Orv Wrote:

“Anybody see the Panama Set go for $197.50 yesterday. Good Grief!"

You betcha I saw that! You just beat me home to post it. This particular seller had 6 of those Panama pieces for sale at one time in December and early January with a pretty high reserve. He (or She) would start the bidding at $50 but I didn’t see any hit the reserve until one sold for at least $90. And now they’ve managed to SQUEEZE $197 (plus shipping) out of somebody.

Collectors on this forum have seemed to want lower edition quantities but here is an example of what can happen with a small edition size, which in this case is 4,000. First, this seller apparently got their hands on at least six pieces (that seems odd because in the chat rooms, a HL "insider" told me that a dealer would have been unlikely have gotten so many Panama pieces), next several folks on the Forum claim to have “multiples” (1-for personal collections, 2-for investment, 3-for trade), and so the “true” available volume for the market was induced to exacerbatedly low levels. Many people looking for the Panama Canal pieces have had a difficult time due to this environment. Some may call it hoarding.

I realize that Ebay can be an unpredictable place where often times human behavior overcomes financial practicality. Ultimately, Ebay is a form of free enterprise at work and I should be happy for the seller because they got “max” for their product and for the buyer who “got” what they wanted and who was ultimately responsible for their own bid. On the other hand, and what point does it cross the threshold of that unpleasant terminology called “gouging”?





[This message has been edited by JULB (edited 01-20-2000).]