.......... you think about the practice of listings items for sale and then coming back and lowering the prices often several times until the item sells ???

I know the economy is bad and collectible prices are generally down across the board in most all hobbies.

But here is my take on the subject of listing items and then coming back and lowering and lowering and lowering the price on them.

I think this is a bad practice for several reasons.

1. If someone buys an item for the full listed price and then a couple of hours later the price is reduced and someone else gets a bargain - How does the original buyer feel ??

2. By constantly reducing prices on items - no one buys the item at full price and they just wait for the seller to reduce the price again. What has this accomplished ??

3. By constantly reducing prices - What message does this send to new and potentially new collectors ?? The Hobby is falling apart - prices are constantly being reduced. Why do I want to get into a hobby where the value of items is constantly dropping even by the hour ??

4. The day old bread syndrome - The baker sells the day old bread at half price. Eventually nobody ever buys a "fresh" loaf of bread at full price and simply waits to buy the day old bread. Result - The baker loses even more until he wises up and stops selling day old bread. It's better for the baker to throw away the day old bread then it is to sell it at half price.

I have refused to sell items over the years at drastically reduced price offers,just to sell them. Items have a value that should be protected, you just can't give things away - or at least I can't.

If your willing to take 25% of what you originally listed an item for - then don't mess around with offering it at an inflated price - just sell the item for the lowest price you would be willing to accept. If the item still doesn't sell at that level then just hang on to it and try to sell it at a later time.

I listed a set of chips yesterday and then I "RAISED" the price on the set after a specified period of time. The set did sell for more than the original asking price. If it had not sold I would have keep the set. This is the reverse of what I have been seeing on the Board. Was I lucky or was the item priced more than reasonably to start with ???

Please LMK what you think about this situation.

Take care,
Jerry "Fair prices, but not giving things away" Birl

ps I'm going out to dinner in a little while so I won't be here to monitor the responses to my post, but I will be interested in hearing what people have to say on this topic.