Posted by Klaus on July 30, 2002 at 14:04:23:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Mirafone 186 for sale - great condition posted by Rick Denney on July 30, 2002 at 11:21:34:
Not a bad analysis, not at all!
Aside from having been a civil servant with explicit and implicit obligations towards my students, I also have been an active consumer's right politician. To a degree, that I defended the consuming patterns of persons, that I basically found should not be in my country due to asylum cheating and other scams. I recognise the contradiction in the thesis "rather extradite them than starve them", but it is true to my views.
But we must recognise, that we are operating in the most supreme tuba-euph forum, worldwide, undisputedly. Not some backwater has-been net-activity mainly acting as an advertising forum for the attic/basement cleanings of the list owner.
The very nature of TubeNet is the asking for, the delivery of, and the challenging of information.
If any given information is not challenged, it implicitly counts as an accepted consensus. This goes for this board, as it goes for the scientific spheres.
I repeatedly have fought the right not to read posts, posters, and threads. I even have tried to live out my right not to reply to any given post. Sometimes out of laziness, sometimes because I found no reason to repeat my well known statements on the very few topics, where I am among the more experienced contributors to this board. After all there is an archive with a search facility. I sometimes have taken the middle road and have provided links to my former postings.
In the current thread we see an announcement of some very relevant pieces of equipment. But at a price suggestion that is not even honest to a previous market evaluation by the same seller. And the seller confirms to have used pricing standards extremely irrelevant to the market.
This spring this board had to experience a similar, very sad, situation of a probably much younger person trying to sell an over-priced piece of equipment out of financial needs. No matter how kindly advises were worded, the agony went on and on.
We all should have learned from that experience. I have not harassed the current seller, but for the challenging of his method and of his illwitted or less informed supporters.
In my eyes the current seller has not been unduly harassed. He has exposed himself in a way, that makes him an irrelevant business-partner, until he either auctions off his instrument with a low or no reserve or comes up with a fair asking price.
What is a fair asking price? I am biased, as I basically don't think, that any medium sized Mira is that special beyond being an OK middle of the road horn. Would I pay more for that horn, than I paid for my own two very special contrabasses, combined? Not on this side of Armageddon!
Klaus
who also is considered a very tough buyer, because he knows the market and its mechanisms. And who is sufficiently equipped brasswiset to sit on his spare change, until the price gets right. I do not get fair prices because of corruption, as no one wants to corrupt a non-working retiré. But the used-car-salesmen-types-of-the-brass-market can see in my eyes, that I look right through them. It is very telling, that Rick-my-challenger is admired by a person, that did not like my very precise evaluation of his for-sale-goods.