|
Thanks for the kind words, Tom. And you’re quite right. Even if you hate the tone of my posts and you just can’t get past a moral objection to badge collecting, you should still pay attention if you’re truly interested in this subject. Collectors really are one of the very best sources for information on just about every aspect of GLO badges. Design, history, construction, who made them, where to find them, how to date them, the economics of their market value, you name it. Collectors have extensive interaction with all the sides involved in this debate: Other collectors, irate GLO members, dealers and estate jewelers, national GLO officers, lawyers, ebay spokespeople, etc., so I think we are the only ones who can claim to truly see the issue from all sides.
I’ve gotten a lot of PMs from some really nice GCers over the last few months. Some think collecting is great and want to know how they can start their own collection. Some still object to collecting and want to know more about the subject so they can more effectively fight to save their badges. I care deeply about our organizations, so I was happy to meet and talk to all of these people.
33girl, good question about sellers working together to drive up the auction prices. Shill bidding has always been a problem on ebay, so it would be naïve of me to think that it hasn’t happened in badge auctions. But I’ve bought a lot of pins on ebay and I have never been too worried about it. For the most part, the sellers are either other collectors or established accounts who regularly sell GLO pins. Collectors know the buyers will likely be other collectors, and since integrity is such an important virtue in our community, it’s unlikely we would try anything “funny” with an auction. Dealers also know that their “regular” customers are the collectors, and that word of a bad dealer travels fast in our circles. So again, I’m not too worried. The suspicious auctions are when the seller has very little feedback, has never sold a badge before and is claiming to be selling their own badge or the badge of a family member. These are the people out to make a short term buck any way they can. But this goes for any auction on ebay. Caveat emptor!
I have also seen the opposite situation. Sometimes when I am selling a pin, I’ll see an unusual number of bid retractions and cancellations. Turns out the sisters are emailing the bidders and telling them to retract their bids. Since some of the bidders are my collector friends, it’s always easy to know when this is happening because they forward me the emails. Ebay is pretty quick to cancel the accounts of people they find tampering with bids, especially when you can supply the emails as proof.
wptw
|