Originally posted by bill campbell
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I have no objection to someone making a fair profit on something. That is how business survive. But to take an item that cost a certain dollar and then ask five or seven times that amount for something that is a copy is just plain wrong. Guys who score an old bike for a fair price then sell it for ten times that amount to someone with a lot of disposable money are raising the cost of like machines. Unless a young person is fortunate enough to be born into a family in the hobby how many young men could afford to buy an antique motorcycle in todays market? When I started you could buy a running Knuck or a Pan for 200 bucks. That was less than two weeks pay. When todays young men are working for ten/fifteen bucks and hour there is no way they could ever expect to get into this hobby. To me it is a hobby. Something I love. To others it is a business and they try to squeeze every nickel they can from it. There are guys who buy, sell, and make parts at a fair price. That is good for them and good for the hobby. But others are profiteers who gouge over the top prices. I have made copy negatives of H-D factory photos. I sold them for a more than fair price making a small profit on each. I probably could have sold them for a lot more money. But I have to live with myself. Now I don't need to make a copy negative. I can simply scan the photo and give the file to somebody. If they choose to have a print made that is up to them. A photo made from a copy negative is never as good as one made from the original negative. So I jumped in Barry's face about the exorbitant price he was asking for his copy photos that were proudly printed on "German Paper" and had his signature on them. Others also noted he was gouging. He couldn't stand the heat so he got out of the kitchen. That was his choice. The only thing keeping Barry away from this board is himself.
Since then, to many people, "German Paper" has come to mean something that is overpriced.
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