Some musings regarding eBay...

[Supercar_Kid]

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Looks like a eBay can be a good business! Better than the old stock market "day trading"...

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You said it man. Seems funny to me that so much criticism comes from this board about eBay and people's legitimate buying and selling practices. Garnet, it seems you have a good understanding of economic principles yet have a problem with buying low and selling high? Isn't that the name of the game? So what if Camarojoe bought the license plate in question and sells it for more than he paid? That's how you make money, that's how the capitalist system is supposed to work. Seems odd that everyone gets up in arms about the prices on eBay when no one is twisting arms when it comes to selling or buying. Ebay is an online auction, don't like the price, don't bid, it's that easy. My brother payed over $600 for those now INFAMOUS Berger license plate frames, mainly because YOU, who were obviously not a contender for them, posted the link on here, and all the people who wouldn't have ever seen them, SAW them... but regardless, he is very happy with his purchase, and believes in their value, yet members of the sYc still feel the need to ridicule. (I bring up yet another reason why the private auction has become attractive, no need to hear everyone's opinion on your purchase... how much did YOU pay for your house, your car, etc?) Camarojoe also bought the "building a better way" plate on ebay for $26, but now it's up to 50 something. The bidders who are bidding now seem to feel confident in it's value as well, and they had every chance to buy it the first time (as did you) when it came on and Camarojoe was high bid, except they didn't...maybe because they didn't see it, maybe it wasn't "worded" as well..AKA...using the "inappropriate words" Yenko, COPO, etc. that you find so offensive, yet everyone at the sYc seems to search on a daily basis. I don't understand the problem, do you want to sell your COPO for what you payed? I don't think so, neither does anyone else or the Supercar marketplace wouldn't have doubled it's prices in the last 5 years. I don't know how you make your money, or how you got your COPO, but I can bet it wasn't from selling things for what you paid. Everything from your COPO car to the toilet paper in your bathroom was sold at a markup, someone made money on it in the process, I can't speak for England, but that's how the US economy works, that's how people get income to exchange for goods and services. Some people make theirs by buying low and selling high being "day traders" doing it with stocks & bonds or "ebayers" doing it with license plates, to me it's all the same. Ask a real estate developer how he makes his money, he'll tell you he finds the "undeveloped" low cost/high potential land and develops it, making a profit for his efforts, Camarojoe finds the undeveloped/low cost car parts, and puts them in touch with people who are willing to pay more $$$ for them, I just don't see the need for all the ridicule. Camarojoe isn't a member of this board, and it isn't surprising why.
I don't see anyone holding guns to peoples heads to bid on ebay items. Don't insult the people who can (and do) afford these items. They can read and have their own brain. Decent people have made money on selling and reselling car parts (and everything else) for years. Let history continue. If you can't play the game, don't rip apart others who can roll with it. You'll have to use a dollar store wisk broom to clean up your AUTHENTIC, RARE, REAL, "NEW" Picasso Paintings, cause someone already bought the "overpriced" $200 berger one. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
People are quick to pass judgement around here, cry about exorbanant prices or "rare" parts that just aren't "rare" enough, yet at the Supercar Reunion every year, people flock around Camarojoe's memorobilia display that he brings without any compensation or incentive other than to share with people who can dig it, and everyone seems to love it, giving compliments, asking for copies/favors/etc.,... yet he comes home signs on and reads what SOME members of the sYc have to say. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif[/img]

[68l30]

Well said!

Steve

[JoeG]

I guess we ALL should be thankful that FREE EXCHANGE of ideas still dosen't go to the highest bidder. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beers.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beers.gif[/img]

[KLONECO]

NOW YOU GUYS ARE LEARNING!!!!
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/scholar.gif[/img]

[KLONECO]

I THINK A COUPLE GUYS HERE....can read ReGarDlESS Of dIcTActIon CaPTiliZaTIOn!!!!! or pronunciation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img]

[KLONECO]

AGREEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[KLONECO]

Sometimes.....words make sense if you read it twice...(KINDA LIKE MAGAZINES IN A BATHROOM!!!!!!!!!!)

[JoeG]

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Sometimes.....words make sense if you read it twice...(KINDA LIKE MAGAZINES IN A BATHROOM!!!!!!!!!!)

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KLONECO,
That is deep----,also very funny!

[hvychev]

Wow where do I start. Well first I can say that I agree with you Garnet about a few things. First as we all know prices for muscle cars/supercars and their memorabilia have gotten out of control. I am a young muscle car enthusiast and love the cars but am growing to love the memorobilia even more. I have collected a respectable number of things and have aspirations to collect even more rare and neat peices of history.

With that said, I contribute the current "state" of our passion to the internet and especially e-bay. The days of advertising cars and parts to a small local audience are over. When a new car or part is advertised now you have a captive audience of the whole WORLD. Wow isn't that weird to think about? When you advertise lets say a NOS Nickey Chevrolet parts catalog now anybody that is sitting in front of a computer can just do a general search under Nickey and come up with anything that has the word Nickey as a keyword in the auction and could bid on it. The reason you get an inflated price is lets say that I want that particular catalog I saw on e-bay while surfing the web in Chicago to complete my collection of Nickey catalogs and bid a large amount (to me at least which would be my opinion of market value) of $200.00. Now you sitting on your computer across the big pond look up that same catalog and may be in a better financial postion than me and need that peice to add to your collection and say "man that catalog is worth $300.00 to me" so you bid on it. Now I am out and you are the high bidder. Now to even add more to this rant that I am on, another jerk is sitting in let's say for conversation California and sees that same catalog as he is chilling with his dog surfing the web [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] and decides that he could pay $400.00 for that darn catalog that was originally $1.00 brand new! HE WINS NOW WE HAVE A REDICULES INFLATED PRICE! I think that you all get my point! This stuff pisses me off but that is the modern age that we live in. I just hope that I can keep up with the inflation so I can keep doing what I love.

Now for the private auctions. I have seen public auctions do harm lately. I myself hated private auctions since their are a few rotten apples that have spoiled the whole bunch. Did you guys look at the bid history for the now "infamous" Berger plate frames auction? I think that almost if not all of the bidders were members of this site one way or another. Now we are all competeing for the same stuff and grudges may form because you outbid me. That sucks. I lost a neat Nickey poster board that I REALLY wanted to camarojoe and even spent stupid money IMO. But like I told him "All's fair in love and war." He was just willing to spend more. Thats life.

Guys bottom line is we have to be careful what we say on this site sometimes. That person that we bash could be a friend and we don't even know it. Camarojoe is one of our friends. He contributes a lot to the supercar hobby by lugging 20 tables of memorabilia across the country on his own buck to The Supercar Reunion just for our enjoyment. We all love to see all that neat stuff we have probably never seen before. He isn't a vendor selling anything at the show, just a guy like us that loves supercars and wants to share his part of them with the rest of us. If he buys a part and makes profit god bless! I am sure that he justs reinvests it back into lets say for example $610.00 Berger plate frames. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] I for one bid with confidence when I participate in his auctions. Like supercar kid said. If you don't like the way an auction looks, or the current price, don't bid on it!

[KLONECO]

GEE FRANK ................WHAT IS THE POINT.....FROM THE HEART? YEA [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif[/img]I BELIEVE SO