From: Mike Davidsen (mike@aspirationsoftware.com)
Date: Thu Mar 24 2005 - 09:59:12 PST
>
>("Plus there's that there 'Supply and Dee-mand', ma boy - I gots the Supply,
>and you gots the Demand! Feel free to indulge in thigh-slappin' once you
>finished forkin' over...")
>
>
I think you guys are over-analyzing it. The biggest factor in the
auction prices going for astronomical amounts is the Internet. Think
about it this way:
Remember back in the glory days of surplus, the 1950s to the 1970s (some
would even say the late 1990s) you had to go to the auction site and bid
in person on the material. You had to screen the item on site, do all
the paperwork on site, etc. As a result, whether directly or
indirectly, there was a pretty small cadre of people who went to the
auctions to buy the material. After all, the auctions were held during
normal business hours, so not only did you have to live in the area to
go to the auctions, you had to have the day off from work (or surplus
was your business). Pretty much limited the amounts people were willing
to bid. Also, credit wasn't that widespread an issue yet. Back in the
day, you had to be a business or make a good deal of money to have a
credit card, so not every Joe Blow was having Visa/Mastercard pay for
their purchases on borrowed money - you had to have the cash there and
then during the auction!
Today, due to life ever-simplifying itself, and making things more
available to the average consumer, we have the internet. Anyone in
America (or on Earth for that matter) can place a bid on the stuff from
any computer, use borrowed money on their credit cards to pay for it,
and have it shipped to their door with any freight service (also paid
with credit). Not to mention, because anybody can do it, after years of
advertising by GL and word of mouth, now everyone knows about the deals
to be had at military surplus auctions. Even if it's only a "perceived"
deal. Also, since now end users can buy the stuff just as easily as the
brokers used to, the end users are willing to pay a lot more for the
items than the brokers ever would have.
Example: truck A has a value of $1000, in its current condition, and
$2000 fixed up. Broker John is only willing to pay $200 for the
vehicle, since he has to fix up the truck, ship it to his location
(factor in the new gas costs to ship things), plus his profit. End
User Bill is willing to pay a lot more, since he will be fixing the
vehicle himself, and he'll flat trailer it himself as well. He'll pay
$1250 for the same item. Hence the high prices being paid for stuff.
Does it warrant $17,000 for a duece and a half? No. My thoughts on a
few of the really high bids are that there are idiots bidding on
something they think is worth more than it is. That or they are parting
it out (parts are always worth more than the total).
One more side note, though - if you noticed the price of MVs going up
the past few years. I don't feel it has much to do with the collector
value of MVs, I think it's related to the ever increasing cost of new
vehicles driving the price of older vehicles up everywhere. That's why
CJ-5s from the 1970s in good shape are going for $4,000. Not because
they are worth that, but because people would rather pay more for an
older, good condition vehicle, than $30,000 for a similar Jeep Wrangler
off the lot. After all, not much difference really between the two.
My two cents,
Mike
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