> >Aaron, sorry to say it but every point you're making here points towards
> >selfishness. There seems to be no concern here with a greater ideal
> >outside of monetary gain. Hey, utlimately it's your perogative, but
> >there are other things to consider besides how much money you can line
> >your pockets with. This is, after all, primarily a hobby of
> >preservation.
> Hobby of preservation, business of scrap.
Maybe.
> If you have never actually seen a cow, or searched long and hard and
> finally found one, then it is fairly easy to think of them as noble
> animals and hamburger an unworthy end for them. Regular exposure in larger
> numbers and cents per pound seems quite reasonable.
It's a good example - And I know exactly how hard a cow can hit
you ... And even more, I don't think of sheep as some fluffy
cosy itsywitsy bubbles, but rather demons created to drop a
mine field of little black pelets into the green, right on time
before your drill sergant decided to teach you the seal walk.
As once said: The Army will add Flavour to your Character - but
back to the black and white friends: A farmer is unlikely to show
a attitude like mentioned - they have a business, and more often
than not this includes selling cattle lower than what has been
spend to raise them. But still I haven't heared of farmers killing
them before selling them for close to zero (Eurocrats don't count
in here). Even more: you may remember the brithish cow madness,
and farmers who did brake laws just to sell their stock _way_
below any reasonable price ... and any other action would have
resulted in even less money, so where's the named sense in scraping ?
> People who scrap old computers by the truckload everyday have a different
> point of view from collectors. They know that 99.9% of the stuff that
> passes through their hands has no buyer except as scrap, and that the 0.1%
> that appeals to collectors often brings a much higher price. Even at the
> much higher price per pound we as collectors are just a tiny blip on the
> bottom line.
Jep, and I won't argue against. Collectors are (almost) nonexistent
in the scrap metal bussines. Just t wasn't about the usual scraper,
who prefers to sell it by the pound, but rather people who already
invested time to pick specific junk for resale as collecteble.
> Its a free country, hop right into the scrap business if it looks so good.
Shure, no doubt.
> >And this is a self-defeating situation. They need to keep their prices
> >high so that the occasional sale they do make allows them to stay in
> >operation. It's basic, simple, economics. High volume vs. high margin.
> >Both have their pros and cons, but you also have to think about the market
> >you're in. This is a hobbyist market. We don't have big bucks to go
> >throwing around. Go for high volume and you'll come out ahead every time.
> Phoo, the market isn't elastic, its fairly finite, ie if I had 10 of x I
> might be able to sell them all for a good price, but if I had 15 the last
> five might not have a buyer at all. Even in the much larger mac marketplace
> I KNOW this to be a fact, that relatively small amounts of product dumping
> (99 cent ebay ads) can kill the value of whole categories of products. As
> soon as the dumpers run out the price often comes right back up to a more
> reasonable level (anything selling for less than cost of shipping isn't too
> reasonable to me).
To bring this back to a reasonable Level: We didn't start of
about dealers dumping stuff after VCF instead of selling lower.
And the gear in question isn't an Apple 1, where your asumption
may be valid, but rather Tandys and other comon place classics.
Also for your above equation: It's only (somewhat) reasonable if
you are the only one with a supply at all - if there are 10 more,
with even only one each, all you do is damaging your total.
Alas, to consider the start of this thread, AFAIK it will be not
a big thing to find an agreement with the person(s) in question.
We can't maybe change the world, but we can start at VCF :)
Anyway
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 2.0 am 28./29. April 2001 in Muenchen
http://www.vintage.org/vcfe
http://www.homecomputer.de/vcfe
Received on Fri Oct 20 2000 - 16:37:57 BST