Change to Ed West's posting schedule

[John Vasco]

nemo7777777,

OK, let's stop pissing about and call you out: "...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!..." For your information, I paid 8,50 Euros for a photo of Bf 110s of 2./ZG 2 in 1940. I was delighted, but surprised that some other big bidders did not come in for it, for the simple reason that there are not too many photos of I./ZG 2 Bf 110s of the 1940 period out there. Maybe it looked too bland, but to me, it was worthwhile to go after it.

"...regret to find great pictures at good prices..." Whatever are you talking about??? I said nothing of the sort.

I get the impression that you want the big bidders to go away, and for prices to go down to where they were a couple of years ago. Well the simple fact of the matter is that new bidders have entered the arena, and you have to live with that. The e-bay auction world has changed. Tough shit! We all have to live with it. But they will not be bidding on every photo that is put up, for whatever reason. When that happens, the auction is at the mercy of an individual's value of what they see before them. And remember (and I've said this before), however high a particular bidder pays for an item, it means someone else has been prepared to pay 1 or 1/2 Euro less for that item. It's called an auction. It doesn't matter whether Ed posts auctions before they have finished or after they have finished, as people will look at what they want on e-bay. I'd set up my 'favourites' to see all the Bf 110 stuff, others will have set up more general searches. The bottom line with what Ed has posted in the past is that I can also see the other types, and see what they go for. Where's the harm in that?

You talk about 'normal' prices. The normal price is the price an individual is prepared to pay for an item, in competition with others. That's why van Gogh paintings go for millions of dollars/pounds - because more than one person wants it, and they and others are prepared to pay big money in an attempt to get it.

And this "...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?" I'll tell you for starters. Go buy, or take a look into, my two books on the Bf 110 in the Classic series, and you will see them. If you want, I'll even go so far as to tell you which pages they are on. You want scans of some of them? Send me a private message.

Basically, I think you're full of shit, and simply a shit-stirrer on this board, making provocative statements without backing them up in any way. I call you out on that. And finally, let's see who you really are. Don't hide behind a nom-de-plume - I don't.

[kormoran]

Very interesting, Ed is changing his mind continually.
Not very authentic in my opinion. He stayed the course 1 week, great!
Let's see how the auctions start to run now...

About the Ebay first-class pics: in the last years some hundreds of great
photos were sold at ebay - we only can see a few of them in actual
published books or magazines. I'm sorry John, that's sad but true.
I think that the plan is to monopolize most good photos which are sold in
the world. The only one man who can spend unbelievable cash for buying
such photos is trying to demoralise all other collectors. And some of these
guys are really frustrated as I can see. I can understand them because
they can't or won't place insane bids. So maybe there are two ways to
stop this changes: stop bidding against sudek so that he wins every photo
for only few Euros or Dollars. The sellers will become happy!
Or push every photo up to 500 Euros/Dollars or more, maybe the sudek
team will become frustrated too...

With a little bid irony on sunday,
Günter.

[John Vasco]

kormoran,

What you say is true, but unfortunately, that is life. Sometimes, it hurts, but we have to get on with life. Let me give you a personal example. You may know, from clicking on my link in my signature, that I have been playing guitar and gigging since 1969. I had a 1970 left-handed Gibson SG Standard guitar that I traded in the mid-1970s, and in later years regretted letting it go (I also let a 1968 Les Paul Custom go - what a dickhead I was!). About 12 months ago the exact same model became available in a shop in the UK, for £3,500. I was convinced that it was my old guitar, since left-handed guitars were a total scarcity back then. But I didn't have that kind of money to splash out on a guitar, and eventually it was sold. Gutted. The point I make, as others have made, is that market forces are always at work, and we may dislike them, but we just have to live with them.

I believe that if photos go to purely private 'collectors', then the likelihood of seeing them again is almost nil. If they go to researchers, there is more chance of seeing them in future publications. If they go to a certain archive, there is every chance that a lot of them will surface in publications in the future. Not necessarily in our lifetime, but new researchers will continue work away at our chosen subject long after we are gone. That's why all my research records will not be slung in a bin when I quit research, but will go somewhere safe for others to look into and use in the future.

[gogh]

Hi John Vasco

I hate the paintings van Gogh made. It was shit.
I also like Bf110 and other aircraft thats art.

and for the others members

Its not a Karl Marx world, but a Dollar world.
and If you want to spend your money this way so be it.
Or else join the communist party? (just joking)

Cheers
Peter van Gogh

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by John Vasco

Now if you click on the link in my signature, everything will become clear, and you'll understand just how much of a mad, lunatic, Englishman I am.

And what kind of Englishman would rate a Plantagenet our last legitimate king? Harold was the last English king, since then they've been Welsh, Scots, Dutch, German - anything but English!

[John Vasco]

Touche, Nick! And coming from Liverpool, I am a Lancastrian supporting a Yorkist as the last true king of England. I told you I was mad...

[John Vasco]

Peter,

No harm in hating the paintings of van Gogh. I'm from Liverpool, but hate Liverpool Football Club, because I support the original football club in the city: Everton.

[nemo7777777]

John Vasco, you got this very interesting 110 picture at such a low price, simply because you did your homework in Ebay and because the big bidders, who have probably more money than time, haven't simply copy-pasted the auction numbers from Ed's listings in Esteal or Gixen, with an unbeatable bid. But obviously, if it's not a problem for you that good pictures cannot be bought anymore at a fair price with a little bit of research in Ebay, it's probably because you seem to have special access to these "first-class" pics. Why is it so hard to admit it? After all, everybody here is defending one's little piece of meat. The guys in the "system" have interest that the best pics fall into this big mysterious collection, because they can access it; the guys outside the "system" have interest to be still able to find from time to time interesting pics, that havent't been noticed and managed by this "system". And the difference is obvious: the past week, I bought at reasonable prices some very interesting pics, which would have been otherwise much too expansive to buy for the normal editorial project of a normal guy. By the way, I know that all this is perfectly legal, that in a liberal system the "big pockets" guys can buy what they want, but in the end you got a monopolistic system, what is not liberal in any way. Once again, I'm thinking to these aviation reviews, which can pay 30-50 euros for a pic, but in no way 300 for a good one. And the result of this "de facto" monopolistic system, is that all these great pics cannot be seen anywhere in print, except for a few exceptions. And I dont' even speak of scans of these pics on aviation forums. Finally, I ask myself too why the sellers continue to put their pics on Ebay, as it would be probably much more interesting to make direct deals with these "big pockets" guys. That's why auction professionals, in the domain of arts or collection cars, don't like that kind of system, because in the end it kills the market.

[John Vasco]

nemo7777777,

"...it's probably because you seem to have special access to these "first-class" pics. Why is it so hard to admit it?..." There you go making incorrect assumptions again. For fuck's sake, don't presume anything about me that you do not know. If I work on a project, I may approach certain people to see if assistance is available. If it is, great. If it is not, then I move on. Let me spell it out for you. I DO NOT HAVE SPECIAL ACCESS TO ANY 'FIRST CLASS' PICS BELONGING TO ANY PERSON/INSTITUTION. I NEGOTIATE IF I WISH TO AVAIL MYSELF OF ANYTHING. I HAVE NOTHING TO ADMIT.

So get off my fuckin' back with your half-baked assumptions and allegations, which you make with no foundation in fact.

[David Ransome]

Cheers Ed!!

I have to say that I too have been looking at pics on eBay over the last week, probably using similar search criteria, and didn't really notice any difference at all in the average fetching prices - and no, I wasn't just looking at Heinkels!

John, nice web site!

Regards,

David