>
> Figure they are folks for whom we are grateful. <{B^) Bill Barber
>
I see your point. We actually need the enthusiasts to buy items beyond the
normal practical demand to get the manufacturers to produce enough units to
get the per-unit price down to reasonable levels. It's like vehicles--once
the item is "obsoleted", they get sold to those people who are perfectly
content with buying "off-lease vehicles".
Meanwhile, enough of them get shelved for so long that they become classic
cars and happen to have all the numbers match.
I personally don't understand the motivation people have to buy expensive
technical items and then shelve them. Back years ago when I worked photo
retail, there was this one gentleman that was buying the latest model of
every camera Olympus and Minolta made. He shot absolutely no more than five
rolls of film in a year, but in some years he bought more than that many
cameras. And then there were the lenses and accessories. His motivation
wasn't to have a complete set, but he was always looking for the "holy
grail" of cameras and each model (didn't matter whether it was pro or
consumer level) had some feature that was going to magically transform his
photography.
My boss (the owner of the store) would just shrug his shoulders and take his
check. (the checks were ALWAYS good--no worries there). Evidently this guy
had lots of money he'd saved through the years and his ONLY vices were
cameras and cigars. He had an ever present cigar (a very expensive one) in
his hand at all times. (The cameras he brought back in reeked and were
coated in dust/smoke/ash).
Only in the past year or two have I learned that it is perfectly OK for
people to choose how they spend there money and it's a hobby. It could be
worse. Drugs and booze habits cost far more than cameras. My wife and I
give thousands of dollars to the church and charity every year--if we
didn't, we'd spend it on something else for ourselves. It all comes down to
choices and the freedom to do whatever we want with what we have or are
entrusted with.
Some choose Leicas, others choose Corvettes, others choose charity. The
funny thing that I've noticed is those who freely give to charity also have
expensive toys. But they might not waste their money on things which are
temporal.
AG Schnozz
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|