Literature Dealers

[negusm]

What is with literature dealers?...they seem to think all their stuff is gold and most of them would rather let the stuff sit in their inventory than to make a deal.

I was watching this auction, and it never got a bid.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... RK:MEWA:IT

I am interested in it but not enough to fork over $40 shipped. I offered him $30 shipped after the auction closed....and he refused it....not even any counter offer.

I have very rarely had any luck with dickering on this stuff....and often watch it go by time and time again on ebay. I'm not really bitching against this one particular guy...he has every right to refuse the offer. But I must have made more than a dozen FAIR offers on various things that were overpriced only to be rejected by different vendors.

The stuff is used, its not retail...there should be some wiggle room.

In the end, he may get the $40 in 6 months to a year if I get a slow buying week. But chances are, another one is going to pop up or I'll hunt it down outside of ebay for less money. I've pretty much waited out all the other refusals and gotten the same items for much much less.

It just seems odd that they ALL share this kind of business model.

#1 Stock up with tons of mostly useless stuff.
#2 Price it all on a whim (there are no "price" guides for off beat auto literature).
#3 Lastly, never deal on an item, even if it has been in your inventory for 5 years and only 1 guy has ever inquired about it....hold out until inflation errodes any profit you could have made.
#4 and if they use ebay...list it every week without fail for YEARS even if nobody is ever going to buy it.

My rant is over...

-Mike

[Euro#13]

Mike,

I think a lot of it has to do with how long they have been in the business of being literature dealers.
Years ago before the internet and especially before ebay, it was very hard to get old literature for reasonable prices and the only place that you would see it was at swap meets. Dealer albums, the older they got to be would go up significantly in price. It used to be that a mint "new" dealer book (one that was only 2-3 years old) would sell for a minimum of $20 ten years ago at a swap meet table and twenty-year-old ones would sell for hundreds of dollars.
Now that ebay is here and it seems that almost any book that you might want will pop-up within a reasonably short time, there are of course items that will always be in demand and will bring a lot of money, but for the most part the prices have fallen dramatically.
Just a guess but it may be that some of the "old time" dealers are having a hard time with the new market and may not want to let go of their stuff for a lot less that what they were used to years ago.

Your rules #1, #2, &, #3 sound very familiar.

Years ago (way before ebay) I was at Carlisle and there was a vendor there who had a huge booth with just about everything you could imagine including many European brochures, I could have spent my life savings with that guy.
Anyway I didn't see any ASC stuff in the usual spots so I asked him if he might have some. Normally when I ask a vendor I either get a definite "no" or a "deer-in-the-headlights-look". This guy got a twinkle in his eye and said, "yes, follow me". He opened the back of his box truck and pulled out three boxes that each were full of ASC brochures. Two of them were of convertibles and the third was just Coupe brochures. The boxes looked to be the original shipping boxes and the brochures were as new as they could be. When I asked how much I about fell over, I figured with as many as he had I might be getting the bargain of a lifetime. When he said $40 a piece I couldn't believe it. I should have just walked away, but I did end up buying one of the Coupe brochures only because I figured it might be my only chance to get one that nice.

Brent

[Sandy]

I agree. I buy from a very expensive dealer in Texas (You might know who) and everything you say is true. I offerred $40.00 for a piece that was marked $ 50.00 3 years ago. They STILL list it 4-sale and still at $50.00, 1,000 days later !!!

[negusm]

When I used to be BIG into comic books, I used to all the conventions and haggle on some stuff. It was usually negotiable to some degree. The vendors that WOULD deal and were out to move product always had a HUGE crowd and made a ton of money. The other guys who would stick to the price guide sold a few issues here and there and BITCHED about the guys that were wheeling and dealing.

Not only that but the guys bitching would wind up sending their "underlings" over to scope out a few books, buy them, bring them back, rebag them and mark the price up to full book value.

-Mike

[negusm]

I'm guessing Sandy, that you deal with McLellan's Automotive History.

I have purchased many things from them too. Notably 4 or 5 of the Upholstery books at $50 a pop.

-Mike

[Sandy]

ExAcTlY ! They are very nice people, but they outsource their inventory for pricing to Tiffanys and Cartier.

IF I win that 200 million in the lottery, the UPS driver will get a hernia!

[1985 Motorsport Capri]

believe it or not, i got all my dealer lit for free from the company that produced it. around 1989 i called Helm (company that made ford brochures)
and asked for the 1985 asc coupe, & 1985 & 86 Capri dealer brochures.
i recieved then in about 4 days in the mail free of charge.

[negusm]

Years upon years ago...like 25 or so....my mom and dad pulled and old 1930 6cyl business coupe out of the barn in our neighborhood. The guy was moving and it HAD to GO! It was already dismantled and had to be put into boxes and carted away. So away it went into our barn.

It was a 1930 (actually built in 1929) Buick Marquette business coupe. 25 are known to exist in the world. Something like 1500 are accounted for world wide for the ENTIRE product line (Coupes, Phaetons, Sedans, etc.)

So my mom writes Buick (circa 1978) asking for information/literature. Buick sends here a bunch of ORIGINAL 1931 BROCHURES and MANUALS for the car.

Its a trip looking through those things. They go on about how to replace/maintain this or that with some rather odd tools and materials/substances. The best is the 0-60mph statistic! 31 seconds!

She has colored images of the cars showing what colors the cars could come in and everything.

The story goes that in 1929 the market crashed and Buick-Marquette were stuck with these Upper Middle Class cars (6cyl cars were not normal then). They painted your car whatever color you wanted on the spot and the story is they scuttled an ENTIRE ship of brand new cars of the cape of good hope for the insurance $$.

-Mike