What If Apple Sold Patches?
Posted in What if Apple sold Scout patches? What if patch sellers behaved like Apple?
Apple, Inc. has been in the news recently because of a dramatic price cut for their new iphones. This has angered some of the early adopters. Apple responded by offering various rebates, most prominently a $100 credit in the Apple store for those who bought the phone more than two weeks ago. That the price went down shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who pays attention to “techie stuff”. But still folks, were upset at the price reduction being so large and so quick.
Scout patches behave similarly. We’ve all certainly seen a new issue come out and sell at a very high price. After a while, more copies of that issue get sold and the price drops. It happens frequently with first flaps. We see it happen after every NOAC or Jamboree — or other special event — where folks spend “funny money” to get the patches they missed only to see them sell for much less six months later.
What if Apple sold the patches? Would they offer a credit for those who were the first to buy the overpriced merchandise?
What if dealers and collectors behaved like Apple? Would they offer a credit on future sales if the price of the hot patch drops like a rock just weeks later?
It’s fun to make the analogy, but that’s not how the collectibles — or tech! — market works. Children used to be taught that patience is a virtue. Avoid the urge to jump into the feeding frenzy for the hot new patch of the month. Unless it’s one of the few issues that really is scarce, it will be readily available later for much less.
To quote Allan “Doc” Lewis speaking to Bill Pergerson at a Trade-o-ree. Bill felt that the patch he was looking at was overpriced but was hard to get. “Bill you can always sell it but you can’t always buy it.”
Johnny reminded me of that once and I made a purchase that hurt a bit, but was a very nice addition to my collection.
Doc and Bill’s advice makes sense for stuff that’s been around awhile and its scarcity is known. For the new hot patch of the week, I’ll stand by my advice: patience. It applies to patches as well as consumer electronics.