Rare, Vintage, and Antique

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

I think ebay is a microcosm and accurately represents what happens when markets are interfered with.

The biggest sellers do fine and the small sellers either quit or resort to whatever tactics and techniques allow them to stay in business. The $1 item + $150 shipping comes to mind. The response from ebay was to charge a percentage on the shipping value as well so as not to be outwitted. This means that anyone charging actual shipping isn't collecting the full amount and is instead paying ebay an automatic tip.

Having destroyed the value of their own feedback system by allowing bad sellers to wipe their slate clean, they erased whatever credibility was earned by diligent sellers and caused a downward spiral in quality. Again, ebay's response was to make it impossible to leave negative feedback for unscrupulous buyers who proceeded to extort the few remaining good sellers.

How is this behavior and resulting corruption any different from what we see in our economic policies which are even worse?

Does the consumer benefit from any of this?

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

OK, fine. I won't use "rare", "vintage", or "antique" in my eBay listings. I'm still using them in my dating profile, though.

What the heck is EBAY??? sounds like S&M stuff...just say no and go to your local thrift store...

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

The main problems with the words is that they are marketing terms, and what's vintage, rare, or antique to someone might be junk to the next person.

I use them occasionally when I list trumpets up for sale; the difference between me and the next guy is that if I say it's rare, then it probably is. For example, I have a Getzen trumpet from before the fire at their factory - the trumpet is not listed in their catalogs, and did not have a broken bell (most of the same models I saw from the same time period were in worse shape).

Same goes for vintage and antique: I have a vintage (1950s) student trumpet, and an antique (1930's) orchestra trumpet that was stamped USA, but I suspect it actually was actually created in Europe, and assembled here. Or, it was what is known as a "stencil", where it was built elsewhere, and then the logo was placed when it got here.

Now, this won't account for all instances, but sometimes, if there is a variation of said item you are looking for, then it is considered "rare" (For example, look up the Wisconsin state quarter variations).

However, I do agree that the people should at least look up the definitions for the words they use in their postings; most throw it out there though because human logic says "omg, it's rare, and old, therefore is it worth something".
-fossilera