On 08 Jan 97, Kit Ballantyne wrote to John Giannini:
 ->> for a very few - Song of the South, Saludos Amigos, Make Mine Music,
 ->> Melody Time - all from the 40s, and Black Cualdron from the 80s.
 KB> I have all the ones you mentioned, also "Victory Through Air Power" and
 KB> rare cartoons such as "Education For Death - The Making of a Nazi". I
 KB> have "The Legend of Lobo" on the way but am REALLY looking for "The
 KB> Reluctant Dragon.
Hmm...Reluctant Dragon isn't even in the same ballpark as far as rarity goes, 
as "Victory"....by comparison, it's a common!  How is it you don't have it??
Oh well, I have it here.  If you want for a few months, it will probably show 
up on Disney Channel.
 ->> Not so!  I buy 10 of every title when it comes out, and I leave them
 ->> all sealed.
[snip]
 ->> I do this *while* having the other copies sealed and
 ->> waiting for interested parties.
 KB> I guess I don't understand what gives YOU the right to make a huge
 KB> profit over someone else's copyrighted works.
I have every right to walk into a Wal-Mart store and buy 10 Snow Whites if I 
want to.  Do I not have that right?  Once I buy them, they are MINE, to do 
with as I please.  If I choose to put them in a box and leave them all sealed 
for 3 years, is that not my right?
Let me ask you this.  If you had the power, would you *rescind* a person's 
right - any person - to buy Disney titles in quantity from a Wal-Mart? 
Perhaps you feel there should be a law that says a person legally can only 
own ONE COPY of any given Disney release at one time?  If you do feel that 
way, imagine the impact at the grocery store!  What if a person could only 
have, in their possession, *one* candy bar at one time?  Or only *one* quart 
of milk? What if a farmer could have only *one* bail of hay?  What if 
Chrysler said "you can own only *one* of our company's cars at any given 
time"?  What would happen to our capitalist society????
I maintain I have a right to own 10 copies of a Disney movie if I want - just 
like I can go out and buy anything else I want to in quantities of 10 if I 
like.  Or in quantities of 100 or 1000 if I like!  I further maintain that 
what I do with those copies once they are privately owned by me, is entirely 
up to me.  I am violating no legal or moral law by holding onto them for a 
few years then selling them off.
 KB>  The video stores are authorized distributors - you aren't.
As I said, if I choose to buy 10 copies of a movie, that is my right. 
Besides, I don't complete with video stores.  How many copies of a movie do 
you think I would sell at $50.00, when the same movie is down at Wal-Mart for 
$15.95? Dah! I hold onto my movies until all the retail stores copies are 
long gone - and then I bring them out.  It's called "investment".  It's like 
people going in to Target or Wal-Mart to buy limited edition Star Trek action 
figures, then holding onto them until all the figures at retail are gone, 
then taking them out and selling them once the collector pricing structure 
for the figures takes over.  Are you not a capitalist Kit?  Perhaps the 
notion of investment - as a concept - is morally offensive to you.  If so, 
you shouldn't be in this country, because that's what people DO here.
 KB>  Also, I think the reason people say the video-scalpers aren't real
 KB> Disney fans is that the prices people like you set keeps these films
 KB> AWAY from the masses.
Wrong.  People like me *bring* them to the masses, after they can no longer 
be found at retail stores!  If it weren't for people like myself - and other 
collectors or investors, then you could never even *hope* to find a copy of 
say, Sleeping Beauty, right now?  If retail was the *only* avenue for people 
to find Disney movies, then once a title went on moratorium, you'd be dead in 
the water for at least the next 5 years, no?  But you don't have to worry 
about that, do you?  Because your friendly neighborhood Disney 
collector/investor has them for you, just for the asking.
