Some thoughts and observations
1) I am an Ebay seller. Had been ramping up my listings since early December. I offer items in a wide price range ($10-$4000). While I only have in the neighborhood of 300 listings, I have only made a single sale ($6) in the last week. I was selling multiple items per week prior. Looking at the microcosm of my sales, would indicate less people are buying.
2) As I understand my sales for a multitude of variables may not be an indicator of the larger marketplace I did an Ebay "sold items" lookup for the Word Clemente - It was general enough to include over 100 sales per day and a range of price points. I looked at the period from March 5th to March 25th. Week 1 - 1080 items sold. Week 2 - 1069 and Week 3 - 1121. Probably would be relevant to go back a bit further, but from those numbers it appears little has changed.
3) My "common sense" brain thinks that people with smaller card/collectible budgets will likely be more economically affected by the current events and would logically be spending less on collectibles. Where those with larger collecting budgets not so much (exceptions to both understood). Though as pointed out (possibly earlier in this thread) people have A LOT less choices of things to spend money on for entertainment and possibly have diverted some of that spending to their hobby.
4) I have tracked a number of lots in both Ebay and some off Ebay auctions - Almost all the items I tracked seemed to land at pre corona virus fair market value.
5) Regarding the sensitive risk/benefit analysis question - I am glad I am not a leader needing to make some of the difficult decisions that need to be made. Many prescription drugs kill a very small percentage of the people that use them while helping a large majority. The flu and many other illnesses kill a number of people afflicted with them. There are chemical inputs in foods, drugs and cosmetics that contribute to the deaths of a percentage of people who ingest them. When we go to war it is a foregone conclusion people will die (THANK YOU to all the veterans who have served to protect my freedoms). The longer the economy is stalled, the greater the risk of death becomes as a result. In each of those cases it is the "few" sacrificing their lives for the "many". "Risk/benefit" decisions have been made for years where lives are knowingly sacrificed for what is understood by the decision makers as "the greater good". If the economic shutdown was necessary to save 1 life - should it be done? What if that life were yours? A loved one? 10 lives? 100, 1000, 10000? I'm still struggling to find my answer to this question - for me - for today - it shouldn't happen for 1 life (even if it were mine or a loved one), but I don't know where I draw the line. This is the question our leaders need to grapple with and answer now. Godspeed that they make some good decisions.
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