Subject: Re: Getting long; Was Re: eBay being sued over patent infringement

From: "Mike" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Apr 28 01:19:46 2003

> --- Mike <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>
>> On items were there is a fixed supply, like antiques
>> and collectibles, the
>> only side of the equation that can increase is
>> demand.  Therefore, the
>> price rises to the fair and correct value.  Simple!
>>
> Wrong, the "available" supply has also increased on
> many fixed supply collectibles. People are digging
> stuff out of their closets that would of never been
> available for sale before, or available to only a very
> limited number of people.

Only by an insignificant amount.  If only 10,000 of an item was ever
produced, the supply can't exceed that but the exposure could go from a
few hundred that might see it otherwise to millions.

The proof of that is that prices are rising.  They are rising because
there is more increase demand than an increase in supply.  Supply and
demand is on duty 24/7.

---

From: Jeffrey Sharp <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Apr 28 01:23:05 2003

On Thursday, April 24, 2003, steve wrote:
> > On items were there is a fixed supply, like antiques and collectibles,
> > the only side of the equation that can increase is demand.  Therefore,
> > the price rises to the fair and correct value.  Simple!
> 
> Wrong, the "available" supply has also increased on many fixed supply
> collectibles. People are digging stuff out of their closets that would of
> never been available for sale before, or available to only a very limited
> number of people. 

I agree.  The actual 'supply' we should talk about is not the total number
of units produced, but instead the number available for sale.  And not only
do closet diggers affect this number, but the item's turnover rate is also
an important factor; some items simply change hands more often than others.
The total-produced number is really an asymptotic limit to the real supply,
which varies over time based on these, and possibly other, factors.

-- 
Jeffrey Sharp

---

From: Jeffrey Sharp <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon Apr 28 01:23:22 2003

On Thursday, April 24, 2003, Mike wrote:
> > > the only side of the equation that can increase is demand.
> >
> > collectibles.
> produced, the supply can't exceed that

The significance really depends.  If the total produced is a low number,
say, below 1K, you are very correct.  But if the total produced is more like
10K or 100K, there's a lot of room for that availability figure to vary.  If
everyone but a few people are holding on to their items, it doesn't really
matter how many were produced at all; the items are still hard to acquire
and thus the value goes up.

-- 
Jeffrey Sharp