Post Prices Please!

[A. G. Maisey]

Some of you may be aware that as well as being a collector, I also deal.

The ways in which I sell depend upon the item that I wish to sell.

Perhaps half of what I sell is listed in a periodic catalogue with a fixed price. The items in the catalogues are are all relatively low cost items for which I can determine a fair market value.

Most of the items that I sell that are not listed in catalogues, are sold to people whom I know, or who contact me, and who want something "special".

These "special" sales often involve a lot more effort on my part than the catalogue sales, because I need to research the market in order to determine what is a fair price. I do have a lot of very good contacts, which makes this easier, but even so, and even with my experience, it is not always easy to fix that "fair market price"---and the price must be fair, because if it is not , if I fix too high a price, it can adversely effect my reputation.

For some things I cannot take into consideration my purchase cost, because the purchase may have occurred more than 50 years ago, when I began to collect, or the item being sold might have come from my grandfather, who may have purchased it prior to 1920.

However, some of the things that I sell carry values that are far, far too high to be listed in catalogues, and for which there are only a very few buyers across the entire world. One way to sell this type of thing is to place it with a reputable auctioneer. However, since I live in Australia, that auctioneer would need to be (probably) in Europe.Then there are the fees attached to a conventional auction process, and these fees simply drive the reserve price higher than it need be.

To my mind, there is only one civilised way to sell an item of this type, and it is to engage in negotiation with the potential buyer.

One way to engage in negotiation with a potential buyer is to invite offers. This is a legitimate way to sell something, and is effectively no different from a tendering process, a process that is frequently used for sale of real estate, and for sale of goods or services to large organisations.

In my opinion the invitation of an offer to purchase is just as legitimate a way to exchange ownership rights in goods as is an offer to sell for a named price. Both methods are equally legitimate, both have their points of strength, and both have their points of weakness.

The Ethnographic Edged Weapons Forum is effectively a big club. The relationships that exist between members of this "club", are not unlike the relationships that exist between members of any other club.

In a real-life club in any sphere of collecting the members will often carry out profitless exchanges that are based on many things other than the value of the items exchanged.Similarly, they will often sell for the same price at which they purchased, perhaps many years ago.

However, these below market value sales, and "even value" swaps will only be made between fellow collectors. If a dealer comes on the scene, the item will be sold for market value.

It is obvious that the only way in which a seller can maintain control over who he wishes to sell to, in an online swap venue, as opposed to a real-life swap venue, is to invite offers.The seller can then accept the offer of the person he wishes to sell to, perhaps incorporating a true swap, as a part of the deal.

The invitation of offers to purchase is to my mind a legitimate practice, and rather than one lacking integrity, it provides a way to preserve the integrity of the ideals of pure collecting.

However, what I consider to have no place at all in swap forum is the placement of advertisements by known dealers. I feel that this practice destroys the basic purpose of the swap forum, and should be banned.

If dealers wish to advertise in a forum having the nature of The Ethnographic Edged Weapons Forum, I believe a separate venue should be made available for them, and they should pay a fee for the privilege of lodging advertisements there.

[ward]

I am a dealer and collector. Generally I do not advertise on the forum unless I have a few items on ebay that I think members would be interested in and just give a link. Otherwise it is a few odd pieces I generally respond on this forum for fun more than anything else. Yes I learn some things and hopefully sometimes teach. I personally do not like give me a offer routine, but I do use it on online auctions and if it is in the ball park will generally except the offer. These weapons often get into large money amounts and to dismiss this is foolish. The borderline between dealer and collector is often fuzzy.

[ALEX]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

...
The invitation of offers to purchase is to my mind a legitimate practice, and rather than one lacking integrity, it provides a way to preserve the integrity of the ideals of pure collecting
...

Very wise and well said, Alan !

Yes, the "market approach" has some profit orientation, but, unless we're trying to build a utopia society here, this is how a healthy economy works. Someone mentioned "Real Estate" before; what they ignore is the fact that 90% of homes were selling for more than the asking price just 5 years ago during the sellers market, and higher offers were a normal practice considering the market conditions, i.e. supply/demand ratio. I understand we're dealing with our hobbies and passions, not real estate, but we still use money, and most sell something to upgrade or modify their collections, i.e. buy something else, preferably better. I personally would love to see more high quality items being offered for sale/trade here, but the notion of "not for profit swap" drives many away to offer their items elsewhere.

[David]

Well, i would say that both sides of the room are taking their argument to unintended extremes. Alex, i don't think anyone here is suggesting a not-for-profit swap forum. Nor do i think that invitations to make an offer is not a legitimate practice for sale.
What is really at the core of this discussion is what is the original intent of the swap and what has it become. It is clear to me that the swap forum is continually abused by dealers who are members of these forums primarily to sell their wares to our members. We all know who these dealers are and just to reinforce their lack of interest in this forum at large they are not the members who we find in discussion of this matter in this thread. I personally find these dealer-only members a great annoyance. Unfortunately the rules as they stand allow a loophole for their continued practice here.
Personally i don't care if a member here asks for offers on a piece. I am more than likely not going to participate in such a silent auction and from the responses on this thread it would seem that most other members would choose not to make an offer as well. Still it is the seller's choice at this point in time to do so. The evidence seems to point to the fact that they will indeed get less interested parties than if they posted a price, but hey, that would be the seller's loss i think. However, if eliminating this practice would help to rid us of the dealer-only members who abuse our swap forum i might be for it.
A Rick has pointed out, we are not tallying votes from the membership here.
This is just a discussion. I will say that if you gentlemen can't keep this discussion civil than i would rather see the swap forum disappear altogether. It is secondary, by a long shot, to the intention and purpose of these forums. If people are going to fight about it it is better off gone.