Lack of good items available at the moment

[PABLO76]

Is it just me or is everyone else noticing a bit of a lull in old, rare and highly collectable items available on Ebay at the moment?

Collecting Man Utd programmes its hard enough competing with the big willes, but just recently there seems to be not alot to choose from!

Maybe we have been spoilt ove the last couple of years, what with people selling up because of the recession etc, so are people starting to find life more comfortable in the main now, or has all the good stuff found its way into collections that people just dont need to split up and/or sell from?

Is it the same for your club??

[roughyedz]

I think it may be because of the fact that Christmas is coming up rapidly ....and people , who as you say have less money to go round ( if you have a job that is of course ) are thinking more carefully about spending AND selling . Ive noticed over the last 6 years or so now that it all goes quiet around Christmas time on E-Bay ....The extorsionate FEES charged by E-Bay and other auction sites may have something to do with it as well dont ya think ???

[derby1884]

I remember, back in the early/mid 80s, as I was trying to build up my collection of post-war Derby H/A, how I would get 6-8 dealers catalogues a month and, if I managed to pick up 6-8 progs out of those, it was a good month.
Then dealers started to introduce offers lists and, lo and behold, the supply increased - but so did the price.
For years, there were a limited number of dealers - some bigger than others - but that, in economic terms, allowed a relative oligopoly to exist. That is, relatively few suppliers, restricted freedom of entry (how many collectors with spare programmes could afford to produce a catalogue?) and a differentiated product (lots of teams, but a programme is, ultimately, a programme - and nothing else)

EBay has changed everything - and it's done so by smashing to pieces one of the key factors above.....that of "restricted freedom of entry". Now anyone can attempt to sell at low-to-zero cost.

Supply has increased at the same time as the hobby has become - arguably!! - less popular than at any time since it began.

As price of run-of-the-mill issues has reduced due to excessive supply, the price for "exclusive" items has, accordingly, increased as collectors hold onto those, frightened at losing choice items for less than their perceived value.

Or.....more likely.......these find their way onto the market by means which - key point here - display more traditional oligopolistic traits. For instance, SportingGold's auction lists. Accessible to all - but a) only with some effort and b) not subject to EBay's inherent price inelasticity.

Collectibles and a market structure of monopolistic competition aren't good bedfellows..........collectors with "good" stuff will, naturally, gravitate towards an oligopoly.

And that, I think, is what we're starting to see.....and why you and I are seeing fewer "top-notch" items on EBay.

Someone, somewhere will (if they haven't already) write one helluva good paper on the overt and covert effects of EBay on the collectibles market. I'd love to read it!

PS - sorry if the above seems like a load of waffle but I know what I'm trying to say
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[Auchinleckian]

It's still very much a buyer's market, absolutely no doubt about that, and there are genuine bargains to be picked up. Conversely, it is much harder nowadays to get anything more than one bid on an item despite being "watched" by dozens of people (sadists who make you think you're going to get a barrage of bids?)

Last weekend I put a few items on ebay, some of which were to test the water with a small selection of programmes recently purchased at the Methuselah auction (2 x 1940's, 2 x 1950's, and 5 x 1960's) and a few others that I thought might do well. Majority of other lots went unsold, and those purchased from Methuselah got one bid each, so realising my minimum bid guide (I realise, of course, I could have put them on with lower bids needed, and may consider this next time I venture on there)

The wacky thing though, was the nearly £40 received for what I thought to be a very run of the mill programme for a BBC "It's a knockout" programme from South Liverpool in the mid 1970's. To me, it made no sense at all, and yet I saw a number of well known bidders going for it, so it's obviously a much needed item for someone's collection.

Ebay has become a monster, and victim of it's own success. They don't advertise the free listing weekends any more, as everybody knows they're on alternate weekends, and that's when the vast majority of programmes now appear, some of them with incredible minimum required bids, because it costs nothing to test the water as such, and if some mug punter decides to buy one or two the vendors are quids in. Does it do anything to enhance our hobby? Absolutely not, and it will undoubtedly be the same in other collecting genres, and I think that ebay may eventually eat itself, and a brand new bigger and better competitor will take over. It seems to happen everywhere nowadays, and perhaps ebay's days might be slowly running out?

[BAZZABAGGIES]

It would be great if there was a British run site to compete with Ebay, surely there is enough brains even if it was collectables only.
Ebay has realised that dealers are struggling and this week are offering free listing for Business sellers with shops.
Ive listed over 7,000 items and business is still slow.
As a dealer i am offered a lot of Run of the mill programmes with the better collections being put on Ebay or going to Auction the day of the old boy phoning up with a collection of Pre 1950 are long gone

[tackler7]

I find things go around in circles. For months there will be nothing at all that interests me, then all of a sudden lots of things crop up at once!

I must admit though during these gluts I tend to look at other items that I normally wouldn't be interested in just to satisfy my habit

[kcs]

BAZZABAGGIES wrote:

It would be great if there was a British run site to compete with Ebay, surely there is enough brains even if it was collectables only.

