Users vs. Collectors vs. ???

[Michael Watters <wattersm@xxxxxxxx>]

There's another category that I think everyone is forgetting and that I
think is the bigger "problem":

"Hoarders".

There's one fellow from the Seattle stereo club that especially comes to
mind.  I've NEVER seen him bring a slide to show to the whole club so I
don't know how much if any he uses his equipment, but he's got quite the
load.

We're talking 6-7 Belplascas, numberous VM projectors/cutters etc etc etc. 
It's not even variations, if he sees something at below normal price, he
buys it "for trading stock" (which never seems to get traded).

Then there's the category of:

"sleezy dealers"

You all know that the dealers all have first crack at each other's tables
LONG before even the "early entry" folks show up right?  Wanna know the
sort of things that go on?  Most common is that the dealers walk around
buying up everything they think is underpriced.  They re-label it and stick
it on their table at a "corrected" price.  I've also seen dealers
deliberatly buying up ALL of an unusual item just so they'll have a
monopoly on it when the buyers show up.  I've also seen dealers inform one
fellow that his prices were too low and should be raised.

"Supply and demand" is all well and good, but when one side is manipulating
the supply of the item it tends to throw the balance out of whack.

mike
watters


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