Along the lines of what Sam is saying, perhaps the biggest factor not apparent when looking at Japanese bidding practices, is the terribly high cost of living here. EVERYTHING is expensive. Land prices have dropped appreciably, and when you go outside the big cities, not so unaffordable. In the big towns though, people do sacrafice their souls to the devil to get a little piece of dirt. Gasoline is generally around 3x what it goes for in the US, food is high, water (and we have lots of it), electricity, the whole 'nine yards'. Wages can be high too. Women can always be seen walking out of fashion designer showrooms where handbags go for two grand and above, packages hanging on each arm. Exotic rare things are expected to be expensive, and not least of all, are within the budget for quite a few people.
Dennis Young
not that everyone is rich and happy in Hotaka, Japan
> "kohl57@starpower.net" <kohl57@starpower.net> wrote:
> Here's an open-ended question with no agenda or presumed answer:
>
> We all know many of the keenest classic lightweight enthusiasts are from
> Japan. Or at least we think so because of their, shall we say, enthusiastic
> eBay bidding tendencies.
>
> Seems to me we tend to view the "other guy" by the rules that govern our
> lives.If I lived in a very small place where land was too valuable to own and
> cars had very high yearly taxes and need storage space too,i might opp to
> collect something smaller--i.e.a. a bicycle.Would that make me a more
> enthusiast collector are just more focused?
>
> sam ,Texas has space for lots and lots of Junk,lingo
>
> pleasanton tx