[AT] Antique tractors that are too expensive

[szabelski at wildblue.net]

If you’ve ever seen the show called Pawn Stars, you see people who always want above top dollar for what they carry in, and get upset when they are offered a fair price. This is even for things that they got at a garage sale for $10, and are offered $300 dollars for. They think that since they were told by the pawn shop owner the real value is somewhere between $300 and $500, they should get $500 for it. They don’t take into consideration that the pawn shop owner has to make money from reselling it and is actually tying up his money for possibly months.

The same goes for a show called American Pickers. These are guys that drive around the country buying antiques for resale and are often asked to pay more than an item is worth because the owner thinks it’s worth more.

When I go to auctions I always wind up passing on things I want because people will bid more for something that they could buy new with a warranty for less.

Carl
----- Original Message -----
From: Spencer Yost <spencer at rdfarms.com>
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Sent: Sun, 22 Dec 2019 00:13:19 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [AT] Antique tractors that are too expensive


We have all seen it:  the tractor the seller is asking way too much for.  Or conversely; why buyers don’t show up for our obviously wonderful tractor that we post in EBay/Craigslist/whatever.

So listening to podcasts tonight, I ran across a podcast that was discussing many things, including a discussion with a psychologist from Berkeley who was explaining the “endowment effect”. I was unaware of this. Though I had intuited it many times I did not know it was a “thing”.

Long story short it explains why people often seem to ask way more for a tractor that I’m willing to pay.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endowment_effect

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C34&q=endowment+effect&oq=endowment+


Interestingly, this is true regardless of how long they owned it or whether it had any other type (e.g. nostalgia) of value. 

Unfortunately, the podcast did not describe how I, the buyer, could negotiate my way around this.

PS:   I will be that seller if I ever sell the Pacer. (-;

Spencer

Sent from my iPhone