Ryan, Just about everything you see on any dealer site(bar none) is over-priced. Not only over-priced but by a very significant margin. These prices even seem to have gone up since the economic downturn! I collect heer daggers mostly but no way am I going to pay anything like $13 - $1500 for a heer dagger, even if it is early & no matter how much I want it!
Collector to collector trading used to be a great way to transact but again most of the people selling are being completely unrealistic with the value that they place on their items even though most of what is offered is so poor that i wouldn`t entertain it at any price.
I don`t think many collectors on GDC are as insane as the ones on WAF for the prices they ask but the market is very much in decline and that is just not reflected in the prices.
As collector to collector marketing is concerned the continental europeans are by far the most deluded in what their stuff is offered at and for the most part I see a lot of junk. Anything that might be considered worthy of a place in my collection is 50% over - priced IMO.
If you want a really good wheeze then take a look at Regimentals.co.uk. The English dealers are even more outrageously demented than the U.S./Canadian guy`s. They are putting in the final nail of the coffin if you ask me.
Certainly the odd piece is sold but much is on lay-away and there have always been individuals with more money than sense. I am not one of them and would no longer consider myself a collector so much as a viewer these day`s.
The hobby of collecting TR stuff is dying. Even if the prices were significantly adjusted the new (and for the most part useless) generation we have raised are more interested in hip-hop, celebrity nonsense & paying for designer crap made in China than history; regardless of whose history or how important & interesting it may be to us.
Several years ago I was saying that the increasing prices were not sustainable and folks were nay saying it then. Well people can believe what they want but the stark reality is there for all to see. Anyone want a Teno leader? Go ahead and stump up 7k for it then go put yourself in a corner with the dunce cap on. Be my guest! I want one too but not that badly
Let me see.....has my salary doubled since 2004? that would be NO!
Has my property doubled in value since 2004? er....That would be a resounding NO! Hey! It went down!
I rest my case.
Landser (an ex collector)