I have been buying postcards as part of my hobby for around 12 years, originally "elsewhere" and later on Delcampe. Buying from "elsewhere", I can only recall one instance in which a seller told me after receiving payment that they couldn't find a postcard, in fact, I cannot recall a seller telling me they couldn't find a postcard BEFORE they sent me an invoice. However, my experience of buying postcards on Delcampe has been so fraught, I EXPECT sellers to tell me after I have paid that at least one postcard cannot be found.

The result of this is usually a mess - I am asked to find a substitute, which I can't because I have already spent hours going through the sellers' inventory, or I am refunded through PayPal but not as a partial refund on the original transaction, thus incurring fees on an already small amount, or rarely, the seller does make a partial refund on the original transaction, which has happened today (a week after I paid), except that I find the seller has the "missing" postcard listed twice and still has the other one up for sale and at the same price.

Because Delcampe is very much a village shop / boot fair / garage sale type of place, a significant number of sellers do not accept PayPal (don't get me started on the ridiculous Skrill), and on a number of occasions I have been obliged to send cash from Canada to Europe, to date without a problem except on the last occasion the seller only sent me 10 of the 14 postcards we had agreed on and sent a one Euro coin "refund" with the postcards received - not very helpful.

Along from other problems with bloody-minded, petulant Decampe sellers (fortunately usually sorted out by the Help Desk), it is no wonder that my postcard collecting spirit is flagging, and I am also fed up with the increasingly ludicrous prices, starting or fixed, being asked here and "elsewhere". As far as Delcampe is concerned, you have to live with its French-style anarchy, in future I will not pay any invoice without asking the seller first to absolutely confirm that they actually have the items I want to buy, something they are already supposed to do under Delcampe regulations but don't.

I look forward to any comments on the foregoing, not least from Delcampe itself.

Unfortunately, occasionally a postcard does go "walkies". It happened to me only this week on another website. However, the seller should check his stock before sending an invoice.

My normal routine is: find the purchased item(s), than sent the invoice. That way I can adjust if there is a problem.

As far as the other issues are concerned:

Refine your search settings in such a way that you only see items from sellers who accept paypal to avoid future problems.

Check your seller's feedback before committing to buy, including neutral feedbacks given by the seller. In order to claim back selling fees, a seller has to leave neutral or negative feedback. It should give you an idea, if they have a habit of not delivering.

In Europe bank transfer is very much a standard way of payment with very low or no charges and there is a great dislike of Paypal. Simply a different "culture" from the UK, US, Canada, etc. and to accuse Delcampe of being a "village shop" type of place is not justified. They are a selling platform and as such give their sellers the freedom to set their terms & conditions for sale, as long as they don't go against Delcampe's t&c's.

If you don't like a seller's terms of sale, simply walk away. One of my red lines is being charged for Paypal payment - I refuse to do it!

I agree with you that some sellers charge far to much - again a simple solution: blacklist them, so that you don't see their stuff.

I hope this helps.

Whilst I thank mainlypostcards for his response, he overlooks my opening comment that I have been buying postcards for around 12 years and thus I am far from a novice needing basic advice. I am also a very experienced internet seller, but not postcards, I have been doing mail-order since 1974 and progressed to the internet at the earliest opportunity.

Under Delcampe regulations, sellers are duty bound to only invoice buyers for items they actually have, not think they have. It doesn't matter to me whether a seller has 100 postcards or 100,000, it is up to the seller to keep their inventory in good and workable order, and when a buyer appears, to actually make certain they have the required item, not to invoice first and check later.

The remark about buying only from sellers who take PayPal is not helpful because as a serious collector, I buy from whoever has what I want at the right price and conditions, and if that sometimes involves sending cash, so be it. I have sent cash to Delcampe sellers nearly 10 times over the years, and apart from the last one remarked on above (who actually sent me 13 of the 18 postcards we had agreed on), I have been pleased with the outcome.

As for Feedback, I often check it, digging into Feedback can be a valuable source of information not always obvious from the commonly visible 100% rating.

My remark about the "village shop" remains, many sellers on Delcampe, particularly of French background, are resolutely amateur in their behaviour, whether they are large or small sellers, but having said that, generally I have managed to do successful business with lots of them. As for them charging extra fees for accepting PayPal, I have no problem with that, as a buyer I would rather they don't but as a seller I understand why. On my own webpage, I will only accept PayPal via the "Friends & Family" method, and encourage UK buyers to pay direct into my UK bank account, which to the best of my knowledge is free between UK banks (it certainly is when I do it).

And lastly, of course I will only do business with people I am comfortable with, my complaint about overpricing is doubtless a common moan amongst collectors, I am just bemused at the ridiculous prices sellers ask for often commonly occurring postcards, but if the sellers want to fish for fools (and wait for many years) rather than serious buyers, that is their business.