And besides, I don't make the rules when it comes to "collector" pricing 
anyways.  It sounds to me like you don't like the whole concept of 
"collectorism" Kit. There *are* people, you know, who feel that the fact that 
a Silver Dollar, say, from 1790, should still only be worth a dollar, and 
that those jerks who want $3000.00 for it "just 'cause it's old" are just 
"opportunists".  This concept, if one believed it, would be a scathing 
indictment of the entire notion of collecting and of collector values and 
markets.  Are you advocating that as your viewpoint Kit?
 KB> The average family struggling to make ends meet simply can't afford
 KB> to pay $150 for "The Little Mermaid".
True.  And the average family can't afford to pay $10000 for the Desk 
(recently auctioned) upon which JFK signed the document that ended the Cuban 
Missle Crisis.  And the average family can't afford the $500.00 it costs for 
the very first edition of the novel "pinocchio" written in 1878.  And the 
average family can't afford to buy a copy of the Beatles "Butcher Cover" 
album, now going for over $1000 a copy.  And the average family can't afford 
to pay $65000 for a cherry specimen of Rolls-Royce's 1933 Silver Shadow.  And 
the average family can't afford to pay $2000 for a Carnival Glass Diamond 
Lace water pitcher and tumbler set (made around 1910).   Do you see a pattern 
here? Most families can't afford to pay "collector pricing" for very many 
things. 
It sounds to me like you think the whole notion of assigning "collector 
value" to something is just plain immoral.  Maybe you feel that the whole 
"collecting establishment", whether we're talking records, coins, stamps, 
movies, cars, - anything you can name - and the whole idea that there's a 
whole market out there that accepts and pays for things at collector prices - 
is just plain bogus and shouldn't exist.  But most people don't think that 
way, and so "collector mentality" is likely to continue long into the future, 
and with it, the millions of families who can't afford the treasures they'd 
love to have if only collector markets didn't price them out of the market.
 KB> I think these films are so excellent that everyone should be able to
 KB> see them.
So you feel access to Disney movies should be a right?  Who should pay for 
that right?
 KB> I know that high pricing would keep most people out of the market,
 KB> so I don't try to make a buck off of my Disney hobby.
If you had an object, say, an antique radio, which you found out was a really 
*RARE* 1939 Filco model, that only 5 were ever made, and each one is worth 
well over 10 grand (to the collector market you seem to hate, of course) - 
would you sell it for less?  If I wanted to buy that radio worth 10K from you 
for 5 bucks, becuase I liked it and it looked pretty, would you sell it to me 
for 5 bucks?  If you answer no, then you have no right to criticize ME for 
selling Disney movies, once they are on moratorium, for collector maeket-set 
pricing!
 KB> I really hope you don't see this as a flame. I am simply explaining how
 KB> I feel on this topic.
Not taken as a flame, and not taken personally.  What I *do* see though is a 
scathing indictment on your part, of the whole capitalistic notion of 
collectibles, and of collector pricing and values, as a concept.  It is 
obviously a strong political view of yours that the whole notion of 
"collectibles and collectibles markets" - and all those that participate in 
said markets, and who support the "market" pricing of collectibles in 
general, are immoral, capitalistic, opportunists.  And politically speaking, 
I am diametrically opposed to your political viewpoint.  Especially since I 
feel that whether one chooses to indulge in "collectible markets" is a matter 
of *personal choice*.  One is never forced.  Your insinuated notion that high 
collectible prices on collectible things do nothing but profit greedy 
opportunists, and victimize the buyer, is just a laughable notion to me.  I 
am just being honest.  I guess what we have here is a totally opposite set of 
politics and values clashing head to head 'tween you and I.
 KB>  I am not trying to anger or attack you.
I do not feel angered or attacked.
 KB> I do, however, feel it's important to get this opinion out.
As do I with my opinion, which, I might say, is far more conventional and 
accepted and mainstream than your view.  That's why I took the time to write 
this huge long message, which to be perfectly honest, is probably off topic 
for this echo, except that the kernel thread here dealt with selling DISNEY 
movies.
Anyway, soap box mode off.
--- GoldED 2.50
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