Psihologia negustorului acum 125 de ani

Nu este "cioacă", deci nu face parte din serialul având-o vedetă pe Elodia (sic!). Este un extras dintr-un articol semnat de Douglas Garth (negustor londonez de mărci poştale şi organizator al unor licitaţii filatelice timpurii) în revista The Philatelic Record, vol. 10, nr. 115 din august 1888, pag. 142-143. Vă recomand să-l citiţi cu atenţie, deoarece şi astăzi unii "întreprinăztori" procedează exact la fel.

"Let me venture to give a by no means exaggerated instance of the present system. X, a well known dealer, has acquired a scarce specimen, which has hitherto been looked upon as of the value of £10, or thereabouts. He is not in any way pressed for money, and he prefers to keep it as an attraction and adornment of his show-albums rather than dispose of it to the first customer who may offer himself. He therefore puts a prohibitory price of say £15 upon the stamps, or one half more than the existing market value. Y, another equally well known dealer, has in keeping another specimen of the stamp, and immediately makes use of the fancy value quoted by X, with the result that a country customer, not well versed in the market prices, is with little difficulty induced to believe that he is reaping a bargain in obtaining the stamp for a small reduction from X's price, or for say ,£13 10s., whereas he is in reality paying 30 per cent, more than the fair price. Meanwhile Z, a third dealer, notes the above quotations with interest, and (although possibly he may not have a specimen of the stamp) boldly inserts in a catalogue a quotation 20 per cent, higher than X's price, relying upon being able to purchase X's specimen at a price that will give a large profit to both himself and X in case the stamp should be asked for. So it constantly happens that in a few months' time only the quotation price of a stamp is raised as much as 100 per cent., although there has been no increase of demand, and the number of specimens extant is precisely the same.
And this system has, may I add, increased during the past two years to an extent which is at least discouraging, if not alarming, to the young collector, who can never retaliate to the argument that the stamp «actually sold for so much last week», because there is no denned market value which he can quote".