[78-L] eBay rant

[Cary Ginell]

What I'm wondering is if all this uneducated activity might be working to artificially and permanently inflate the perceived value of 78 rpm records. It started years ago in antikee malls, where purveyors of garage sale detritus would display scratched up 78s without sleeves, bearing price tags of $10, no matter what they were (I still see these in a few Las Vegas malls)
 
Cary Ginell
 

 

> Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:35:48 +0000
> From: bruce78rpm at comcast.net
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] eBay rant
> 
> It is a self-perpetuating prophecy. One buffoon sets a ridiculous minimum bid for a Henry Burr Pathe Record, and then additional sellers who have know idea what this junk is worth, will follow suit with the same $15.00 minimum bid or buy it now price. I used to review the Pathe records, on ebay because I have a Pathe machine, and used to occasionally find a good artist and selection that I could place a fair bid on. Not any more, the inmates are now running the asylum, and everything from the boring to the interesting are all set at outlandishly high starting or buy it now prices. It is now a haven for total fools, selling to even bigger fools, if and when the crap ever sells, which is very very seldom. Senseless, totally senseless. 
> 
> Bruce 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Malcolm - Venerable Music" < malcolm @ venerablemusic .com> 
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l@ klickitat .78online.com> 
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 1:58:40 PM 
> Subject: Re: [78-L] eBay rant 
> 
> Hey Cary - Unfortunately this does not include the Buy It Now items! I never 
> look at those as it's almost never worth the time spent. The auction only 
> items are out of control! 
> The problem is that I also collect ethnic records so there is no way to 
> properly filter out the 1000 listed Bollywood records and look at the rest 
> of the things I might be interested in. The same goes with jazz especially 
> as most can not distinguish big band and swing from actual jazz records. 
> It's not as much that I have to look at stuff that I'm not interested in - I 
> don't mind that at all. It's that I have to look at them over and over again 
> every week! It was not as much of a problem with 6000 listings, but 14,000 
> is a mess. 
> And don't get me started on those free listing days! That is just an excuse 
> to flood the system with every item that didn't sell the first time because 
> no one was interested or it was priced too high. I actually avoid looking at 
> all on the morning after! 
> Malcolm 
> 
> Venerable Music - http :// www . venerablemusic .com 
> Venerable Radio - http :// www . venerableradio .com 
> 78rpm Record Auctions - http :// www . vmauctions .com 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Cary Ginell 
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 1:43 PM 
> To: 78-l@ klickitat .78online.com 
> Subject: Re: [78-L] eBay rant 
> 
> 
> I would say that a good percentage of the garbage is all Buy It Now stuff 
> that just lays there and gathers moss. You can filter all of this out by 
> just checking Auction Only when you search, and then you can also search by 
> genre to eliminate all the Bollywood 78s. I almost never just browse through 
> all the 78 listings anymore. 
> 
> Cary Ginell 
> 
> 
> > From: malcolm @ venerablemusic .com 
> > To: 78-l@ klickitat .78online.com 
> > Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:35:47 -0400 
> > Subject: Re: [78-L] eBay rant 
> > 
> > Mal - I'm 100% with you and have gotten to the point where I just can't 
> > look 
> > at everything & I've been just giving up a lot. 
> > There used to routinely be about 6000 auction listings in a given week and 
> > suddenly it's double that (and yes, I know the Indian listings you're 
> > speaking of - ha! Had to wade through those twice and I'm sure will have 
> > to 
> > again soon.)! 
> > Week in and week out the same crap over and over again. If Ebay would just 
> > institute a very simple database filter that would allow you to exclude 
> > any 
> > item that has been relisted it would solve much of this browsing 
> > frustration. 
> > Also, if they would stop charging such outrageous fees to have a store 
> > front, more of these items could be moved to Buy It Now to sit until that 
> > right person comes along. 
> > I quit as a seller quite awhile back & am becoming frustrated with buying 
> > there as well. Sometime you get deals, but damn it's a lot of work and 
> > time 
> > spent for those! My obsessive nature makes it hard to quit looking, but 
> > ebay 
> > could certainly do some things to make their browsing easier. When was the 
> > last time ebay actually instituted a change that actually made things 
> > better?? The 50 free auction listings per month maybe? But other than 
> > that - 
> > ha! 
> > The other Malcolm 
> > 
> > Venerable Music - http :// www . venerablemusic .com 
> > Venerable Radio - http :// www . venerableradio .com 
> > 78rpm Record Auctions - http :// www . vmauctions .com 
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message----- 
> > From: Malcolm Rockwell 
> > Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 1:19 PM 
> > To: 78-L Mail List 
> > Subject: [78-L] eBay rant 
> > 
> > Ahem (he says, mounting his soapbox)... 
> > I still troll the daily 78 offerings on eBay every morning over my 
> > morning coffee and it seems the idiots have fully taken over. I've never 
> > seen so much ballast in one place. It looks like any sellers with decent 
> > and/or interesting material have fled to other venues, and the prices 
> > for the crap that's there are stunning. And I'm just taking about the 
> > auctions; I won't even go into the "Buy It Now" stuff. 
> > How about 3 Fritz Kreisler 78s starting at almost $75? Or the relatively 
> > common - and slightly grayed - "Mean Old Frisco" by Arthur Crudup on 
> > Bluebird with a starting bid of a mere $50? It has become rare to see 50 
> > cent or $1.00 records going for less than $10. How about Dean Martin's 
> > supposed first record on Diamond for a mere $119? And the floods of 
> > classical, Indian (today there were around 1000 of these starting at $10 
> > each!), and overpriced Philippine reissues? 
> > Not only that but some sellers have been double listing material so, 
> > just in case you may have missed their records on Monday, they'll show 
> > up again on Thursday or a week later. 
> > Empty sleeves for $12 each and up anyone? 
> > What a bunch of crap. Well at least it's all in one place should one 
> > need to find some and have money to blow. Used to be eBay was fun. Now 
> > it's merely tedium. 
> > Bah! 
> > End of rant. 
> > Malcolm 
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