You know, this brings up a very interesting point. I think your awareness programs are directly responsible for the fall in ebay badge prices over the last year.
High end badges have always sold for a lot of money, from the very beginning of ebay in 1997 right through to today. That’s because when it comes to high end badges, it’s always been collector vs. collector bidding. These badges usually sell for beyond what a typical GLO member or rescue group would pay – let’s say $500 or more, so members really have very little impact on final price. And since the core group of collectors is largely unchanged in the last 7 years, you wouldn't expect to see too much fluctuation in the market price of these high end badges. And in fact, you don't.
But the prices for middle of the road badges (post 1940 and/or plain gold for example) have changed dramatically in that same time period. In the late 1990s when it was mainly collectors on ebay, these prices were low. Around 2001 when the badges on ebay argument heated up there was a huge influx of new bidders (mostly GLO members), and the prices for these middle of the road badges skyrocketed. But in the last year the prices have settled back to a much more reasonable level. Why? Supply hasn't changed. Demand hasn't changed. The collectors haven't gone away. So why? I believe it's a direct result of members identifying themselves to each other on sites like GC, and networking to minimize member on member bidding.
People on GC used to blame collectors for driving up the prices, and since it always seemed very clear to me that it was member on member bidding driving up prices, I always argued that point. Collectors would very rarely overpay for a given badge, but members would do it every day (and still do - usually those new to GC as SmartBlonde mentioned). Collectors would bid their maximum and let the auction take its course (or snipe at the last minute), whereas individual members would sometimes place tens of bids throughout the entire auction. Basically, collectors bid like they always had ever since 1997, so it didn’t seem likely that we were doing anything to drive up prices.
Anyone remember this?
Quote:
Originally posted by wptw on 1/11/02
Ebay 1998:
Collectors: ~15
Non-collectors: <10
New badge listings: 9 / week
Average close price: $28
Ebay 2001:
Collectors: ~15
Non-collectors: >300
New badge listings: 84 / week
Average close price: $90
Yep, must be the collectors driving up the prices.
Darned collectors!
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Someone accused me of just being bitter that the ebay prices had gotten so high, so I couldn’t get as many for my collection. I told her she was crazy, because collectors LOVE high ebay prices on middle of the road badges. And I was right – she is crazy
Earlier I was talking about how collectors continually try to liquidate their inferior badges (those are the middle of the road badges) to fund the purchase of better ones (high end badges). High end badges always have been and always will be expensive. But when prices on middle of the road badges drop, it obviously makes it harder for collectors to finance their collections.
So limiting member on member bidding has dropped the prices on average badges, and this has actually made it tougher to be a collector. It may be counterintuitive, but it’s true. I am a lot less active today because I can’t raise as much money on regular auctions anymore.
I said all of this way back when, but I think at the time the issue was too hot and people were too emotional to think it through.
Sorry for the long post. I thought the rescue groups might find that interesting. If nothing else, I think it tells you part of what you’re doing is working. But the real lesson in all of this is…
...don’t ever doubt wptw!
