[NJARC] Mr. Capacitor's two cents

[John Ruccolo]

Hi Al,

Very well put -- that's *exactly* the scenario I'm talking about.

Tom, if you get a $50 radio at one of our auctions for $20, or a $100 radio for $50, that's fine -- you got a bargain -- good for you. I think we're all in favor of having fun and getting bargains at the auctions.

However, if we sell a hypothetical $500 ebay item for, say, $200 at our auction to someone whose only intention is to flip it on ebay, then we -- THE NJARC TREASURY -- should be benefitting from the market value of that item, not one individual.

A while ago I offered the services of a friend who has done ebay consignments since 2001. This also fell on deaf ears. I agree it's time-consuming to sell on ebay -- but for the *choicest* items, it will be well worth it for the club treasury. I volunteer to help with the ebay sales.


Regards,

John


--- On Tue, 2/24/09, Al Klase <al at ar88.net> wrote:

> From: Al Klase <al at ar88.net>
> Subject: Re: [NJARC] Mr. Capacitor's two cents
> To: "Thomas Lee" <thomas_v_lee at hotmail.com>
> Cc: "John R" <jr6v6gt at yahoo.com>, "NJARC" <njarc at mailman.qth.net>
> Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 12:43 PM
> Thomas Lee wrote:
> 
> .........So I would say trying to sell *Choice" items
> on ebay rather than offer them to members first is against
> the spirit of the clubs charter.        
> Hi Tom,
> 
> Well, therein lies the rub.  Let's consider something
> like a WE 300B triode.  (I don't actually know that we
> have any, but we certainly have similar things.)  These sell
> for $1000 on E-bay all the time.  If we were to offer such
> an item at, say $300, as part of the tube program, I can
> guarantee you Ebay people would be on it like ugly on a
> monkey.  If we auction such an item, again it's likely
> that a similar thing would happen.  Yes, if you had actual
> need for one, and outbid the E-folks at $500, it would be a
> good deal for you.  However, I feel we'd just be dumping
> the vast majority of items into the hands of resellers. 
> An NJARC E-bay committee might be the way to handle this,
> but who's going to do the work?  Don't all volunteer
> at once!  Perhaps we need an "agent", maybe a club
> member who would do the transactions for a percentage.
> 
> The tubes are the major problem here, because the whole
> situation is driven by audiophoul nonsense, rather than
> simple radio derangement syndrome.  However, it's a
> problem we need to resolve.  There is significant money
> involved here.
> 
> Imagine the last three Alzheimer's ridden NJARC members
> with a huge pile of tubes in 2039.  Some young squirt will
> end up hauling them (the tubes that is) away to keep them
> out of the dump.  It's a matter of exercising proper
> stewardship of the clubs resources.
> 
> Later,
> Al
> 
> -- Al Klase - N3FRQ
> Jersey City, NJ
> http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/