the item for sale, not even on stampboards itself !! Puzzling.....
Anti-American, anti-semite, anti-ebay, anti-everything that doesnt fit his global domination of the stamp universe view.
Glen Stephens deletes or changes anything you write on STAMP BOARDS and does this often. He was kick out of ASDA for DISHONEST DEALINGS and there are several documents signed by him which APTA have kept supporting this. BEWARE of this man.
The site is operated by a fellow named Glen Stephens, who is becoming quite well know in the stamp collecting community as the epitome of what is wrong with the hobby. Stephens has a few egomaniacal insiders who constantly berate new members. The site serves two purposes--for Stephens to sell his (significantly overpriced) wares, and to berate ebay and it's users on a daily basis. I can't verify this, but word on the internet is that Stephens himself was banned from ebay, so I suppose this is his way of getting back. To be honest, there are some knowledgeable members on the site--but are you willing to be degraded and demeaned to find an answer? There are other stamp forums out there--I suggest going to one of them. Sure, Stampboards can boast a large member count, but that is misleading--once you sign up, you cannot take your name off the list. 95% of the "members" have two or less posts all time. The forum discussion topics are are set up so each and every post (where more and more redundant posts are encouraged) counts as a hit by Google, so Google's statistics are skewed as well. Overall, a rather lousy site, run by a non-professional dealer who has never been a collector.
One of the site owner's favorite sayings is "You are what you post". He has 3 user names totaling over 40,000 posts. Number of times he has said 'Thanks' ?? TWO !!! In this case, it's more like you are what you DON'T post.
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