Hi Joe,
>The difference between your approach to this issue and mine is simple. I
>believe in letting the market set the price of goods and services.
No, actually we have no difference of our view. I don't think there
should be some sort of regulatory committe to determine the price, rather
it should be left up to the market. However....
>I agree with you that if those SUSV's sold at auction for $10,000 and were
>then resold for $40,000 then there is something wrong with the auction
>process.
Well, this is at the heart of the matter. Like I said before, if people
are going to go around buying and selling these things at $40k then I
don't think they should be selling them at $10k. But since they did, I
look at $10k as the point to start pricing up from. How someone can
rationally get from $10k to $40k without doing much (if anything) is
beyond me. It is just greed, and that is something I personally have a
problem with.
>
>I rose to the comment about buying below market value from an uninformed
>farmer because in this example, there is a victim.
The buyer can be just as much of a victim as the seller. The seller made
quite a pitch about this being a "steal" at such a price. I guess that
is what bugged me the most about this one. IMHO the seller was
definitely hoping to dupe someone who doesn't know any better. So my
post was not only a personal complaint about such behavior, but also a
bit of education to the unaware buyer. If the buyer KNOWs the seller
only paid $10k for it and they want to give him $40k, that is an entirely
different story. But if you read that guy's sales pitch you would think
he is taking a bath on the sale instead of making a huge profit.
We agree more than you think we do. The free market should determine the
price. I know some guy that bought a Sturmgewehr 44 for $900 about 15
years ago. Going rate is about $7000 now, so if I were to make an offer
it would be in that ballpark. But I disagree that when you see someone
trying to gouge an unsuspecting buyer that nothing should be said about
it. Again, if someone really wants to make this guy rich quick, be my
guest.
In any event, I don't think the guy will get anywhere near that price.
Great vehicle, but not a cheap one to own or operate.
Steve
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Aug 07 2001 - 09:34:10 PDT