[78-L] 78 rpm Price Hike

[David Lewis]

Glenn Longwell wrote:I think it's probably the increasing costs of ebay and paypal making it necessary for sellers to start at a higher price to make any money.  But obviously many crazed sellers have any possible 78 starting at the same high price.  Surprisingly, some of them will sell a record for $20 when there are numerous examples of people buying the same record for $2-5.  So buyers fuel this frenzy too.   I do believe it's possible some are trying to take advantage of the publicity of the book and has probably brought new players into the game.  I've had a number of people ask me about it, people that are not at all into records, since they heard about it on NPR.  I was at an estate sale recently and as I was standing there with some 78s in my hand someone commented how they heard 78s are REAL valuable.  I laughed and said yes, there are some that are but 99.99% of them aren't.  >>>I agree that the rising cost of doing business through eBay has raised the baseline somewhat, and I note that Kurt Nauck's minimums are up a tad; while the latest reports indicate that "inflation is in check," inflation there is, nonetheless. But I am starting field a fair number of questions about this book from people who aren't necessarily interested in records, just as Glenn says. My own collecting habits tend toward less valuable records, not because I have no enthusiasm for more celebrated kinds of discs, but owing to my limited budget and concern that some reasonably obscure things might slip through the cracks just because they are obscure and no one wants them. I still do see sellers offering desirable things for reasonable prices or less than that, and benefit by it. But far more often, I see crazy prices for things that don't deserve it -- always true to some extent, but worse so now.

Uncle Dave Lewis
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