In the absence of that Utopia, too many people want to ask for the moon when selling and pay jack when buying. Imagine a perfect buy/sell market, where every pin was bought or sold for its exact value, or darn close to it. We've always had these kinds of jokers, so we have no idea how good it could be without them. The people that ask these crazy prices constantly screw with the market.
It's going to be pretty hard to keep buying System 11 pins for $1000 and then getting them out the door for $2500. But needlessly inflating the price of pins is actually counter-productive if you ever plan on purchasing more pins than you sell. Often, I am selling the same machine as they are, so I can't possibly be envious of their asking price because I could easily do the same. It just bothers me that I share the planet with these people. Someone who prices a pin unrealistically out of my reach is not making me envious. In my opinion, your scenario is only sour grapes, if the machine is really worth $5000. You pay, or don't pay (and do without) the asking price. There is no "fair" price for anything, there is only "market" price (and that's never "fair" unless you, the buyer, feel you got what you paid for, and you, the seller, feel like you sold for what you wanted). Learn and move on and realize that "value" is all nebulous. If you're pissed because now any casual seller thinks they can sell for $5,000 and you want to spend $1500 - well that's the very definition of "sour grapes."Īs for someone getting "burned" there's nothing to it, if you have the money to spend, then what you bought WAS worth what you spent on it at the time to you, otherwise you wouldn't have spent it. When you sell yours at $1500, that "other guy" makes your machine look like a pretty good bargain. They may be out to lunch, but more power to the guy who posts a 20 year-old machine for $5000. We are basically talking about antiques and used goods here. I know some of you won't agree but I think the Kijiji poster is mostly right, it's all about sour grapes and petty people who "wish" they could have more for 's the very nature of a hobby like this.
But I would expect people to find my behaviour bothersome.
I can go out and buy a $1000 TV and smash it over my head, and continue to do this weekly. To me, it's not a good counter-argument to say " I can ask whatever I want.afterall, you don't have to buy it." Just the act of posting the outrageous price has connotations. As a customer, he has the right to take as much as his plate will hold, but his utter lack of self-regulation is disappointing. It's like seeing a guy at an all-you-can-eat buffet piling tons of food on his plate and then only eating about half of it. I guess the emotion that most closely mimicks what I feel is disappointment. I don't get mad, jealous, or any of that stuff. However, I only get incomfortable when I see a seller posting a price that I have every reason to believe is just insane. But there are definitely people out there who will comment on your stuff no matter how reasonable the price is. Maybe something bad happened to him at a KISS concert ~ who knows.
THis guy obviously had some other issue, perhaps he was a KISS purist and hated anyone who attempted to refurb the original. I thought that was funny, since my selling price was completely acceptable and it did sell just shortly thereafter. I have gotten rude messages from people ( always anonymous of course ) who think $2200 for a refurbed KISS is too much and that I am wasting my time. I'm afraid I fall into the second group, but only when the price is crazy outrageous. There are 2 kinds of people in this world : Those who don't care what people ask for their machines and people who have find it either insulting, wasteful, gluttonous, or some combination of all three.