Supply and demand is not the issue for me. To me, listing something for sale online without a price is like having a grocery store without any prices on anything. It shows a lack of courtesy for the potential buyer(s). Why make things harder for the very people who are looking to possibly buy your item? It saves a lot of correspondence work to list the price, for both the buyer AND the seller. As a buyer, I'm more inclined to low-ball if something is listed without a price, because I have no frame of reference for what the seller thinks it's worth, and of course I'll try to get the best deal possible. If a price is listed, and it's roughly in the ballpark of what I would pay for that item, I will either make an offer or agree to pay the seller's asking price. If the price is too high for me, I'll move along and save everyone involved the trouble of bantering about the item. I don't see why a seller WOULDN'T post a price, unless they were hoping for somebody to make a ridiculously high offer on it...

well, i respectfully disagree on all of your points. when a potential buyer has to ask the price, i do not subsequently get the lowball absurdity that i get the moment a price is listed.

truly interested buyers are welcome to ask for price, pics, etc... and the rest i'm not all that concerned about. if i had 100 drums to sell, i would operate differently, but for single units this has worked for me.

i just don't see any issue worth three (and counting) pages, except that people are trying to value their own gear and want data about closing prices.

That makes absolutely no sense at all. How would putting a price on what you are selling do this? For the record, I don't price my equipment at current market value. Most of us keep them fairly low. We tend to help each other out. Now, that doesn't apply to all here, but most. If you were to follow my pricing, you would get an inaccurate bit of data. You are welcome to continue doing whatever it is that you do. I don't believe anyone here is telling you otherwise. There's always going to be extraneous variables that restrict 100% inclusion.

this may be true for you, but when discussing price buyers usually mention closing prices of similar items (on ebay and whatever forum you post on) as a point of negotiation. it's normal to use comparable transactions... it's done everywhere from real estate to corporate finance. it may be skewed (hence my comment about guessing at the demand curve) but it's the way things happen.

why so few defenders of the practice? it's become common enough to warrant a complaint thread, i'd like to hear some other thoughts.

Soap Box

How would I know that I'm below market value unless I had checked eBay and other commercial vintage dealers? We all do. But does that excuse us from not pricing our items for sale? I think not. Placing a price on an item is how we communicate value to potential purchasers. There are many methods to run transactions (fiscal, trade, barter, etc.). How is hiding the value going to help?

A point that has eluded this entire thread is this forum was put in place to help the Webmaster answer people's questions and to help to document the history of vintage drums for the future thumpers. I read that verbatum from more than one of his posts over the last couple years.

Now, Seller A lists a picture, a price and some details about the drum. This is very helpful to not only the present enthusiasts but a future collector may look back on this site and get a look at what a particular drum was selling for at that current time. The overall post includes a plethora of information, which is considered favorable and helpful.

Seller B, lists a description and says pics available to serious inquiries and lists no price. This listing, while being completely at the seller's discretion and within his "rights", helps nobody but the seller in the end. This post doesn't provide much in the way of anything but a written description of a drum. This is not very helpful to anyone.

I guess I am eluding towards the fact that the forum is a place of help. When I was a noob they answered my stupid questions just like everyone elses. Sure, you get a guy or two on here who go on a rant about answering the same questions but the membership, overall, is a helpful group of humans.

This is all just how I see it and I am no means speaking for anyone, including David.

Toodles,

Drumhack flowerBurger KinSailing2Mister TExcited

So, I'll admit I'm playing devil's advocate because I think there's a real point here. That said...

1) Price is only what the item will command from a single buyer, not what eBay shows. As vintage items, they are unique in a way they were not as new.

2) Is this basically a thread about "why can't I see how much you're selling for without even having to ask?"

3) No one has explained what is so difficult about interested buyers getting in touch with sellers? They would have to do so anyway to make a deal!

1) most all are acutely aware how to price items and how much weight to associate with eBay and Maxwells and the rest.

2) no. Reread the original post. It's a thread reminding all that this is a forum for vintage drum history ... not an auction house or other such nonsense.

3) you have no point here. The buyer and seller will naturally touch bases. There is nothing to explain ... Other than the lack of a price tag ... which is a pretty ludicrous thing to leave off of an item for sale.

I believe we've beat this horse enough. What say you and I take a break and allow others to join the fray.

Well...I know I am guilty of the occasional "rant" over answering the same questions over and over......but if you hang out here for any period of time you will notice a pattern.....a noobie joins the forum, asks the question....usually about how much is such and such worth, gets an answer from someone, then not an hour later the same drums come up on ebay for sale, same pics and all....and this happens on a regular basis. The other ones that get ranted over are the same reoccuring questions over and over.....which if said noobie used the search function first, I'm sure that the info is out there on the forum and has been discussed before, so no need to ask said questions since all they need to do is search and read. Plus the most common questions are stickied at the tops of each forum section, can't get any easier than that.

As for RogerSling's comments about posting an asking price and pics in the forsale section, I agree.......nothing more annoying than having no clue as to what the seller expects to see for their stuff for sale. I don't care about the discussion about how middle management and their prize BMW, or whatever yuppie car they drive, has statistical charts about how the market works blah blah blah......I'm here to buy a drum if I'm so inclined. Post a price! If it too much $$ for my budget, or too much for the posted condition, I move on. Just because its old doesn't mean its automatically worth a ton of money....condition has a big part in the price of the stuff too you know....it could be the rarest of the rare, but if there is almost nothing left of it, then its worth nothing. Hence the "low-ballers". Assuming that most of us here have lots of cash because we own, collect and enjoy vintage drums is another point that bothers me. Yes, some of us do fit that description, but others do not and are just regular working stiffs on a limited budget. Should I be called a low-baller just because I'm trying to buy a vintage drum that fits my budget? I don't think so.....The vintage drum market in recent years went as nutty as the vintage guitar market and the vintage car market........why? Because all those baby-boomer yuppies had money to burn and wanted all that stuff they never got when they were kids. Now the rest of us suffer from high prices. Vintage drums, guitars, and cars are now treated like a stock or a commodity, an investment.....shouldn't they be treated as the objects that they are? Like drums, guitars and cars and be used as such? I think so......

Soap Box

Yep, the reasons for posting a price and pics in this venue outweigh the reasons not to.

Despite ones' personal preference or opinion, don't we do things everyday for another's convenience and comfort? (Helping?)

Don't we adapt to our environments and situations to better get along and contribute to the overall success and working order of other arenas we choose to enter? Why not here?

We can look at it as losing a portion of our autonomy, or as helping out where help is warranted, whichever our perception allows us to believe.

Or change our perception........ Or not.