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Thread: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

  1. #1
    Forum Master billsstamps's Avatar
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    Default Sovereign Military Order of Malta

    Recently the Stamps | Europe | Vatican category was changed to

    Stamps | Europe | Vatican | Other, and
    Stamps | Europe | Vatican | SMOM

    This may make sense to a few Italian or Maltese stamp buyers but will confuse other people.

    If you believed the stamps were real and wanted to list stamps for the Sovereign Military Order of Malta then you would want to list under

    Stamps | Europe | SMOM
    as does the only lister of these stamps on Ebid, but not as a subcategory of the Vatican.

    Also bear in mind that these are Cinderella stamps which do not have postal validity throughout the world, unlike Vatican stamps. Ebid does not normally create special categories for stamp printers who are not members of the Universal Postal Union.

    If you wanted to find Vatican stamps then you would probably not look under Stamps | Europe | Vatican | Other because Vatican stamps are Vatican, not other.

    So I suggest you remove Stamps | Europe | Vatican | SMOM, and either create Stamps | Europe | SMOM or a better category for stamp collectors would be Stamps | Europe | Cinderella
    and take Stamps | Europe | Vatican | Other back to being Stamps | Europe | Vatican
    Rev Dr Bill Hopkinson,
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    BillsStamps

    around 50000 stamps listed, based in London

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

    That seems to be a good idea but then I am not affected.

  3. #3
    Forum Saint madelaine's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

    Cinderellas should be listed under the appropriate category. We have been through this before with bogus Indian states issues.

    This situation highlights the problem of categories being added when requested without any checking that the person asking knows what they are doing! Stamp categories, as I have said before, need to be based on one of the major catalogues.
    Last edited by madelaine; 9th February 2017 at 08:10 AM.
    Madelaine

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  4. #4
    Forum Master billsstamps's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

    Quote Originally Posted by madelaine View Post
    Cinderellas should be listed under the appropriate category. We have been through this before with bogus Indian states issues.

    This situation highlights the problem of categories being added when requested without any checking that the person asking knows what they are doing! Stamp categories, as I have said before, need to be based on one of the major catalogues.
    Sometimes the Ebid stamp categories look more like the slightly obsessive detail a collector might go to when enjoying cataloging what they have. A good example would be the hundreds of sub-categories for Olympics.

    As one of the biggest sellers of stamps on Ebid that OCD approach is inappropriate. When I used the Olympic subcategories the number of views dropped dramatically as I think buyers just wanted to browse through all Olympic stamps for something they could recognise they didn't have. So I stopped using Ebid's subcategories.

    Yes, SMOM is Cinderella, though if you live in Italy you might claim they are valid for postage? If I was listing Lundy or South Moluccas I would have geography in my mind. In practice I would list Lundy under UK, but mark the catalogue number as Cinderella because I don't think that buyers would look under a category called Cinderella for stamps, and they would not imagine it was a Theme. Similarly, if I had SMOM stamps to list, I would not list under either Cinderella or Vatican, I would list under Malta with a note that it was a Cinderella charity stamp to support SMOM.

    So, I mostly agree with you that categories should be based on what major catalogues do, but with an eye to what sellers need to do to sell stamps, so the focus is on where buyers find things rather than just on cataloging.

    As an example Stamps | Thematic | Cinderellas (6723) is not ideal place for browsing buyers to come across my Lundy stamps.
    Rev Dr Bill Hopkinson,
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    BillsStamps

    around 50000 stamps listed, based in London

  5. #5
    Forum Saint madelaine's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

    Perhaps Cinderellas need to be sub categorised? Though I reckon that if I wanted Lundy, I'd search for just that...

    As for the XS categories - that runs through eBid with far too many sub cats in some areas.
    Madelaine

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  6. #6
    Forum Master billsstamps's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

    My point is that subcategories for Cinderella is more XS categories.

    As you say, most people would search for Lundy if they wanted Lundy; many would not know that Lundy was Cinderella.

    The only thing that might be helpful would be a Cinderella category under UK, for Lundy, Drake Island, Eynshallow, and so on, if you just wanted any quirky stuff from Great Britain
    Rev Dr Bill Hopkinson,
    Retired professor





    BillsStamps

    around 50000 stamps listed, based in London

  7. #7
    Forum Saint madelaine's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

    I tend to assume that people search rather than browse. If I'm right, then categories don't matter much. However, I'd like to see the stamp cats rationalised so there is somewhere for every stamp and not too many subcats.
    Madelaine

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    My Postcard Shop
    BK Stamps for Philatelic listings
    & Yarnalong for craft patterns
    and
    Lotzabitz -anything that doesn't belong in one of the other shops.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

    We have added the following category pending server update

    Stamps : Europe : SMOM

    The existing category has been moved accordingly.

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