[Leica] Thoughts on eBay

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

My feeling is that eBay is literally greating new markets and greatly
stimulating old ones. I'll give you an example. My family's fortune was
founded in the late 1ate 19th century on ice cream. My
great-great-grandfather owned five ice cream factories that eventually
became a company called Borden's. The husband of one of my cousins
collects memorabilia with the name of the original ice cream company on
it: signs, ads, trays, whatever.

In 15 years of collecting he had found maybe 7 items. Since eBay came
along, he has more than trebled his collection; and he recently paid
$451 for a hand-painted tray. He's firmly of the opinion that it would
have taken him the rest of his life to find what he's found on eBay at
his old pace of discovery and acquisition.

Another example: I sold a number of classical records (Mercury Living
Presence, RCA Living Stereo, etc.). They're valuable to collectors, and
I probably would have gotten between $5 and $30 from a dealer for each.
On eBay, I sold many of them to one or the other of the same three
collectors, all in different corners of the country, all of whom were
bidding against each other; the best "fetch" was a single Mercury LP
that sold for more than $250.00.

How in the world would I have located those three guys and pitted them
against each other in bidding wars if it weren't for eBay? It would
never have happened. What would have happened would have been that a.) I
would have sold them to a specialist dealer for pennies on the dollar,
and then b.) the dealer would have checked auction records and put a
high price on them and then sat on them until c.) one of those three
guys (or somebody like them) came along, probably in the course of an
earnest, involved, and perhaps frustrating search. Most of the money in
the exchange would have gone not to me but to a dealer.

I believe the same thing is going on with camera equipment. Suddenly,
instead of selling just to people who already know what the equipment is
all about, sellers can find new buyers; and instead of being limited to
the small selection at a local dealer's, buyers can pick and choose from
a worldwide selection. And, sellers can find buyers directly, cutting
out the middleman. The only loser in all this is the traditional
specialist dealer, who has made a living buying low and selling high and
who has long been the only choice for people who are looking for a
decent selection of any kind of used gear. But I know of a number of
traditional camera dealers who are happily moving old stock that's been
sitting on their shelves for years.

I also think a lot of people are getting into buying stuff who wouldn't
be buying it otherwise. In this instance I use a certain example who is,
um, very, very close to home.   <:-o

There is certainly a lot of foolishness on eBay (I have several times
seen used items sell for MORE than they go for new!!), but it's an
"enabling" of classic free market trade and it ain't bad at all for
people who are into old cameras!

(Personally, I love looking at the pictures, too <g>.)

- --Mike