Dear Mr. Calvello,
I don’t pretend or presume to speak for other members of the forum, so I won’t. That being said, I will share some thoughts or things to consider as they relate to times when I am asked for information as this is something that happens with some regularity and has for years. Should you wish to canvas board members on their sentiments, that is up to you. Please know I am not inferring or suggesting that you have ever directly asked for my input on anything. Rather, I am just trying to establish some context for my remarks.
1. As both a personal and professional courtesy, I always appreciate knowing who it is that I am dealing with. As such, I rarely respond to emails that have no name associated with them.
2. We all collect and part and parcel to this is buying and selling. I typically don’t provide information to dealers since they hold themselves out to be authoritative individuals on the items they buy and sell. They expect to be compensated for the purchases they make through their sales or transactions they broker. With this comes the responsibility to be educated in their particular product line. This goes equally as well for auction houses. I don’t have a problem answering a question from a collector who in turn might sell the item later, but when I begin to see a pattern of this, I tend to group that individual into the dealer bin, or an individual or organization who is looking for uncompensated advice or information to further their personal business interests, and doing so at the expense of my time and the time and resources I have spent money on to form the basis of my opinion.
3. Asking me for information or an opinion conveys to me that you are interested in what I have to say. While the person may not like or agree with what I offer, my response is two things:
A, it is gratis and
B, it is meant to be a data point for you to consider. What that person decides to do with it is up to them, and while it is often healthy to debate differences of opinion, once the rationale of my opinion or information is conveyed and my opinion hasn’t changed, I don’t appreciate being challenged with the same information I saw differently from the outset. In short, being asked and expected to answer the same question over and over again.
As stated in the outset, just some personal thoughts on solicitations for information and opinions as it appears you are looking for insights on why folks respond to requests for information or opinions in the way they do.
Respectfully,
Dave Grob
DaveGrob1@aol.com