On Saturday, October 5, 2002, at 01:04 PM, C.E. Forman wrote:
[Snip]
> That and bulk lots. With a price guide, someone can go through every
> game
> they have, add up the "prices", and there's no shot at a bargain.
> (Worse,
> they'll pick the good stuff out and sell it separately.) I don't like
> to
> rip people off, but I do like to get bargains. If we reach a price
> where
> they're happy and I'm happy, that's great. A price guide would pull
> the two
> sides in different directions, making that difficult to achieve.
The other difficulty with price guides is that they don't reflect
regional (or national) variations in prices. One price does *not* fit
all.
Also, I would second your comments on buyers determining the values of
their games. Most people look at the high end prices if there is a
price guide and assume that is the going rate for whatever they have.
They 'bond' with that price and tend to be unhappy if their stuff
doesn't fetch that amount.
If someone was going to keep a price guide I'd like to be able to see
the data behind it. Knowing how many data points make up that price
(and who the buyer was) is crucial. I personally wouldn't accept any
number as reliable until it was backed up by at least a 100
sales/auctions over the course of a couple of years. For example, one
shrinkwrapped Apple II Starcross saucer driven up to $2,000 in an
auction isn't a number with any relevance to long term collectibility.
This is where it would be invaluable for eBay to make the results all
of its past auctions available. :sigh:
--
Edward Franks
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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