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Effect of eBay on AMCA swap meets
I've attended many AMCA National meet swap meets over the last 6+ years and was always pleased to find that I could usually get whatever I needed for an antique H-D at a very reasonable price. While we have all heard the typical grousing about the impending effect of the Internet on prices, for the most part I could see only a minor effect.
However, I just got back from the Wauseon meet and for the first time I noticed that which I would term "The eBay effect" was very evident. In many cases, while looking at a particular part and trying to reach a deal with the seller, I was told "That is the least I'll take - I can get that on eBay". Even before the swap meet opened, in that customary period where the vendors buy and sell among themselves (as at any swap meet of any type in any part of the country), some of the vendors were buying up any deal they could find with the purpose of selling the part on the Internet. Most of those buying do not even set up a booth to sell, they only come to buy.
I believe I can speak for most of us who believe in free enterprise and do understand that the market in any item will find its own level, but this is a trend that I find deeply disturbing. No longer are you competing with fellow antique bike lovers attending on that day, but you are competing with someone sitting at a computer, perhaps not even in the USA, at some future date that the part hits the Internet!
Where in the past it was possible to buy enough parts at an AMCA swap meet to completely build an antique H-D motorcycle at a decent price, that is no longer the case.
So what's the point? Two points, actually:
1> If I end up having to pay eBay prices to buy parts at an AMCA meet, why would I want to attend the meet? And how can I justify the vacation time, travel costs and lodging? Let's see, three days vacation, $180 for motel, $100 for eats and drinks, and $310 for gas - divide that cost among the parts!
2> Speaking from past history, to a time in the early eighties when the cost of the major parts exceeded the value of the machine as a whole, it is to the point that "marginal" machines (complete but not 100% correct) have more value apart than together! Don't believe me? Price a complete springer, knuckle motor with a clear title, frame, trans and sheetmetal as individual units on the Internet, add in the odds and ends, then look at what that machine would sell for all together! And there are people out there doing this right now!
So where does that put the hobby? There will always be the camaderie aspect of the meets where good friends get together to browse, eat and imbibe - in fact, that is what holds it all together. But as more and more people become jaded and tune in to the Internet, our meets may become "virtual meets".
Any thoughts from others?
Thanks,
Lonnie
However, I just got back from the Wauseon meet and for the first time I noticed that which I would term "The eBay effect" was very evident. In many cases, while looking at a particular part and trying to reach a deal with the seller, I was told "That is the least I'll take - I can get that on eBay". Even before the swap meet opened, in that customary period where the vendors buy and sell among themselves (as at any swap meet of any type in any part of the country), some of the vendors were buying up any deal they could find with the purpose of selling the part on the Internet. Most of those buying do not even set up a booth to sell, they only come to buy.
I believe I can speak for most of us who believe in free enterprise and do understand that the market in any item will find its own level, but this is a trend that I find deeply disturbing. No longer are you competing with fellow antique bike lovers attending on that day, but you are competing with someone sitting at a computer, perhaps not even in the USA, at some future date that the part hits the Internet!
Where in the past it was possible to buy enough parts at an AMCA swap meet to completely build an antique H-D motorcycle at a decent price, that is no longer the case.
So what's the point? Two points, actually:
1> If I end up having to pay eBay prices to buy parts at an AMCA meet, why would I want to attend the meet? And how can I justify the vacation time, travel costs and lodging? Let's see, three days vacation, $180 for motel, $100 for eats and drinks, and $310 for gas - divide that cost among the parts!
2> Speaking from past history, to a time in the early eighties when the cost of the major parts exceeded the value of the machine as a whole, it is to the point that "marginal" machines (complete but not 100% correct) have more value apart than together! Don't believe me? Price a complete springer, knuckle motor with a clear title, frame, trans and sheetmetal as individual units on the Internet, add in the odds and ends, then look at what that machine would sell for all together! And there are people out there doing this right now!
So where does that put the hobby? There will always be the camaderie aspect of the meets where good friends get together to browse, eat and imbibe - in fact, that is what holds it all together. But as more and more people become jaded and tune in to the Internet, our meets may become "virtual meets".
Any thoughts from others?
Thanks,
Lonnie
Good Luck in finding all the parts you need @ the rite price !
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