On 17 Jan 97, Carin M. Armlin wrote to John Giannini:
 CA>> Heh, yeah...I want The Little Mermaid, but I'm not about to pay $150
 CA>> for it (or any other video).
 JG>> Actually, the price is quite fair considering collector market value.
 CA> Maybe for people like you who must have ungodly amounts of money to
 CA> spend on these things (you buy 10 copies of each Disney video?  You
 CA> sure ain't one of po' folk).
Oh!  You are sooo wrong!  :-(  I have, like, no money.  Right now I am 
completely unemployed, and have been for over 2 years.  Jobs are very tough 
to come by in the small northern Calif. wine country town I live in.  My wife 
works, luckily, but it's very hard for 2 people to live on what she brings 
home.   That's not her fault, it's the area here.  I sacrifice to do the 
Disney thing, believe me.  We don't eat for a few weeks, when a new title 
comes out.  And indeed, we do it *only* so we can *make* some money in the 
long run.  What I make on those rare occasions I actally sell a title goes 
instantly for bills.  I am no wealthy person, believe me.  And even when I do 
sell a rare title for a hundred bucks - what's a hundred bucks when our 
monthly *rent* is $650.00?  You see, all is not as it seems.  I invest in the 
Disney movies more as an act of desperation than anything else.
 JG>> Carin, don't you collect anything?  Surely you know that certain
 CA>  Sure, I collect things.  Does that mean I have to pay hundreds of
 CA> dollars for something tho?
Well, if you want the rare stuff, you have to.  It's the same for anything 
people collect.  Look at how much the rarest US coins go for these days.  
Half a million dollars was the last auction price fetched for a Stella.  (A 
$4.00 gold piece made by the US mint around the 1880s.)
 CA> I don't want the Disney movies just so they can sit on my shelf,
 CA> unwrapped and never watched.  That is ultimately what I would be
 CA> doing if I paid hundreds of dollars for them.
Well, I assume you would open *one* to enjoy for yourself, and then just keep 
the rest sealed.  That way you could enjoy your movies.
 CA>  It's like these people who buy these paintings, say like by Van Gogh,
 CA> and instead of displaying them, they keep them locked away in a vault.
 CA> Or buy baubles, yet when they go out to dinner or a big Hollywood 
oopla,
 CA> all they have on is costume jewelry.
Yup.  People don't like to have really rare stuff out.  Too easy to get 
damaged or stolen.  I have some really rare depression glass, and it's boxed 
up just to make sure it survives.  I can't enjoy it packed in apple boxes, 
but at least I know it will not get broken or chipped.
 CA>  So?  Does this mean that I am deemed to pay these prices for them?
 CA>  If I choose, I don't have to pay anything for them.  Sure, I've
 CA>  collected Star Trek cards, paying 10-30 cents for them (obviously, not
 CA>  the RARE) cards.  I'm not going to pay $80-$500 for a card tho.  I 
on't
 CA>  care how rare it is.
Aw..*grin* you just don't want the rare stuff bad enough.  Hardcores - people 
*really* into collecting a certain thing or whatever, often will pay the high 
prices for the rare stuff.  It's what hardcores live for.
 JG>> Maybe you don't collect things, and therefore don't suffer from
 JG>> "collector- itis" - the disease of being willing to pay dozens of
 JG>> times more than original price for something "collectible" - but many
 JG>> of us do.
 CA>  No.  I'm suffering from a disease called "common sense," and
 CA> "po-folk-ism." I exist on disability.  My bills get paid.  I'm lucky to
 CA> have enough for dinner at McDonald's afterward.
At least you can afford McDonalds!  My wife and I haven't been out to a 
restaraunt - even a McDonalds, in well over a year.  It's way cheaper to go 
to a discount food store.  For 10 bucks, we can get enough food to last days, 
whereas at a McDonalds, 10 bucks gets you one dinner with drinks and fries. 
McDonalds is too expensive for *my* blood...
 CA> My Sears card is what enabled me to buy most of the Disney movies I
 CA> own.
We don't even *have* credit.  Not with the unpaid student loan hovering over 
my head for the last 5 years...  You're luckier than you think!
 CA> Unlike you, I cannot afford to buy multi-copies of one video.
As I said, we really sacrifice for that.  Usually we have to purchase the 10 
titles of a movie over a 6 or 8 month period of time.  We could *never* 
afford to buy all 10 at once.
--- GoldED 2.50
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