Auction-related blog...

[pinball22]

Hey, I've started a blog here for highlighting auctions that I think people might be interested in, but not enough that I want to bother the whole auction forum with them.

 

It's mostly less-common labels hidden in lots and things... I'm not pointing out high-value things like Magicards hidden in fuzzy pics to avoid angering people planning to snipe those.

[pinball22]

I'm so incredibly stupid... I wasn't actually publishing any of the entries.

I've fixed that now, so come take a look, now that there's something there to look at.

[ginnidog]

Great Idea

 

[Christophero Sly]

*Edit: Posted in the blog.

Edited November 20, 2008 by Christophero Sly

[pinball22]

See my comment in response to your comment in the blog.

 

Actually, I'll just put it here so that more people will see/discuss. What I said was:

 

That's disappointing... I was hoping others with interest in label variations, like you, might find it helpful. I realize setting up a dating service for people and carts would be even better, but that's complicated. Do you think there are enough resellers going for label variations to cause a problem? Like I said, I'm deliberately not pointing out really rare carts for that reason, but I didn't really picture resellers going for these because the return isn't high-dollar enough. (Mcgrail is trying, but I'm not sure it's going well -- eBay Auction -- Item Number: 270291003118. I suspect buying big lots and waiting for enough people to buy at that price level is the road to bankruptcy.)

 

How do other people feel about this? Would everyone rather this information stays only with those who bother to look for themselves, or is having someone share it helpful? I can see both sides... obviously the fewer people that know about something that's for auction, the less it's likely to go for, and that's good for the people who get the deals. As collectors, we hope those people getting the deals are collectors as well who are getting to save money on happiness. But on the other hand, complete transparency of everything to everyone looking makes auctions as close to a perfect market economy as possible, and should result in fair, supply-and-demand-based prices for all buyers and sellers. [Obviously that's not 100% true because of eBay/PayPal fees, shipping, the fact that these are things you probably only need one of, etc., but the general concept should work.] This question is sort of a tiny version of the problem created by the whole existence of eBay -- now everyone knows what everything's worth, so great flea market deals are far less likely than they used to be.

 

If everyone thinks this is too much fodder for reseller profiting, I'll stop posting these. I'll still keep collecting the info, and would love to share data with you, Sly, or anyone else, and I'd like to see a good database of Atari Corp rarities come from it.

Edited November 20, 2008 by pinball22

[Christophero Sly]

Removed.

Edited November 21, 2008 by Christophero Sly

[Captain Beard]

Do you think there are enough resellers going for label variations to cause a problem?

That's my take too -- there just isn't enough of a market for (minor) cart variations to make it very profitable for resellers to pick up a whole load of commons just to get one Atari Corp. game. As a collector, I'm guessing I'm willing to pay more for a variant than someone who needs to earn a profit off it.

 

(Full disclosure: I guess I'm technically a reseller, but I'm really just trying to recoup my costs from buying lots exactly like the ones this blog tracks. I don't think anyone can accuse me of pricing my carts unreasonably: My eBay store.)

[djpubba]

There's just all kinds of things wrong with trying to hoard good deals.

 

There is no valid reason collectors should be immune from competition. I'm a collector myself but why should I get a game that's worth $500 for $50 and a reseller shouldn't? Just because there are a few dishonest resellers doesn't mean all resellers are evil.

 

What you're really doing by advocating that people hoard good deals is ripping off the uneducated seller.

 

Plus, there's already GameSniped.com. There's no reason there shouldn't be more blogs like this.

Edited November 20, 2008 by djpubba

[Christophero Sly]

Bah! I'm not advocating hoarding anything, but I figured that someone would eventually make that accusation.

 

Pin, I gave this further consideration during lunch and I've decided to just withdraw my objection. Resellers are only part of my objection and having this turn into yet another debate about their value is something that holds no interest for me. It's really just a counter-productive argument anymore.

 

Besides, I can see some positives in what you are doing. Moreover, some of the principles that underly my objections may actually be supported by your actions in a counter-intuitive sort of way. In fact, if I spot any interesting auctions that you haven't identified, I will go ahead and add them in a comment.

 

However, I don't recognize the need to exclude rare items, but I do think it would be wise to extend common courtesy and only post those items that are newly listed (within a day or two) and that don't already have bids on them.

Edited November 21, 2008 by Christophero Sly

[pinball22]

Glad you've changed your mind.

And yes, I agree that it should just be recently-listed auctions -- I've been doing it by looking at newly-listed things each day, so hopefully I'm not stepping on bidders' toes.