It seems that in Flea Market Land, everyone’s buying criteria and willingness to exploit, or not exploit, is different.

Over twenty years ago as I was out and about on a Saturday morning cruising yard sales for vintage vinyl, a yard sale seller asked me if I’d heard a recent radio broadcast of a rock station DJ interviewing a big time, east coast record dealer about his best vinyl score. That sounded interesting, “Do tell!” Apparently, the big shot was bragging about one of his favorite and most valuable finds, the infamous Beatle’s Butcher Cover (demand, yes. scarce, no). It seems he found one at a church rummage sale! When he asked the church folks how much the records were, they replied, “twenty five cents”. Holy Cow! A bargain at twice the price!! What’s interesting is that instead of praising the Lord and paying them their asking price knowing full well the three to four figure value he held in his hand, he thought he’d have a little fun and asked the church person, “would you take ten cents?” According to the yard sale seller telling me this story (which I’ve since heard a couple more times), the rock DJ and the vinyl big shot were having a good chuckle about exploiting the church person’s cluelessness as to the record’s value. Sharing this story had kind of upset the yard sale seller who ended it by exclaiming, “I’d never sell records to that guy!!” Can’t say I blame him. Haggling is one thing, being a dick is another. 

Right around the same time while shopping at the legendary Roadium Swap Meet, I overheard some old timer’s talking about one of their buddies who had recently found a “big Martin” guitar at a nearby weekday swap meet. “Big” could have meant a dreadnaught, large body guitar, or “big” could have been referring to the age, the model and the big bucks value, I don’t know. But “Martin” guitar got my attention. I was all ears. 

Their good buddy asked the seller, “How much for the guitar?” The seller said, “eighty dollars.” The new owner handed the seller two hundred bucks and told him, “Keep the change. You’re not asking enough for this guitar.” Well now, there’s something to think about. As a buyer and a seller, I know that these kind of buyers are the exception and the chances are real good that the next time that seller finds a guitar, he will put it aside and give that generous buyer first shot. But that’s beside the point.

I’ve used these bookended stories many, many times to illustrate how far the pendulum can swing in collector/flea market circles… from a buyer’s blatant greed and exploitation to occasional generosity. I especially use this story to ask the listener; in the context of economic systems, which world would you rather live in; an economy that condones greed and doesn’t think twice about exploitation; an economy that is fair to all citizens and businesses; or maybe even an enlightened economy, one that celebrates abundance and cooperation instead of promoting scarcity and competition… and tends to be generous when you least expect it? Funny, the first choice is never selected. Unless you’re the exploiter.

A societies chosen economic system all comes down to a question of it’s values. As a society, what is most important to us economically? Is an unregulated free market, cut throat capitalism preferable to a managed, regulated economic model that does it’s damndest to find a fair balance between business and citizen/labor rights? Social science and psychological studies by and large seem to confirm, although competition has it’s place, we humans are wired for fairness and cooperation. We feel better about ourselves when we are fair, even better when we are generous. We get a lot more done, tend to have much less stress and tend to be much happy happy happier in cooperative societies, under a cooperative economic system. 

As we witness our current version of Big Finance meets Big Data exploitive capitalism unravel… again… this might just be an excellent opportunity to reflect on what works and what doesn’t in our social economic aspirations: will we live better under an exploitive dick mindset or the generous tipster mindset? Can we finally ditch the labels of capitalism, socialism, etc. and just agree to work toward economic fairness for all, making “fair” the coin of the realm? As we consider this pivotal moment in our social economic history, which of the gentlemen above do you aspire to be?

So asketh Dismal Dave ………… All Rights Reserved © Dave Lancon May 2020