25 Oct
2001
25 Oct
'01
4:36 p.m.
Luckily, some
manner of salvation is on its way in the form of a price
guide. No, I'm not writing it, but the person who is will make it known
very soon.
Maybe it will make some money for the author, but prices are just too
variable and too fast changing for a printed guide to be of much use. What I would rather see is a hunters handbook,
say 125 pages with
the
top 500 things to look for, each item getting an
average of a 1/4 page
for
a photo, or maybe a shared photo, with a description
and price range.
Sell
one to every scrapper in the world, and those 500
things become a LOT
more
available.
working title, "How much money did you throw away today?"
In any hobby, a price guide is both a blessing and a curse. When I owned a
sports card shop I became aware of the potential effects of price fixing
and other forms of market manipulation. Specifically, if the publisher of
a price guide had a bunch of Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax cards to dump,
those players would book high until he dumped his cards. Additionally,
advertiser pressure influenced prices listed in these books.
For vintage computers, a price guide published 2-4 times yearly, listing
maybe 500 computers, might work. It could be advantageous to only include
photos for 50 of these computers in each issue, rotating through all 500.
This would encourage people to buy the next issue, with photos of 50
*different* machines.
We have Ebay now, and other auction sites, from which to draw data. The
publication might also consider any documentable, verifiable report from
private buyers and sellers when compiling the price guide.
And since when can your average scrapper read, anyway?
Just my two cents . . .
Glen
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