Quote:
Originally Posted by pscolgrafs
$30 to $ 70 for Vida Blue? Why don't you try using a current indicator in Ebay. I see eBay BIN's at 80% off what Quality is asking.
And he has Mantle 8x10's for $495.
In a world full of auction catalogs stacked to the ceiling and trusted authenticators working with auction houses, great items come along quite often and anyone should be able to ask whatever they want for anything they possess (it's their right), but the prices are goofy. Not quite Historyforsale goofy, but never the less. I saw one nice piece on eBay sell for $800 and he had one for 12 times that.
Never the less if you want to bypass the authentication fees and want to purchase from a trusted dealer, I guess this is the route to go.
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Boy, you're right about Vida. He must sit and sign all day long. How anybody makes anything with his 8x10s a 9.99 BIN and $4 shipping is a mystery. I can only guess that there is massive dumping of a huge oversupply of his going on. At any rate, it's recurring refrain on this forum about how overpriced dealers are, especially on the card side but on this side, too. As I said before, nobody's making you buy anything, so what's the big complaint? Also, as a dealer, I can guarantee you that nobody will stay in business very long with much of his inventory out of whack with the prevailing market. You buy stuff and you price it according to your best judgment of the market for that item, and you see what happens. Lots of times you are wrong, and eventually a correction will be made. I just don't like the implication that dealers are always trying to rip off the unsuspecting customer with ridiculous prices. That's actually impossible, if you think about it. If a buyer is willing enough, or ignorant enough, to pay that price, is that a rip-off? And it's expensive to be in business, to provide the service of a retail operation, where you can actually see the items and talk to the dealer about them. That's what my markups pay me for, hopefully but with no guarantee of a profit at the end of the year. As I said before, bad dealers won't be around long, and Kevin Keating has been in business a long time and does a tremendous volume every year. For all the supposed flaws you can pick out of his inventory, he must be doing something right.
Hank Thomas