...to the cocktail party installing MOPO's new appraiser laureate. Mr.
Cranston seems to fall into the angry consumer style of pricing, so if he is
indeed raking in 300 bucks an hour to tell most people that their collections
are full of crap, that doesn't sound like a good deal to me.
As far as "auction fever" and auctions determining the market value, just try a
few .99 cent auctions of your own on ebay these days. I don't sell much in the
way of older, higher value items at the moment, but I tried a couple of later
Hitchcocks on a whim among a few .99 cent openers on ebay in the last year, one
of which went for .99 (that sells frequently from 20 to up to 50) and one for
8.00 (which has regularly auctioned for 50-over 100 since). I don't think the
marketplace spoke very fairly and accurately in those cases and auction fever
must of taken a hell of a lot of Tylenol that day.
Who can't relate as collectors or buyers to loving low openers? That's where
the bargains come in that make the hunt worth it and offset the times that
we've all paid more than we wanted just because of gottahaveit syndrome. But
to suggest that they're the only true gauge of worth is just not the case. Even
if you're of the "if it's not in the top 5 percentile of rarity/desirability,
it's crap" mindset, I'd like to see what a seller with a solidly valued 10,000
dollar item would think if he .99 cent ebayed it on the wrong day/week/month
and had to sell it for a $500 or less high bid, then turned around a few months
later and saw it reauctioned and pulled $13,500 on the right day/week/month.
Perhaps some of us lowly and delusional MOPOers would care to pool our money to
buy an hour or two to be summarily crushed and dismissed and have our hopes
dashed by Lamont as to the quality of our holdings in the hard truth of the
market. Upon second thought, l think I'll continue to trust the will of the
market at large, for better or worse, and the relationships I've enjoyed as a
buyer and seller with so many great people on this list and hope that we all,
including the estimable Channing (singled out not as a slight to my other
friends but because he was an unfortunate target of the day), do the same.
Late Breaking P.S.:
Always seeking new contact information and resources, I did a quick search of
this email address to save in my list of appraisers and experts, finding that
it didn't come up to a professional appraiser outfit but a gentleman apparently
in the film business. There are a few here involved in the biz, maybe someone
can shed some light. He might just be loaning out the use of it to (or might
not even know its being used by) another party to lend credence to criticism
and bashing on here (sort of like an alleged professor of yore). Just a
thought; I could be way off base.
Yours truly,
Sliman, P.I.
(Fred)
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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