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

Mon Dec 20 11:22:17 PST 2010

I've been in the old and rare book trade in one capacity or another since 
junior high school back in the 60s.

I've always enjoyed selling books to other dealers...over the years,  they 
have been some of my best customers,  and this is generally more the rule 
than the exception in our trade.  Of course the dealer who buys from me 
intends to make money...I hope s/he does and hope s/he comes back with some 
of that profit and buys more stuff from me.  Collectors come and go but 
dealers are always around and always looking to buy.

Any seller who starts confusing an inventory of books,  records or old mason 
jars  with his or her identity is going to make a mess of things.  Ditto any 
collector of anything who gets to the point where they're convinced that 
Life As They Know It will not be possible without their buying that 
only-known copy of Johnny Ray's baby cries on a 1929 Van Dyke test pressing.

As much as we love them,  owning books and records is not a matter of life 
and death.  Any hobby should be fun and if it starts to turn into more of a 
burden than a pleasure,  said collector should maybe take a break.

And any dealer who imagines that they can and should get the very last 
dollar on every item should be in another business!   BTW,  recalling my 
best record purchases over the last 20 years...some of my biggest "bargains" 
came from Kurt's list...that includes the time I bid several hundred dollars 
on something I really wanted and won it for $7.10...

Taylor

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Philip Carli" <Philip_Carli at pittsford.monroe.edu>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] More from our favorite, legendary oyVey dealer in St 
Louis

> 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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