[Milsurplus] Bashing Dealers (Was Re: Belton Swap)

[J Forster]

David Stinson wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "J Forster" <jfor at quik.com>
> Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Belton Swapfest
>
> > Recently, a dealer offered her about $1200 for 'everything upstairs',
> > including a nice R-390, a Collins 51 series Rx, about 6 other receivers,
> > some ARC-5 stuff, some camera equipment, two bookcases full of ham and
> > electronic books and several very nice 20s era BC radios. That doesn't
> > even include the small stuff like loads of ceramic tube
> > sockets, variable capacitors, boxes of crystals and other stuff.
> >
> > That dealer will not be invited back.
>
> I don't know the specifics of this case,

In this case, I did a quick addition of the items in the estate, based on
roughly average eBay prices BTW, the very first question I asked the widow was
about the time frame for the redistribution.  She's perfectly happy to go
slowly.

> [snip]
> Hard experiance has taught me that if I cannot return an average of
> 50 percent above my purchase price, I will lose money on the deal
> (more expensive pieces need less margin, of course).
> I add up the market price for the pieces and begin the negotiation
> at about 55-60% of retail.  My top dollar will be 70-75%. [snip]

Had the offer been remotely in this range, there would have been a
negotiation. I had an advantage in that I'd heard the selfsame dealer
repeatedly crowing about the killings he'd made on previous deals. This is
while my friend was still alive. Why should I not think the same attitude
would prevail in this case?

As I said, I've been around the surplus business since the 50s and have known
a number of players pretty well. In one case, I've see a dealer make well over
$200,000 on mini computer surplus, and soon after loose it all in a single day
on silver futures.

My obligation is to the widow and I intend to protect her from sharks as best
I can.

FWIW,
-John