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#11
January 4th 05, 04:13 PM
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N2EY wrote:
In article , (Scott Dorsey) writes: Why do you worry about how others decide to spend THEIR money? Problems? Because it raises price standards for everyone else. That's a side effect of a free market. Would you rather there were price controls? No, in this case it's the result of two different markets that don't really communicate well. Ebay has provided a market for buyers and sellers to get together more conveniently, which is a good thing. But it has also provided a way for people who don't know what they are buying to get into the act. This results in things like current production items selling for higher than list price on Ebay. This is a surprisingly common occurrence, and I have sold a few items like that myself, sadly enough. But when you have folks who don't know what the current value of an item is getting into the act, the value is going to change. And it will change even though the actual supply and demand don't change at all. Inexperienced bidders who don't know what things are worth, and bidding wars between people who desperately have to have an item, tend to raise the overall market value of an item more than it should be. Whoa there!? "More than it should be"? Who gets to say what some piece of old radio gear is worth, other than the buyer and seller? eBay is just a great big worldwide online hamfest that goes on 24/7. Of course it's going to raise prices - just like prices at Dayton, Rochester, Deerfield and Gaithersburg are/were higher (on average) than at some small local hamfest. No, in some cases, eBay reduces prices, when people out there realize how many copies of a "rare" item there really are. In the case of items that really _are_ one of a kind, there is nobody who gets to say what something is worth other than the buyer and the seller. But in the case of a readily available item, especially a current production item, there's a fair market value. The higher prices are bad for buyers, of course, but they're wonderful for sellers. More important, higher prices tend to keep things out of the landfill. I recall when ARC-5s were a few bucks each at most - and also when a lot of them were dumpstered because the owner had gotten tired of carting them to hamfests trying to sell them. This is a good thing for the most part... the ARC-5 example is a weird one, though, because some of those sets are worth a fortune while others still are worth only a few bucks. This means if you're buying one, you really need to know what you are buying so you don't overbid or underbid outrageously. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
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