[Jewelry making - Article 00032] - Re: [Orchid] Buying rock collections

[Richard O. Martin]

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>        In short, I have found that good deals are few and far between
>     and that rock sales are now treated like the "antique road show,"
>     whereby sellers are looking for high prices on LOW value items and
>     they attempt to get those high prices, through the guise of
>     implementing, a multitude of used car salesman tactics. More often
>     than not, it is a BUYERS BEWARE world today. 

    Hey, folks, welcome to the free market.  I watched for years as
    smooth-talking sharpsters who were up-to-date on gem market values
    ripped off old rockhounds and their widows on extremely valuable old
    collections.  I've had great fun with a few of these guys personally,
    listening to their devious pitches.  When real estate values took a
    huge inflationary jump in the 1980s I saw the same thing happen with
    houses.  It's been a buyers (and sellers) BEWARE market for
    millennia. 

    RnL's post gives the impression it's somehow wrong for sellers of
    collections to inflate their asking prices.  I'd respond that anyone
    who plays in that particular ballpark has the individual
    responsibility of knowing what they're doing.  If you think prices
    are too high, walk away.  If someone else buys at the asking price,
    too bad.  They didn't do their homework.  It's not society's role to
    protect fools, either buyers or sellers.  I'd ask RnL to think about
    how he/she sets their own pricing.  Do you add in a certain
    "bargaining" percentage?  Do you like to get the highest price
    possible for your product?  Or do you think you ought to sell your
    stuff for a very low profit out of a feeling of "social
    responsibility?" 

    Prices (values) are arrived at between knowledgeable buyers and
    sellers.  There are lots of "unknowledgeable" ones too, if that's a
    word.  All in all I'd say that the sellers of old collections have
    "wised up" to the demand for their product, and since there appears
    to be more demand than supply, maybe new price levels are being set. 
    That's how the free market works. 

    Rick Martin MARTIN DESIGNS  

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