23 Jun
1998
23 Jun
'98
9:40 a.m.
On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, James Willing wrote:
Old adage: (slightly updated)
"An item is only worth as much or as little as someone is willing to
pay for it"
Corollary: (much newer)
"An item has no value unless the owner decides to sell it..."
This should really be:
"An item has no value unless there is a BUYER for it."
If however the potential 'seller' gets
self-righteous on me suddenly, (if
suddenly it becomes "so you are trying to rip me off?!?")
then yes, I'll get upset (and it will be a colder day in Hell, Norway
before I'll deal with them again). If they expect me to do their
homework/market research for them, they had better lead the discussion
with some $eriou$ money in my direction!
Exactly. There is value in knowing where to sell something to get the
maximum dollar amount for it. We all happen to have that knowledge. Cut
out all the emotion and its called buy low/sell high; free-market economy.
You don't get pissed off at your grocer or the place you buy your clothes
from for buying their goods at a price much lower than
what you pay.
The thing is this (IMO): I think its normal to feel maybe slightly guilty
about buying something (say a nice IMSAI) from someone for far less than
what they could get somewhere else that you know of. Basically, I think
most if not all of us are basically nice people and don't want to feel
like we are ripping anyone off or taking advantage of them. And we can't
help those feelings. Heck, I'll freely admit that I sometimes feel guilty
about it. But we invest time and money and passion into this hobby, and I
don't think its wrong to take advantage of a good deal when one comes
your way.
I am primarily a collector. (preservationist if you
will) I would just as
rather trade/swap/barter items back and forth than sell them. (much less
hassle in the long run)
Well, I consider myself an archivist/preservationist, which by definition
means I "collect". If I'm to preserve as many computers for future
generations as possible then I've got to be frugal with my purchases.
This also means that since I don't operate in the
same mentality as a
'business' would, I don't approach every deal/offer with the pre-concieved
qualifier that I have to leave myself room for a 40% profit margin on
every item, (or for the 'speculator', 200% to 400%) and spend a lot of
time beating people up over price. I'll decide what something is worth 'to
me', and work from there...
Preach on, Brother James!
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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