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In lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade, Jan-Albert van Ree writes:
> Indeed, there isn't much that isn't offered at least once a month on eBay
> at the moment, that sure makes for low(er) prices. Just look at Metroliner
> / 7740 prices for instance, almost half of what they were about 1.5 years
> ago!
I have argued this point many times -- nothing in the Lego market is unique.
[N.B. Bionuckle fans!]
Unique *might* apply to something made a hundred years ago of which less
than 500 of this item still exist. Something made in the tens of thousands
is generally not going to fetch very much collector's interest because the
item is simply NOT unique enough. The only reason something made in the
tens of thousands *might* increase in value has to do with availability of
the item (persons willing to part with them), and if some large quantity of
the item in question has been previously destroyed (which applies to "Golden
Age" comics where many were destroyed because the item was perceived to have
"no value" except for lining the birdcage after a single reading -- lego
*might* have some of this problem by way of "already been chewed" or ABC lego!).
Here is the thing -- once upon a time, and before the advent of eBay,
Lugnet, Brickbay, etc. -- things seemed scarcer and were more expensive
because there was no easy way to put a buyer and a seller together to make
the deal over old Lego stuff. Lego enthusiasts on RTL were largely dealing
amongst themselves. Then came eBay, Lugnet, Brickbay, etc and many more
people were added to this trading pool. Some prices held because people were
not quite sure how the supply of certain things would hold -- but this was
largely a "greater fool" problem (tulip craze anyone?). The reality is that
everything that was once perceived as rare is available almost all the time.
So my unsolicited advice is to not be the "Greater Fool," or in other words,
look at what Frank Filz does on eBay and then do something else -- perhaps
the opposite.
If there yet remains a problem related to scarcity as regards Lego -- it is
a question of element condition. And that's a problem I will try to resolve
in the next few weeks as I have been preparing a text on grading Lego
(grading the box, the instructions, and the elements!) that I hope others
will agree to adopt as at least "A" standard of grading the components of a set.
But the stuff is not unique -- not by any measure.
I am sitting on approx. 100 Blacktron I figures that I purchased primarily
during the last 6-9 months or so. These are not the glued-together promo
figures -- these are honest minifigures with airtanks and all! How rare
does that make them? They seemed easily available if one was willing to
spend the right amount of money on them (approx. $3-5 USD each). And again,
a lot of that was perceived value imputed to the items by the seller. I
also have 16 pitchforks -- some I paid through the nose for, others not.
How rare are these pitchforks when I can get 16 of them in under a year or
so (before that I was doing mostly pirate stuff)?
It is my assertion that the problem is not "actual" scarcity, but the
perception of scarcity that keeps certain items out of the hands of the
persons that would actually use them...
-- Hop-Frog (If god had wanted me to fly...)
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: tips wanted: Selling Custom Kits
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| richard marchetti wrote: <snip> (...) <snip> Richard, I connot understand why you think Frank Filz' method of enjoying the Lego hobby is any less valid than your own. Or, rather, why you feel you have to criticize his methods of acquiring Lego in a (...) (23 years ago, 7-Jun-01, to lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade)
| | | Re: tips wanted: Selling Custom Kits
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| (...) I'm not quite sure why you are running on about Frank. I don't see anything inherently wrong (well, perhaps beyond a compulsive pack-rat behaviour displayed by a great many people here, which would hardly make him unique) with what he is (...) (23 years ago, 7-Jun-01, to lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: tips wanted: Selling Custom Kits
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| (...) Well your reasoning sounds logical to me... and eBay Germany is doing even worse than eBay USA... now since I'm mainly an eBay BUYER I'm not complaining :-) Indeed, there isn't much that isn't offered at least once a month on eBay at the (...) (23 years ago, 6-Jun-01, to lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade)
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