Kick Off 3pm has tried this but think because of the monster that is eBay he is finding it hard to get what could be a good product off the ground...

There is of course enough talent to build a similar type system to eBay, but due to eBay's dominance I don't think people will plough a huge amount of cash into it.

I seem to remember there being a website called the online programme fair (or something similar) when a few of the big boys signed up but again, this come of nothing.

Bazza, as much as eBay has it's flaws surely as a dealer it is a very useful tool? If it is, then why would similar dealers 'ditch' it to move to another untried and untested system? They wouldn't.
More importantly as a buyer eBay is almost perfect, and until it doesn't function as a superb buying mechanism I (and the majority) will continue to use it and not look at others.

I don't doubt John's theory that at some point something else will come along and eBay will become obsolete, until then though it's the best method of buying programmes.
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[corneli_blue]

Lots of Cardiff City goodies from 1920-21 (our 1st season in the Football League) in the Decemebr auction by Football Sports Auctions - no covers though.

Alan


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_________________
CARDIFF CITY 'HOMES' WANTED:
CARDIFF CITY FANZINES WANTED:
OTHER MATCHES/EVENTS @ NINIAN PARK WANTED:
CARDIFF CITY / WALES 'PIRATE' PROGRAMMES WANTED:
http://www.footballprogrammece.....highlight=
CARDIFF CITY 'HOME' TEAM SHEETS (Updated) WANTED:
http://www.footballprogrammece.....highlight=
COMMUNITY SINGING SONGSHEETS at NINIAN PARK:
http://www.footballprogrammece.....highlight=

[Posh1959]

i guess its the bound volumne that was touted on here a while back

[Wullie]

i put a few nice war time items on Ebay, and the offers were so poor i have locked the rest of the collection away and there it will stay for the next 5/10 years. Absolutely no point in listing anything at the moment unless you are desperate for the money. The many Sports auctions around the country still seem to attract good stuff.
I'm not sure i have seen anything like this " programme" before.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/c197.....53eeb51f1d

[roughyedz]

Wullie wrote:

i put a few nice war time items on Ebay, and the offers were so poor i have locked the rest of the collection away and there it will stay for the next 5/10 years. Absolutely no point in listing anything at the moment unless you are desperate for the money. The many Sports auctions around the country still seem to attract good stuff. I'm not sure i have seen anything like this " programme" before. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/c197.....53eeb51f1d

Im sure that its worth every penny to anyone willing to pay the £156 for it ........... pieces of eight . . . piceces of eight . . pieces of eight

[goonerboy]

PABLO76 wrote:

Is it just me or is everyone else noticing a bit of a lull in old, rare and highly collectable items available on Ebay at the moment? Collecting Man Utd programmes its hard enough competing with the big willes, but just recently there seems to be not alot to choose from! Maybe we have been spoilt ove the last couple of years, what with people selling up because of the recession etc, so are people starting to find life more comfortable in the main now, or has all the good stuff found its way into collections that people just dont need to split up and/or sell from? Is it the same for your club??

Interesting that you should raise this issue because one thing I have also noticed is the increase in frequency of football related auctions either through the specialists (eg sportingold) having more frequent auctions or the general auction houses now having more sports related auctions. I suspect the 2 are related and more of the special items are now going to the auctions rather than ebay. Maybe people now feel that they receive better prices at the auctions. Although the sellers fee is 20% at auctions the fees on ebay are slowly catching up because there is the 10% final value fee plus the 3.5% paypal fee so maybe the better price achieved at auctions still exceeds the slightly higher selling cost.

From what I have observed with arsenal stuff they do better at auctions than eBay. It does astound me sometimes that bundles of run of the mill progs reach very respectable prices at auctions yet they are in plentiful availability on eBay and most often are unsold at prices well below those reached at auctions.

I guess the auctions also tends to have the full attention of the serious collector while with eBay and the several day auction format does not always achieve the same level of competitive bidding eg how many times have I watched an item then forgot about it until after bidding has ended or missed an item completely because I didn't do a search for a few days and by then the item was not obvious as it was on day 3 of 7 and thus it escaped my radar etc. The auction house format also appears psychologically more competitive because it is more of a one-off. For example when there is a special item on eBay that reaches a good price then how often do we see the same item appear from one or more sellers soon after as they try to cash in. At the auction house it will be months until the next auction and very rarely does the same item occur in successive auctions, thus the opportunity to purchase seems like a one time opportunity.

Anyway enough of the psychobabble and yes I agree very few good items at the moment.

[ovalball]

Wullie wrote:

i put a few nice war time items on Ebay, and the offers were so poor i have locked the rest of the collection away and there it will stay for the next 5/10 years. Absolutely no point in listing anything at the moment unless you are desperate for the money. The many Sports auctions around the country still seem to attract good stuff. I'm not sure i have seen anything like this " programme" before. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/c197.....53eeb51f1d

That would be the Norwegian blue.
Beautiful plummage.