From: chance wolf (chance_wolf@shaw.ca)
Date: Wed Mar 23 2005 - 20:47:10 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sonny Heath" <sonny@defuniak.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>; "chance wolf"
<chance_wolf@shaw.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] No bargains at auctions like G/L's
> Wolf,
>
> Are you saying that GL should only sell to dealers who know how to use the
> GL website and tell everyone else they aren't allowed to buy from them?
No. I'm not. I'm explaining why the dealers can't make a living by buying
from GL, and why prices are climbing. When GL started out I thought I'd
personally also finally get a chance to get something for a reasonable price
having much the same advantage the dealers traditionally had - and for
awhile - that was the case. Now it is not. There was no "I hate this and
this is the way it *should* be" angle in my stuff whatsoever, for I am not a
dealer. Apologies if that did not come across.
> When I was in the Army they did what it took to inform people on active
duty
> to come to property disposal sales and I have been doing it ever since.
> What should I do, go to a dealer and pay roughly double and sometimes ten
or
> twenty times what I can buy it from the government for? Don't think so.
Which is why I put part of the blame on the dealers under the old system who
"bought by the pound and sold by the ounce". (In fact, I think I even
called them "usurious bastards.") Now GL's Government Ebay has thrown off
that particular yoke, and you and I and other ex-servicemen and others
who've never seen an MRE can buy just like the dealers can. But that
RT-1446 you know the dealer paid 35 bucks for seven years ago under DRMS now
goes for $1356.00, and that M35A2 dropsides he got for $836.23 at the same
time now goes for $4326.66. DRMS was a wholesaler. GL is a retailer. It
cut out "the middle man" by *becoming* the middle-man. End user still gets
to pay through the nose regardless. Hobbyists still nominally 'win' by
having access to stuff which otherwise might get sold in bulk to the
Poughkeepsie Logging and Turf Laying Corporation without anyone knowing it
was available for sale in the first place (DRMS days), but instead of the
$211.36 they might've paid - you get to pay $3671.41
We've all come across assholes in the hobby who figure everything's worth
$17,000.00 when you know damn well they payed $313.63 for it, but now it
goes for $14.736.21 on GL and we're all supposed to feel all warm'n'fuzzy
inside? Maybe if I were a shareholder, but otherwise...fat chance. I
regularly scan through the GL listings for gear I know the value of down to
the last cent, and it goes for more than it does on the open market or on
Ebay. There's something very wrong with that.
(And to head off the usual followups at the pass: 1) I'm not whining; 2) my
livelihood doesn't depend on this sh*t; 3) I have nothing against honest
dealers; 4) I don't think "the Law of Supply and Demand" is a permission
slip for consumer rape; 5) There are sometimes deals to be had on GL if
you're prepared to deal with an incalculable level of head-scratching
frustration over the actions of your fellow man while engaged in the pursuit
of those 'deals'. )
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:41:25 PDT