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© Copyright Robert Cole 1998 - No copying or distributing
Tricks
* Games People Play *
Please forgive a little advice - for the unsuspecting...
At Auction
A group of dealers become long used to divvying the pieces offered to relieve
competition. If auction prices are then low, individual sellers will then
also have low expectations for price.
A group of dealers design a purchase plan for the floor and proceed to acquire all pieces of interest. That evening, a second auction is held in private and the participating dealers make a final adjustment of acquisitions.
Panning A Piece For Sale
A dealer has several clients, but also has several pieces to feed those
clients. By panning the purchase of an individual sword, its owner becomes
inclined to lower the price. Sales for the dealer are not abridged because
his clients only hear about those pieces he wishes to feed them - other
pieces. The dealer effectively holds his clients, isolated, as if in a
bubble. These bubble-clients are fed swords that have been already panned
for several years. Their acquisition price was lower and profit, therefore,
higher. A dealer learns not to be in a rush to buy. He may boldly reason
the owner is storing it for him. If, in this case, the owner finds another
buyer, - there are other fish. (See The Japanese Market SAKOKU
, above)
Devalued By Indifference
A dealer pretends a prime piece is of little value. One of the oldest tricks
is paying overt and undue attention to the lesser pieces in a holding.
Holding A Piece Back
A dealer offers carefully selected pieces that would ordinarily be fine
objects for the consideration of a buyer. Held in some seemingly unreachable
state, a higher value piece piques the interest and pulls the buyer's curiosity,
and obsession, to create a higher sale.
Degrading The Value Of A Piece Offered By Another
The kindly advice of an onlooker is designed to scuttle a sale. A buyer
is sucked into the false and sometimes subtle warnings from what would
seem a neutral party. Here, dealers or others may find it advantageous
to quash a sale of another. The collector, channeled in other directions,
may lose the piece of a lifetime. Friendly note: friends can give earnest
but also erroneous advice; with the same result.
Waiting For The Ignorant To Sell
Someone not knowing the history, school or value may easily get bored with
a sword.
Feeding A Clientele Selected Pieces
A dealer keeps a client's vision focused on one desirable piece at a time.
Using The Collector As A Storage Facility
While arranging sales tailored for one collector's taste, from the holdings
of another, a body of clientele or holders of antiques are used as repositories
by the dealer, feeding them pieces that may then likely be available for
resale or trade in the future. A collector's dream piece is not sold to
that collector but to someone who will consider re-selling or trading the
piece later. The dealer becomes the constant arbiter of ownership, with
a constantly regenerating commission scheme for the same set antiques.
A reminder: One should remember that purveyance is accomplished by economy. It is the mechanism by which owners receive pieces. It helps place responsibility for care. The passing of a piece through time is accomplished by the passing of cash. Each member on the path of ownership pays a price that may include inflation or an added divvy; but that may be the necessary vehicle for exchange in some sales.
Purveyance, in this respect, cannot be considered necessarily an evil. Many aspects of buying and selling are simply inherent.
A lesson besides caution, is knowing that a piece and its history are separate and beyond market and cash. Market and cash are transitory and relatively insignificant.
These pieces have value that transcends cash, utterly. It is this disparate and unabridgeable artistic and historical value that fires market - which is cash. A buyer cheats him or herself if their view or motivation falls from a balance between these two.
With respect to price, the job of a purchaser is two:
| Know value | Know market |
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