On Feb 2, 4:54*pm, "Nick Knight" wrote:
In , on 02/01/2008
* *at 09:52 PM, Ken Barr said:

I can see that unlimitted free listings would be Bad. *Excellent. *I'll
think a bit more. *I'll look over your other comments as the evening
progresses, too. *Thanks for the reply.
If you want to see the "poster child" for the absolute
worthlessness of free listing sites, check out

Ok. *So, a totally free listing site is not going to be worthwhile. *It
makes sense. *I still want to look at the Stamps2Go.com pages and see how
they charge sellers. *I find it a great resource although, again, I don't
believe they do tons of volume. *I try to help periodically!

But you also mentioned having your web site listed around, yes? *How do you
think most people find your site? *And are there listings of coin links that
are known to be great references?? *Or are you easy to find via google?

What if there was a WANT LIST site for collectors. *Assume it's at least
mildly popular and utilized, and had listings for coins and related
categories? *It might suffer from a "too hard to check for too little
return" syndrome, at first ... but what if you didn't have to manually
check? *What if it emailed you when anything was listed in category X,
perhaps with keywords Y and Z? *And/or had an RSS feed available? *Or maybe
you logged in and it had a "my possibilities" page that knew your searches
and did them dynamically.

I've posted WANTED ads in classic car forums and on sites before. *A few
years ago I was on a kick and wanted 1 of a couple of different types of
50's or 60's makes. *I'm still in the market, kind of, although I'm not
putting any energy into it. *Still, I get an email every so often about one
of my ads, which apparently still exist. *A couple of months ago a women
wrote me about the 56 Buick Special Convertible she had inheritted out in
CA. *I had her send me pictures. *It was complete, but a total basket case.
Exactly what I want (and can afford) - a huge project. *She was just teasing
me, though. *She wanted to know what it was worth, but then told be she was
going to keep it for awhle. *Damn. *The point is, I hadn't put any energy
into this long-shot search and still got a hit, albeit a bit wasteful. *I'm
going to ping her today ... hmmm. *With a more mainstream list of *WANTS and
a little more energy, I'm sure this system would net results.

Still toying with ideas. *At first, I believe I might try a coin link page
if I can't find any that are already well established. *Or even if there is
one ... it can be at the top of MY list. *Low energy, low cost ... no real
down side.

Nick


A 'wanted' site might work, but it seems to me there are pitalls;
you've noted one that occurs to me. You want something, but there is
a large mismatch between what the seller and buyer want.

eBay exposes people who need to sell and are not especially afraid
that the price will be discovered. Saying that I want a Studebaker
Golden Hawk may not be enough to expose a willing seller. Saying that
I will pay up to $2000 for one in good condition is better, but to
really deal with the condition, might mean defining the condition in a
more widely understood sense. The coin world has done this pretty
well.

Even so, there is a difficulty making expectations converge enough for
a sale. I am eager to buy 1986 French 100 FF piedforts at a total
cost of $8 or less. I am eager to buy all the Morgan silver dollars
(XF or better) I can at $10. I get very few chances to do so.

It probably would seem to you that my offers on such a site barely
rose to the level of spam ...