[Leica] ebay and Leica

[Stephen Kobrin <skobrin@yahoo.com>]

The standard caveat, "buyer beware," certainly applies
to ebay.  I have bought some stuff reasonably and seen
some things go for what I thought were very high
prices.  While I may not have a fair sample, I do
think that there have been more auctions where the
reserve was not met lately, which is a good sign if
sellers get the message.

While some of the price inflation is a function of
bidding frenzy, a good part results from the simple
aggregation of demand given a relatively fixed supply
of Leica equipment.  As a previous post noted, you can
reach only a handful of potential buyers with a
newspaper ad, but hundreds if not thousands on ebay. 
If demand increases faster than supply there is only
one possible result.  Prices are going to go up.

I spoke to someone from ebay a few weeks ago and he
said that they noticed price inflation in a number of
categories of goods that were like older cameras in
that the supply could not be increased and demand in
any given geographic area was limited.  The Net
eliminates geography and once you get a larger number
of buyers "assembled" in one place prices rise.

Not great for us buyers!

Steve
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