[78-L] More from our favorite, legendary oyVey dealer in St Louis

[Philip Carli]

It is a problem if you are a known dealer in anything...people often assume (and often correctly) that you are buying things not for yourself, but to turn them around for a profit, or (in personal insecurity) capitalizing on a seller's ignorance.  It becomes more "personal" then, and the seller becomes, perhaps, resentful, even though a) the buyer may be indeed buying things for himself and b) in pure logic, it shouldn't matter in the first place.  In a perfect world it should be a level playing field for all and business is business -- but human nature and perception preclude that.  My late father was an ardent bibliophile and saw this kind of thing happen over and over again; many of the book dealers he knew were, by his lights, gentlemen, but some were (at least to him) vulture-like.  Our hobby is so personal and passionate that it is very hard to be absolutely objective in deals.  Once I had a friend over and put a record on the Credenza and he went nearly insane -- "Who is that?  I gotta have that!  I'll BUY it from you!!"  It took me clean aback.  I gave him the record; it was more meaningful to him than to me, he's a good friend, and it seemed the proper thing to do.  I lost a (very) few bucks, perhaps, but I felt better for the whole business. (Some years later I found another copy, too.)  P. Carli


________________________________________
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com [78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Michael Biel [mbiel at mbiel.com]
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 1:25 PM
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] More from our favorite,     legendary oyVey dealer in St Louis

On 12/20/2010 12:46 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> Hey, Kurt, whaddaya picking on this guy for? A bully, leaving frivalous neg.
> feedback. He never hurt you and you never paid for the item. Oh well, it takes
> all kinds. Wonder what would happen if anyone actually tried to purchase the
> gazillion dollar manhole cover?
>
> dl

Just in case someone who doesn't know us personally reads David's
comments, he and Kurt are pals, so this is just a joke.  It might be of
further interest that Kurt has already discussed this transaction back
in October.  Here is what he posted back on 10/16/10 in the thread "Rare
78s for sale on ebay"

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

>  >  I found 3 records of interest from this seller. Two of them were interesting but unimportant labels that were priced at $9.99. I selected Buy it Now and paid with my credit card. Then a little while
later I got a message saying that they were not available. He has not answered my email.

Chances are, had I not been a well-known dealer the transaction would
have gone through without a hitch. I remember the time that a bunch
of us at the ARSC conference in KC went to the local record store
where we spent a couple of hours picking out records. My pile was
little different from anyone else's pile, and none of us found
anything to write home about. None of the records were priced, but
when people went to check out, they were charged around $1-2/record.
When my turn came, the owner said, "Gee Kurt, I'll have to price
these tonight - come back in the morning." Knowing exactly what was
up, I returned the next day and we sat down to go through my
"treasures." Not a single record was under $10, and some were over
$50. "The prices are negotiable," he graciously told me. I responded
by saying that any negotiation would be pointless. I pulled out a
single record that had been hanging on his wall (a small Flexo disc
that had been pre-marked $20) and told him that that would be the
extent of my purchases.

Such experiences come with the territory - wow, if Kurt wants this,
it must be really valuable!

Of course, there are other dealers who are delight - Larry Holdridge,
Tom Smith and Tom Hawthorn immediately spring to mind. Or the late
Jim Hadfield or Rick Whiting.

And some dealers who might have been a little ornery or idiosyncratic
(like me, probably), but were still a real pleasure to deal with.
(Larry Mason&  Morty Savada)

Truly, there are some great guys in this hobby!

At 08:44 PM 10/20/2010, you wrote:

>This seller is my78s4u who has been a topic of discussion on this
>list various times.
>
>He is the same person who was selling "Jew/Yid" records last January
>and has been looking since last June for Bill Gates and others to
>buy his 20" Pathe for $150,000.
>
>http://cgi.ebay.com/78-RPM-ULTRA-RARE-1908-20IN-PATHE-SILENT-MOVIE-RECORD-E-/390210291254
>
>He seems to have been able to continue staying in his house.
>
>As I wrote before:
>

> >  >  This seller offers "as is" Armenian 78s for $250.  He hides his
>  bidders' names and masks their wins in his feedback.
>
>He once made violent threats to me via email.


> On 12/20/2010 12:33 PM, Steve Shapiro wrote:
>>>  From the same gentleman with the $150,000 20 inch Pathe.
>> See the two negative feedbacks from Dec 7.
>>
>> http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=my78s4u&ftab=AllFeedback
>>

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