The Penniless Pensioner
It's been a while since I've had a good whinge and here it
is.
I know that I've had a whinge about this before but it seems
to be my one and only gripe these days.
What the hell are people thinking when they sell second hand
goods! Yes, yes, yes, you can go on
about a free economy and people being able to buy and sell as they see fit but
where is sanity as opposed to greed.
Second hand to me is less than 50% of the original retail
price, don't for one minute think that asking merchant prices should get you a
sale. Thinking that because an item is
out of production (OOP) means you will get more doesn't cut it with me
either. Coins minted during the Roman
Empire have been out of production for millennia and they are cheaper than what
some people expect their goods to sell for.
In the current environment I see that there are two kinds of
collector or buyer (which I think is the better word). A product is bought either to be used, or as
some form of speculative investment, hoping that a return on an item will make
the initial investment worth the purchase.
I am, as you may guess, a person who uses what he buys, my purchases are
used, not stuck on a shelf on the off chance that I can sell it for more than I
paid. Personally I believe a person has
better value buying gold, dabbling on the stock market and money exchange than
playing silly buggers over costing miniatures and games.
I am an exception to the rule of old age and cashed up
pensioner trying to buy his "childhood" memories back. My memories don't need to be re-purchased,
they will always be there. However attempting to purchase items that have
clearly been inflated due to a perceived notion of worth annoys the leaving
hell out of me. While I am old, I don't
have the wealth I once did. (Being a
pensioner on a government pension is worse than being penniless.) Yes I bought a lot when I had cash, but this
has slowly been chipped away as I've had to pay for expenses in real life or to
chase another project. In the case of
selling for another project, the loss of product compared to the acquisition
has been horribly stacked against me.
Rather than some form of equivalent exchange I've had to part with more
than I'd normally want to. Yes, yes I
can hear you say, well you didn't have to sell at what you didn't want to sell
for. Well I sold for what I believed was
an acceptable price for a sale, my problem is that no one else seems to follow
this practice.
All I can think of is depression when watching people sell armies or games
and seeing asking prices in the high hundreds to even into the thousands of
dollars. Who has that sort of money around? I certainly don't, even though people seem to
think I do (once I did, but then I bought items new, not second hand).
There is a person (of a growing number I know) who annoy
the hell out of me when it comes to selling items. Yes they can be a canny buyer, but they
expect more in a return for items they no longer require or have purchased purely to make a profit. A person who seems to have the cash to make
those purchases that I'd baulk at, or be too slow to get. All because I don't have the wealth to
acquire.
I keep thinking of the value of my collection of played
games. My family will gain some value
from it when I am gone, but it worries me the sort of person who is going to
buy it. I'm certainly of the mind to
have the whole lot burnt and destroyed rather than see some greedy bastard
acquire what I bought for the love of my hobby.
People today don't seem to know what it's like to do
without, always wanting the mansion before the humble cottage. I have been privileged, I have had wealth and
I have at a few times been destitute. Relying now on a government pension to exists means that that is all I do, exist. What few pennies I have left over after
paying all the bills is little. So when
I go shopping I really need to buy what I can for what I think is an acceptable
price. I could save the money for
something bigger but my family have a capacity to drain me of money before they
are prepared to spend their own. As a
parent and husband, my wife and children always come first, as it should be.
The world seems to be filled with greedy people, who care
only for themselves, who don't seem to think.
Please if you are going to sell something, then think about who you are
going to be selling to. Take the time to
determine whether or not the person who wants your goods is someone who will
cherish and use the items. Have some
social conscience and sell to someone who may very well become a friend and
enjoy a game or two with you. I'm sure
that the person who buys for altruistic reasons, who has only their own pockets to
line or dusty shelves to burden will be a soul lost damned.
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