Change to Ed West's posting schedule

[JMSmith]

hi all,

for any of you that don't know Jan, he is one of the good guys out there, his photo collection is fantastic.

hi Jan,
i knew you was not one of the complainers, but it seems strange that Ed won't name them. spotted one of Sky's listings, as soon as it was sold, the image was removed.

[edwest]

I am not naming names since the real issue is to see what effect, if any, will occur if I post links after the auctions close. My goal is to assist researchers, not buyers and sellers on eBay.




Regards,
Ed

[John Vasco]

Thing is, Ed, researchers are also buyers. I got a great 110 photo recently at a ridiculously low price. Puzzled as to where the man was on that one (and many others recently). It simply means that I have a great scan for the project I am working on. So your action, while I totally respect any decision you arrive at, may turn out to be a double-edged sword, disadvantaging in a way some researchers who have benefited in the past from your previous modus operandi...

[edwest]

You have a point, John. I'll start up again today.





Regards,
Ed

[steve sheridan]

Thats fantastic Ed!
Im sure i speak for many people on this site, by saying thats the the best news all week.
Please continue to post your E-bay listings,
your efforts are really appreciated!!

Best regs,
Steve.

[Jan vd Heuvel]

Hi Ed,

that's the best decision you could have made.

I am not speaking on behalf of myself for this decision, because I am retired and have all the time to look through all the Ebay-auctions.

But we are all interested in aircraft of WW2 and when we buy a book we all hope that the profiles of planes depicted in the book are based upon actual photo's and not some artistic (fantasy) products of the makers of the profile.

Posting listings of active Ebay auctions will not influance any of the auctions. Big buyers such as Sudek13 have many inbetweenmen and they don't need your postings to find photo's of aircrafts.

What is damaging to potential buyers is the discussions about these photo's.

Some photo's may not seem so special, but when discussed it can make them special.

But that is not your problem.

You have been in the past and hopefully also in the future a great help to the WW2 aircraft fans by pointing out interesting auctions on Ebay.

By doing that you have helped many researchers to let them make profiles that are based on real photo's and not fantasy impressions of artists.

All the previews at Ebay are of help for researchers and artist, despite of all the copyright stamps.

When you are a profile-artist it makes a big difference if you will have to make a profile based on some guesses or based on an actual photo of the aircraft.

Regards,
Jan

[edwest]

Thank you, Jan.




Regards,
Ed

[Mikael Olrog]

I must say that I'm a bit puzzled by the discussion on weather or not to publish links to e-bay photos before or after the auction is over. Despite being full time working and father of a 18 month son I check all e-bay auctions of interest to me. Ed's links very rarely lists any photos of the aircraft I'm interested in (don't know why :-) so I couldn't rely on his excellent service to satisfy my needs. And when he does list them, the prices are not higher than what I would have expected anyway. It is my conclusion that it doesn't matter if 30 or 350 people have looked at them.

I know who my competitors are and they find the same stuff as I do (all the time - damn it!). By judging what type of photo it is (of the aircraft type that is of interest to me) I can more or less make a list of who will be bidding and in what region the end bid will be. My conclusion is that Ed's excellent efforts doesn't really affect the prices on e-bay - its a bonus to all of us.

How ever I do enjoy to look at Ed's links now and then just to see some nice photos which I probably wouldn't have looked at otherwise but they doesn't make me buy anything that I hadn't located myself.

As Jan point out the discussions started are very interesting and in some ways are similar to the ones in the Luftwaffe Verband magazine.
/Mikael

[nemo7777777]

Thank you, Ed, for the past week. During these few days, it has been again possible to buy interesting pics at reasonable prices (1), by doing a little homework on Ebay. A pity it didn't last, because the fun of searching and bidding was there again (all this is a little bit like the collection car market which went crazy ten years ago, pissing off the real enthusiasts in front of the speculators). An auction professional could have said that the market was sane again. In fact, the "big-pockets" guys won and the guys who have access to the "big-pockets" guys collections (but who don't want to spend any money) won too. And the guys who lost are the many researchers working on editorial projects, but without having access to these collections: they will be again limited to second or third class Ebay pics (by the way, how many of these first-class Ebay pics have you seen published or have you ever heard of any precise informations to access them?). To say the truth, what you can read here, Ed, is in no way representative, as most of the guys here either work for the "big-pockets" guys or can have access to these collections. So, these guys have no interest that other buyers can buy interesting pics at normal prices, as they will have no access to these pics. For instance, it's quite possible to make a book on a specific aircraft by paying about 20-40 euros pro picture, but it is impossible to do it by paying 250 euros pro picture. Yes, who could do a book about the 109 NOW, with those prices? It's also the case for many little aviation reviews, which run always on a very small budget. (1) For instance, I don't understand this comment.... "I got a great 110 photo recently at a ridiculously low price." ... from a guy who seems to regret to find great pics at good prices. Frankly, how can one regret to buy an interesting thing at a low price, unless by being somehow masochist!

[Revi16]

Originally Posted by nemo7777777

Thank you, Ed, for the past week. During these few days, it has been again possible to buy interesting pics at reasonable prices (1), by doing a little homework on Ebay. A pity it didn't last, because the fun of searching and bidding was there again (all this is a little bit like the collection car market which went crazy ten years ago, pissing off the real enthusiasts in front of the speculators). An auction professional could have said that the market was sane again. In fact, the "big-pockets" guys won and the guys who have access to the "big-pockets" guys collections (but who don't want to spend any money) won too. And the guys who lost are the many researchers working on editorial projects, but without having access to these collections: they will be again limited to second or third class Ebay pics (by the way, how many of these first-class Ebay pics have you seen published or have you ever heard of any precise informations to access them?). To say the truth, what you can read here, Ed, is in no way representative, as most of the guys here either work for the "big-pockets" guys or can have access to these collections. So, these guys have no interest that other buyers can buy interesting pics at normal prices, as they will have no access to these pics. For instance, it's quite possible to make a book on a specific aircraft by paying about 20-40 euros pro picture, but it is impossible to do it by paying 250 euros pro picture. Yes, who could do a book about the 109 NOW, with those prices? It's also the case for many little aviation reviews, which run always on a very small budget. (1) For instance, I don't understand this comment.... "I got a great 110 photo recently at a ridiculously low price." ... from a guy who seems to regret to find great pics at good prices. Frankly, how can one regret to buy an interesting thing at a low price, unless by being somehow masochist!

Nemo,

Do you honestly believe Ed has some type of SUPER POWERS when it comes to ebay?
You are fooling yourself if you think that when Ed doesn't post the links that no one else on planet earth will see these auctions and bid on them?

Maybe I'm the one with Super Powers? I'm able to find, bid on and win items on ebay without Ed's help. ( No disrespect Ed).

Great work Ed!

Thanks,
Mike