Virtually every transaction in life is, at it's core, an auction. When you interview for a job the prospective employer bids X dollars for your skill. You either accept or reject, perhaps counter bid/offer, and he has the choice to accept or reject. He bids too low, you withhold your "sale". You overprice yourself, no takers.
If you're a brilliant inventor who developes the world's best widget, but you're a horrible marketer (which many very creative inventors are) and nobody learns of your remarkable device, no takers and you fall on your face.
There's a difference between a market and a marketplace. That's probably a difference without a distinction for those who aren't actually involved in making a transaction occur. But if it affects your livelihood not recognizing that will extract a cost from you. Ebay is a marketplace, Barret-Jackson is a marketplace, the swapmeet is a marketplace. Buyers and sellers are the market. In the next week or so we'll hear commentary about how "B-J is causing higher (or maybe lower) prices", or some such. Baloney! All they really do is host an event that brings buyers and sellers together. Now, no denying they interject some fabricated excitement to induce each party to react, but if either or both party chooses to sit on their hands B-J can't make the transaction happen (of course fraud exists in all parts of life, but again, it's up to the buyer and seller to educate themselves to avoid that). And the fact that it's on national cable TV "informs" casual observers of the price of certain transactions. The "problem" occurs when those ignorant about the complex circumstances that determine value (condition, rarity, desirability, number of buyers pursuing an object,....you know the list) try to overlay that information onto items they THINK are the same, but in reality are VERY different to the well informed.
Ebay is functionally a hybrid. It tries to appear like a live auction, but more resembles a classified ad. If you view it in that context you'll recognize it as the biggest classified ad format on the planet. From a marketing standpoint you get the most "eyes" which should mean you have the best chance to sell an item for the best price. Of course you're still subject to the realities that you're realistic on your pricing expectations, you've presented it when your potential "ideal" buyer is looking, and you've done a good job of demonstrating it's value. As an example of doing it wrong, this weekend I bought a part for $37 that often sells on ebay or the HAMB for around $150. The seller posted it without the brand name in the title (which is probably the primary search criteria for other potential buyers) and his entire description was literally "What can I say, it's old technology". The sellers on ebay are no more accurate or inaccurate in their descriptions than those who list in your local newspaper or on craigslist. I'll bet every single person reading here has at least one story about a "treasure" they found in an ad that was described beautifully and turned out to be a turd.
As for the future size of the Model A market, it's silly to believe it won't shrink. Of course it will still be around to some degree. Anecdotes like "I see lots of younger people......." are nice, true (depending on what "lots" really means), but not all that reliable. Yeah, I'm helping out some young guys in my area too, and am tickled they share my interests. But for every one of them getting on board, there are probably 10 of us old goats dropping out for the obvious reasons. That's not an effective formula for continued growth or even stability. Now, none of that really means anything if you intend to leave all the outcome of that to your heirs to live with. And as said above.................it is just a hobby.
