And $500 gets you...

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:59:35 -0400 (EDT) William Donzelli <aw288 at osfn.org> wrote: 'Collectibles' is one of those icky words, though. People with an antiquarian bent really are a totally seperate thing from 'collectables.' 'Collectable' carries with it the important issue of scarcity. Many people 'collect' things specifically because they are scarce, and because they are scarce, without much a real focus of any sort on the history behind said items. And there are the many thriving 'created to be collectible' markets, like collector's plates, trading cards, etc. Which very much are 'fat' that needs to be 'cut away' from the statistics when determining how 'big' eBay is in the market. Who involved with real antiques or historical classic computer hardware, for that matter, cares primarily about the scarcity of the item in question. That's a speculators/hoarders market and driven by fads. For an (offtopic) illustration, I happen to enjoy collecting old minor copper coins from the British empire. I enjoy the history behind it. You'd find that things like 17th century British farthings can be had for a few dollars, because there isn't big 'competition' in the collector's market for them. If I wanted to blow a whole lot of money chasing after highly desirable 'rarities,' I could instead collect US Silver Dollars, or US Large Cents. But it doesn't interest me, in fact the 'compete to get the rare thing nobody else has' aspect turns me off to it. Remember, eBay all started because of Pez dispenser collecting. Regular old kitch, a 'scarcity' driven market if there ever was one.