• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Collectors conundrum (AKA how much can I afford?)

Sherlock77

Sherlock77

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I collect vintage photos, while browsing our local flea market one of the vendors I would call a friend pulled me aside, and showed me a box of vintage photos he is selling through a friend, I'm the only he has shown them to at this point...

I was (I am) very interested, and looked through a few of them, one was very interesting, it said "Elbow River, Calgary", where I live, a bear on a chain, and what looked like a circus performer, I did show him that photo, looked a little more through the box

He has already started mulling over prices, which I personally think are too high, he thinks the above bear photo is worth $25, I'm not so sure since it's not printed on real postcard stock, just standard photo paper (I realize some of this is technical)... And his suggested price for the smaller prints, lots of them, is $2 per photo, again I believe over priced

I suggested purchasing the entire box for a set price (something I have done before), I think he's open to it but his suggested musing about price is far more than I can afford right now or want to spend... My one thought is that the real market price is simply far more than I can afford... Although I have dealt with him in the past and he can be a little expensive at times... My other thought is that he might be overvaluing the photos, and knowing him well enough he doesn't budge much...

This just brings me all back to one of my biggest frustrations my entire life, seeing so many people who seem to have unlimited budgets to buy pretty much any collectable they want without even thinking about it... This collection seems to be very good with high quality photos and what looks like lots of local material, and I hate to pass on it, but... Countless times I have had to poss on vintage photos simply because the price is too high...

I may have to pick through the collection individually, but even then I think the price might be too high...
 
Maybe there is a compromise? What if you offered to digitize it all so he could better sell them and you could have digital copies? It would be pretty easy, just scan and compile...
 
Skittlebisquit said:
Maybe there is a compromise? What if you offered to digitize it all so he could better sell them and you could have digital copies? It would be pretty easy, just scan and compile...
Click to expand...

I don't think he would do that, he just wants to sell them, he is well connected and simply told me that he knows dealers who would give him good money for them, seems like he is giving me first offer on them because he does know of my interest...
 
There was a restaurant in Idaho somewhere that was all decorated on a theme that featured vintage memorabilia. What if you could arrange or sponsor the collection to go to a place where you and others could go see it, like a gallery or a museum?

Ppl will give to preservation and charity more than to private enterprise it seems
 
I have been tempted to buy things I could not afford, and luckily my wife was able to talk me down. It sounds like you know that you can not afford the asking price, so I would just pass on buying the photos.
 
Skittlebisquit said:
There was a restaurant in Idaho somewhere that was all decorated on a theme that featured vintage memorabilia. What if you could arrange or sponsor the collection to go to a place where you and others could go see it, like a gallery or a museum?

Ppl will give to preservation and charity more than to private enterprise it seems
Click to expand...

He just wants to sell them, and I have on occasion donated some of my collection to historical societies...
 
Rasputin said:
I have been tempted to buy things I could not afford, and luckily my wife was able to talk me down. It sounds like you know that you can not afford the asking price, so I would just pass on buying the photos.
Click to expand...

One acronym, FOMO, and clearly you aren't a collector :p
 
I've always been into collecting, and have met and learned a lot about other collectors and dealers (many who are collector-dealers). Very few of the people who collect are actually rich. Many dealers start off to try and finance their collecting. Most start with modest collections that slowly grow over time into pretty decent collections. Don't let emotions and acquistion frenzy get the better of you and pay high prices. Instead do more hunting until you find good bargains and get more bang out of the limited buck. You will feel batter about it then. Many also end up selling part of their collections eventually as passion for it cools or other things take priority. A lot of the nejoyment of collecting is also actually in the hunting/research phase anyway. That is the enjoyable pastime aspect of it, more so then just ownership, I believe.
 
Tom said:
I've always been into collecting, and have met and learned a lot about other collectors and dealers (many who are collector-dealers). Very few of the people who collect are actually rich. Many dealers start off to try and finance their collecting. Most start with modest collections that slowly grow over time into pretty decent collections. Don't let emotions and acquistion frenzy get the better of you and pay high prices. Instead do more hunting until you find good bargains and get more bang out of the limited buck. You will feel batter about it then. Many also end up selling part of their collections eventually as passion for it cools or other things take priority. A lot of the nejoyment of collecting is also actually in the hunting/research phase anyway. That is the enjoyable pastime aspect of it, more so then just ownership, I believe.
Click to expand...

Good points, I still contend that most other collectors have far more income than me, which doesn't take much... :rolleyes:

And I'm the one who made an offer on the entire box, if that fails I'm fairly certain that I'll be able to sort through the box and purchase what I want to, or at least as many as I can afford to purchase, I think this one might have some difficult choices though... :eek:
 
Sherlock77 said:
he is well connected and simply told me that he knows dealers who would give him good money for them, seems like he is giving me first offer on them because he does know of my interest...
Click to expand...

I'd be careful here, even if this person is a friend of yours.

What you said here is, almost word for word, the EXACT sort of thing that a rather shady seller says to get potential buyers worried that they might miss out on X thing because X thing would go towards someone else, which plays both on FOMO and on the inherent sort of auto-jealousy that most people have yet arent necessarily aware of.

It is a VERY common (and very slimy) tactic. In many cases, it is also a big pile of lies, and nothing more than a way to sort of "force" a purchase that wasnt thought through very well (which is part of the point) for a product that now has an artificially inflated price.


Sherlock77 said:
This just brings me all back to one of my biggest frustrations my entire life, seeing so many people who seem to have unlimited budgets to buy pretty much any collectable they want without even thinking about it...
Click to expand...

Seeing someone doing that doesnt mean they have unlimited budgets.

It more likely means that they have very limited impulse control. For quite a few collectors, what are often snap decisions can come back to bite them later.
 
@Misery

Ultimately I know what I can afford and will not go above that amount, I'm going to say that if the number $200 pops up, I won't be buying the full box, but instead will be picking out the ones I really want

I can also be an impulse buyer sometimes too, but at lower levels of money

Actually what I've done in the past with antique shows (when they used to happen), I do lots of everyday spending with cash and collect all the small coins I get back in change, and just before the show will cash that in... It is typically between $40 to $60, and that is what I can spend at the antique show and that's it... So the money I spend isn't really from my pay cheque, perhaps indirectly...
 
One of my special interests are trilobites, which can get very pricy, especially some of the fabulous specimens from Morocco. I had saved up for a geology trip there but thought that I could not afford any specimens. There I met a young preparator starting out in the business and have bought specimens from him at a very reasonable cost. I like his work and decided to do something to help him increase the quality of his work and after two years got a good microabrasion tool for him. I am slowly putting together a collection of at least one from each Family from the Ordovician and Devonian to eventually give to the Earth Science department of a local college. I enjoy being in the field much more than owning the stuff.

The reason I am able to afford such now is that I severely limited my spending when I was working. It was hard, feeling that others seemed to easily afford things that I only could aspire to. Cars were a case in point with me driving useful s**t-boxes while envious of those having decent/hot vehicles. Making severe financial decisions early gave me security now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom