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Subject: 
Re: Supply and demand
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.market.theory
Date: 
Tue, 14 Dec 1999 15:49:42 GMT
Viewed: 
378 times
  
Richard Marchetti wrote:

In lugnet.market.theory, Scott Arthur writes:
I think the question is also "what is a set worth?". There are very few • people on
the planet who would pay even $100 for a used 4558. Just because AFOL's do, • are
they really worth that? Or is what they go for at local charity shops and • garage
sales the real value?

How about what you can get for them after the Y2K apocalypse occurs?

= )

No, really -- I think the garage sale is the true guage of the price.  If they
are sold to the masses, then we should go by the price for "used" among the
masses also.  We collectors are nuts -- truly!  All collector stuff is this
way.

Garage sale prices should NEVER be assumed to have anything to do with
the true "value". The value is always what people will pay for an item,
given reasonably complete knowledge of the market. eBay prices are
perhaps some of the closest to the true value, since the venue is large
enough to smooth the market out. Of course the number of uninformed
bidders does screw the values. Also sellers who don't share reasonable
information (incidentally, I would include that fellow in Germany who
supposedly has a horde of 4558 stashed away that he is letting go one by
one. He is hiding information about the true availability of the item,
of course his sin isn't nearly so bad as the folks who flog stuff
currently available from S@H US as "rare - not available in any store"
in a deliberate attempt to hide the fact that they are currently
available).

Another side thought. Several people have comented that if TLC were to
re-release old sets, they should do them in a different color to not
destroy the collectibility of the old sets. There is about zero reason
why TLC should do this. They proffit almost not at all from the high
prices these old sets gain. Only a handfull of sets that they put out do
they flog as "limited edition". These sets are the only ones which they
have a moral obligation to keep "limited". If they re-released some of
the higher ticket old sets, prices on those would plumet, and they would
gain a ton of sales, including sales from people who will never pay the
price for the old sets (I doubt I will ever pay $400 for a 4558 for
example). This is not to say that I see anything wrong with people
selling old sets for proffits like this. If the set doesn't have enough
supply to meet the demand, fine, but don't tell TLC they shouldn't do
something about the demand. Note also that re-releasing say a grey
version of 375/6075 would cause the price on the original yellow version
to plumet.

--
Frank Filz

-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Supply and demand
 
(...) Hmm. I agree that re-releasing old sets would make the bottom drop out of the reseller market, but I don't necessarily think that it would mean LEGO would suddenly sell gazillions of them. I mean, we all hunt dilligently for the sale, right? (...) (25 years ago, 14-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.theory)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Supply and demand
 
(...) people on (...) are (...) garage (...) How about what you can get for them after the Y2K apocalypse occurs? = ) No, really -- I think the garage sale is the true guage of the price. If they are sold to the masses, then we should go by the (...) (25 years ago, 14-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.theory)

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