I once heard a seller say to a guy that was complaining about the seller's asking price, "You're not the buyer..."
Makes sense to me.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California (On a ride today a B2 bomber and two stealth fighters, a Wright Bros. B replica, a DC 3, three Stearman biplanes, a Ford trimotor and some other stuff flew over me)
Brad Orr wrote:
>
> First.... Happy New Year to all of you lugged steel stalwarts!
>
> Would anyone pay $145 for a Unicanitor seat? Not many! But consider
> the person who is looking for that "final" piece of their classic puzzle.
> *If* you had/were building a show-only or display bike that was going
> to undergo judging, and the bike was near-flawless both in condition of
> components and historical accuracy.... and "everyone" knows that this
> bike would have been delivered with a Unicanitor (and NOTHING but a
> Unicanitor!) as original equipment, well just maybe that "perfect" and
> "correct" saddle starts to become feasible.... and possibly even looks
> sufficiently attractive for that person to be able to justify this level
> of expenditure to finally complete their puzzle.
> >From my experience with several "hobbies", once objects achieve a
> "collectible" status inevitably rational thinking ceases to be consistant
> with market pricing. Good, bad, or ugly, that is just the reality and
> something you must be prepared to accept irregardless of how despicable
> this may be to your personal philosophies.
>
> David makes a lot of good points in his reply below, but the real bottom
> line is that as long as there are people willing (and financially able)
> to pay "outrageous" prices for eBay items this situation is not going to
> go away. Even if everyone in the CR group sticks together and attempts
> to effect a change in the "commercialism" that pervades this hobby by
> boycotting overpriced eBay sellers, the CR group is not large enough to
> influence the situation. Sad, but true. Look at a recent example that
> Lou Deeter brought to the attention of the group - as long as you have
> the "kauzo"'s willing to pay $310 for three severely rusted brake cable
> clips, it's going to be an uphill battle....
>
> Sometimes you get a GREAT deal on eBay however, and a decent human on the
> selling end as a real bonus. Since this discussion started with Cinelli
> Unicanitor saddles, I wanted to recount a recent experience that I had
> purchasing one on eBay.
> The seller was located in NYC and had only one rather poor quality photo
> in the auction listing, and shipping within the USA quoted at $8.00 for
> this Unicanitor No. 3 suede-covered saddle. I stumbled upon the auction
> quite by accident with only an hour remaining until closing, so it didn't
> allow for the "Ask Seller a Question" option - something I routinely do
> because I live in Canada, and prefer to get the "bad news" about shipping
> costs up front. I bid $23.01 on the saddle based on the "good, usable
> condition" description in the listing. This bid won this auction! I
> emailed the seller my mailing address and requested a shipping quote and
> received a reply of $11.00 for shipping. I paid the $34.01 by PayPal
> and crossed my fingers. Two days later I received an email from the seller
> stating that he had refunded my PayPal account $6.00 as the actual mailing
> cost was less that he thought - this has rarely happened in my personal
> eBay experience and was a pleasant surprise. But the real surprise was
> the condition of the saddle when received. It appears to have only been
> ridden a couple of hundred miles. Flawless suede covering, perfect rear
> inked "Cinelli" and the inked oval emblems on the sides both still about
> 75% legible from lack of "thigh rub". The round white sticker with the
> black number "3" still clean and in place on the underside. Not "NOS", not
> a perfect "concours" saddle but a VERY nice example (say 8 out of 10) for
> a whopping total price of $28.01 delivered!
>
> Good deals can still be had on eBay if one exercises a bit of patience,
> and a bit of good luck helps too....
> But it never hurts to assume you are jumping into shark-infested waters
> the moment you log into eBay.
>
> Brad Orr
> Alberta, Canada
> (riding rollers in a snow-covered small town called Ft. McMurray in the
> far northern part of the province of Alberta. Alberta is situated in
> the western part of that rather large land mass located above the
> perceived [to its' inhabitants] center of the universe, the US of A.
> Please feel free to write if you want GPS coordinates or further details
> pertaining to my location.)
>
> .... sorry Dale B. , couldn't resist. Pardon me while I extricate my
> tongue from my cheek.... ;^)
>
>
> At 04:38 PM 1/1/03 EST, David Anderson replied to Jay Sexton:
> >Jay-
> > In the back of my mind, I had always feared the day when I would see a
> >posting such as yours. I for one, believe that many a greedy SOB has
> >infiltrated the ranks of our purist hobby, and hence the stupid $145 price.
> > I recognize others will say, "The price is what ever the market can
> >bare. Its basic supply and demand". I disagree, someone a lot smarter than me
> >once said, "A fool and his/her money are soon parted". Unfortunately, put the
> >greedy and the foolish ones together and you get what we have today, ergo
> >Ebay.
> > I could go on about the "sold out" Regina Corsa chains ($8 max) being
> >sold for $40, the "never to be made again" Brooks Pro Saddles ($45 max) being
> >sold for $120, the "impossibly rare" cheap plastic Campy measuring tapes ($2
> >max) being sold for $25, but I fear it doesn't stop here.
> > I am by no means perfect, ubber moral, etc., but my disagreement has
> >become greater by a statement I recently heard, "There is no right and wrong,
> >there is only get as much as you can for yourself". Jay, Do Not buy the Unica
> >saddle from whoever this mutha fudger is.
> > I bought mine from BC at Renaissance Cycles in Holland for $29, two
> >seasons ago. Has inflation risen 5X since then? Obviously not, only the greed
> >factor has. Lets not rise the fool factor by 5X as well. Give this mutha
> >fudger and his kind as much berth as you can! Cheers,
> >David Anderson
> >Cut Bank MT