Profiteering

[66 triumph daytona]

Re:

I really hate that lazy"its a free market"blurb.We are enthusiasts and better than that.The classic aircooled vdub world is now as good as corporate due to profiteering,God help us if we end up like them squabbling and paying thousands for a steering wheel or clock.The aircooled movement died when people started discussing their investment potential instead of their fun potential.Hopefully we will never see "Fat Chance Crisis"on Discovery channel.Its profiteering and speculation that will destroy this great hobby of ours.I can see it now-"Terms and conditions apply,enjoy retro bikes responsibly".

 

[xxnick1975]

Re:

Bought loads, sold a bit, karmaed occassionally


No issues really, other than serial karma grabbers that then never contribute, like even a build thread...

 

[66 triumph daytona]

Re:

Me too,great site and people in the main.Long may it continue.

 

[Ollie]

It's a shame as people sell items at a reasonable price as they think it will be kept for a build and is needed for a specific reason and then people come along and take advantage of the low price to make a quick and easy profit. I can understand people adding a few extra quid on for a bit of restoration and cleaning up of the product as it adds value in both money terms and visually. However I do not agree on people buying parts to simply sell them on at a profit. A bit like Hilary Stone, turns up to cycle jumbles early to get all the bargains before the honest collectors and then sells them to honest collectors at a inflated price.

 

[fagin]

Or the 'honest collectors' could just get up a bit earlier?

 

[ultrazenith]

I've been burned by profiteering at least once. I got a pm asking for a better price on an already generously priced set of brakes, but I let them go anyway, only for them so resurface for sale a month or so later at a higher price, minus pads, and with a more optimistic description of their quality. After that I gave up selling stuff for a while (I'm happy to hoard for the time being anyway).

Relating more to what the OP spoke of, I see there is a dilemma in that Canadian (or US) sellers usually have very good prices compared to UK sellers, but postage costs to Europe are high enough to more or less erase ay pricing advantage. Before I was got by a profiteer, I'll admit I've occasionally toyed with buying from US / CA sellers a mixture of items for me and items to resell in Europe at a small profit, but chickened out due to the risks of (a) getting stung for import duties and (b) not being able to resell items.

I guess, like many people, I have some items in my inventory that I want to hang on to so dearly that I'd need to be offered a really high price to part with it. E.g., My UGLI forks or my NOS Pace hub, for which I'd need about double what they're worth :twisted: They're that precious to me, my precious...

 

[highlandsflyer]

Re:

At the risk of being targeted by the trolls again, I would suggest this is not really a huge problem on this site. The majority of people get on with it in a fairly mannered fashion.

Worse things happen in the circus.

 

[paddy311]

Re: Re:

I really hate that lazy"its a free market"blurb.We are enthusiasts and better than that.

Peoples views on this subject are always skewed either of two ways.

1) the rose tinted namby-pamby hippy do-gooder,
2) the people with a real world view

I would argue that inside every single one of us is the innate greed of human nature that makes you think like category 2 sometimes. Yes - even those who bleat about being done wrong, or being a 'victim' of vile profiteering - even they have greed inside them.

It's pretty cold, but it's a fact of life that people are greedy. There is not a single person on this thread who hasn't at some time seen something for sale as an opportunity for them to better their position, by making money on something for sale cheap.

If this was a small old school club where people only met face to face and could be black balled for doing the 'wrong' thing then maybe this utopian dream of giving stuff away for nothing would work, BUT....... it's not. It's an open global forum full of people that consume 'bike stuff' in a global market.

I will always argue that if you offer something for sale at a price, then sell it to someone who gives you what you want, it's no business of yours what happens to it after that. After the sale - the other guy owns it. It's his business what he then does with it. He may put it on a shelf, smash it with a hammer, or sell it on.
The other guy bought the damn thing with his own hard earned money. If you sold it cheaper than someone else would pay then dry your eyes sweetheart - it's your problem for not finding the other buyer.

I will likely get flamed for this post by some of you. So be it ! I honestly believe that people who see themselves as in category 1 above........ need to wise up.

One last thing - cheers for all the great cheap deals I've done on here :mrgreen: (joke)
I never sell anything anyway so nobody will need to get their knickers in a knot with me for profiteering

 

[66 triumph daytona]

Namby pamby hippy do gooders?Whats wrong with them?What about the hippy Repack riders who actually created our sport?"Real world view?"That sounds like a barrel of laughs,thankfully I would imagine retrobikers by our very nature on our old clunkers shun such a cold and horrid place.You are welcome to it.

 

[M-Power]

Re:

Maybe with the exception of a few traders who do a big volume of sales, I seriously doubt anybody makes decent money reselling these retro bits. It's also too labour intensive. The buyers market is too small and savvy. We all know what things go for and it's easy to google past transactions.

Do a DueDil.com company check on the handful of companies that operate in this sector. Most just get by. It's a myth there is massive profit in it. Yes, occasionally something must have starts to go for silly money but then a ready supply kills the market rapidly.

With some suppliers of modern high end gear its a very different matter.