From: chance wolf (chance_wolf@shaw.ca)
Date: Mon Feb 23 2004 - 09:37:10 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Glenn Shaw" <wolf.star@verizon.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 8:38 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] SME Export
> The prices are going crazy these days at GL.
Basically, because it's more accessible to the masses, it's become
Government Ebay. Not on everything, of course, but some people regularly
bid more than they can buy them for retail via any of the existing militaria
dealers out there - or even above what they go for on Ebay. Just for
example's sake, I was looking at a bunch of PRC-128's the other day on GL -
made a mental note of what they'd fetched in the past via Ebay and a few of
the dealers (i.e. 'retail' or market price) - then proceeded to watch the
bidding for three of the things climb *way* over the per-unit average price
on Ebay even! Wasn't just that auction either, as it's been happening
regularly throughout the land. I'm sure GL must squeal with glee to have a
retail-level operation on their hands as opposed to the "by-the-pound"
surplus sales of days of yore, but God help anyone who ever relied on those
sales to eke out a living.
I talked to one guy at length at GL FLW who used to buy entire aisles of
stuff on a weekly basis, but who know walks away with a trinket or two only
on the best of days. He stood there pointing out the various types of
people who were previewing the same sale we were, and seemed to pretty much
nail them all as "not knowing what they're looking at" etc. When you see
those same people bid $800.00 for a set of top bows or a gun-safe with one
hinge and a torched lock, you kinda wonder if my acquaintance there wasn't
just spouting sour grapes.
When the GL system came into being, my first thought was that it would be
possible to do an 'end run' around the dealers who'd been charging through
the nose (phrased "what the market will bear") for some of the stuff I was
interested in for years. Worked that way for about two sales until the
media splashed the GL website all over the news, so now you have your choice
of spending $3600.00 on a backpack radio through GL, or through one of the
dealers who've kept the prices equally stratospheric for the last three
decades. No difference. No competition. No deals. GL becomes just another
retailer.
Another guy at GL just laughed at it all and told me that if I wanted to
make my fortune, I should just take all the junk in my garage I was about to
throw out and add it to the next GL Internet Sale. I mean, good for GL and
the U.S. Taxpayers etc., but...yikes...where do all these bidders get the
money to spend on Uncle's garage-sale leavings?
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