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Kevin Loch wrote in message ...
> Fortunately, nobody here maintains a "price guide". You
> can get some idea of a set's current value by searching
> current and completed auctions on Ebay.
Kevin's post raises an interesting point about price guides in an internet
based marketplace.
For years the guides were valuable because it was difficult, expensive, and
perhaps even impossible for people in a geographically diverse marketplace
to know "what something was worth". Now that a system like ebay exists, and
it has more than reached critical mass, ebay not only replaces "price
guides" but it makes them obsolete.
Without delving too much into the editorially skewed prices of many price
guides, they were, at best, very speculative documents on the value of
objects. Value is a very hard thing to pin down, sort of leke the
proverbial "nailing jello to the wall".
Some people like to throw out the concept that things are worth what someone
else is willing to pay for it. This, however, misses the mark of value when
an object is worth more than that to the current owner. Also, it can miss
the mark when information is not perfect, be it for geographical, cultural,
language, or artificial market issues.
Ebay, in some degree, makes all of that go away. With a large enough group
of buyers and sellers coming together in a marketplace that offers very good
(certainly not perfect, but the best we have so far) information and
accessiblility to all participants, why should anyone listen to a "price
guide" to value an item. The market itself will find the highest, best use
for each item offered given the totality of the market at that instant.
Will
(Yes, I do sell on ebay. And I buy there, occasionally.)
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Price Guide
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| (...) Well, What you said is true, but what I meant was that price guides are bad because they attract professional resellers and make it more difficult and expensive for hobbyists to enjoy their hobby. What was the quote from the recent toy show? (...) (25 years ago, 17-May-00, to lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Price Guide
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| (...) Fortunately, nobody here maintains a "price guide". You can get some idea of a set's current value by searching current and completed auctions on Ebay. KL (25 years ago, 17-May-00, to lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade)
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