Current economic crisis affecting your Metal buying habit?

Heathen · Post by **Heathen** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 7:11 pm

Sgt. Kuntz will know better, but Germany for example have had a very good economic growth rate of late, the same can be said about other EU countries besides the PIIGS. I do not hear any reports of unemployment growth in the developed countries. There is no recession in the US either. So the "ongoing recession" is a bit exaggerated.

If the prices did not drop in 2008 (at least not in CDs) then why should they drop now?

nightsblood · Post by **nightsblood** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 7:34 pm

Heathen wrote:There is no recession in the US either.

Sorry but that is incorrect. We're at 9% unemployment, which may be as high as 15-20% if you factor in people who have been unemployed for so long that they no longer receive unemployment assistance. The housing market is a disaster, with over 4 million homes currently for sale and another ~ 4 million that need to be sold but aren't even on the market yet b/c listing them would flood the market and cause prices to collapse. Deficits are high, economic growth is low, and forecasts are for continued problems for at least another 6 months - 2 years. For examples, homes are estimated, on average, to lose another 6% of their value by the end of this year. So if you buy a house worth $100,000 today, it'll be worth $94,000 by Christmas.

I know things in the US aren't as bad as in some places, but please don't listen to the idiot US politicians who claim the recession ended last year; they're just trying to get everyone to quit demanding they do something to fix the problems.

Heathen · Post by **Heathen** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:58 pm

nightsblood wrote:economic growth is low

Exactly, economy is growing slowly, but is not declining, hence there is no recession. I didn't want to imply that things are great or even good, just wanted to make the terminology clear. In 2008-2009 we had a geniune recession in Europe. And the prices on eBay were insane as ever

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:13 pm

Heathen wrote:So the "ongoing recession" is a bit exaggerated.

Not for Greece, unfortunately.

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:34 pm

Khnud wrote:The value of the $ has increased 50% over the last two months. I can no longer afford auctions in dollars, have to concentrate on British Pounds instead.

I really don't know where you're getting that notion from. As of today 1 USD$ = 0.70 Eur which is pretty much what it has been for the past year or so. Meek and weak... It is probably the pound going down the drain. I noticed a significant decrease of buyers from the UK recently.

chatzial · Post by **chatzial** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 10:45 pm

stormspell wrote:
Khnud wrote:The value of the $ has increased 50% over the last two months. I can no longer afford auctions in dollars, have to concentrate on British Pounds instead.
I really don't know where you're getting that notion from. As of today 1 USD$ = 0.70 Eur which is pretty much what it has been for the past year or so. Meek and weak... It is probably the pound going down the drain. I noticed a significant decrease of buyers from the UK recently.

Khnud's posting is 2 years old.

Helstar · Post by **Helstar** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:02 am

chatzial wrote:Khnud's posting is 2 years old.

FAIL

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:43 am

Oh well, haha! It is hard to see post dates from this bloody cellphone

nightsblood · Post by **nightsblood** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 4:00 am

Heathen wrote: Exactly, economy is growing slowly, but is not declining, hence there is no recession.
I didn't want to imply that things are great or even good, just wanted to make the terminology clear.

With home prices in free-fall in a bloated, stagnant real estate market, record deficits, high unemployment, and the economy failing to meet even modest growth projections every quarter, I think it's safe to say the US economy still sucks regardless of what term technically describes the scenario

In 2008-2009 we had a geniune recession in Europe. And the prices on eBay were insane as ever

Sorry, have to disagree again. By the beginning of 2009 ebay prices for collectible metal vinyl tanked and tanked hard. Rattlehead14's collection sale was the perfect example; Jim had been getting well over 'normal' value for most of his items, but by January 2009 both the sale prices and the number of bidders decreased to the point that he suspended selling any more of his collection on ebay for about a year. Prices have come back up since then, but for most of 2009 ebay prices were down. I'm surprised we haven't seen prices slide back down some considering how jittery Europe is and how the US economy continues to stagger.

Back to the orig question- I've been very lucky to stay employed the past few years so if anything I've been able to buy more records than I was before the recession. I still keep a close eye on my finances though; no $1,500 Lether Nunns for me anytime soon- not even any $500 ones

Sgt. Kuntz · Post by **Sgt. Kuntz** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:40 am

I don't know which parts of the world are in a recession or not, but i think it's safe to say that the psychology might soon play a even bigger role in that. Here in Germany it still feels like living in a safe haven at the moment, but people are anxious because of the dept/euro crisis to loose their savings and their pension entitlements, when we bailout half of the mediterraneans. I really feel sorry for every greek or spanish collector who is forced to sell a collection he built up over many years, but i guess sooner or later there won't be enough affluent buyers left for them.

What goes for the greek goes also for the US of course, but that will happen on a much, much bigger scale without anyone to drop a bailout or two, unless you count on the idea that the Chinese will step in.

chatzial · Post by **chatzial** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 12:31 pm

Recession affects mainly the Greek record store owners.

Most of the serious Greek collectors have lowered their budget for record buying but don't sell their collections. And when i say serious collectors, i mean people that have been buying for years and have big collections, There always were some people that caught the collector's "germ" for just a few years and after buying a couple of hundred records they "get better" and sell them.

Fils Du Metal · Post by **Fils Du Metal** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 9:04 am

prices will never drop. That is economy as it has been since thousands of years. Up and down up and down, it is a circle. And just for the record collecting thing in metal, from my point of view, the next thing are still higher prices than now in any case.

After the 80's stuff now the 90's stuff is still increasing in prices and new buyers/collectors step in for both 80s and 90s the next decade as there are so many metalheads now as we had in the 80's, even more as the world population is growing more and more. The end not to be seen on the horizon so let's wait for the thing after the new metal movement in 2020 or 2025? Grunge? Techno?

The economic crisis is just a political game but all the money spoken of never existed in reality making the thing even harder for the population of those countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal...

Russia is very strong already in economics and now in metal collecting, also Ukraine, China and India will follow if the cultural change is starting really here...

CDs were dead 2 or 3 years ago and now they also sell again and there is rare stuff that gets prices like 15-20 € or more again....

Khnud · Post by **Khnud** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:46 am

Prices on e.g. nwobhm (disregard the mega rarities) have dropped considerably recently. This is a good time to buy!

lynx · Post by **lynx** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:09 pm

Fils Du Metal wrote:CDs were dead 2 or 3 years ago and now they also sell again and there is rare stuff that gets prices like 15-20 € or more again....

Not only have I not seen this, stuff that was priced 15-20 a few years ago (recent reissues, however rare) sometimes get priced at 50-80, as well as non-rare vinyl stuff which sellers think is hip.

This is ridiculous. I think I often feel guilty posting about cool bands on forums.

Vaggelis · Post by **Vaggelis** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:28 pm

Heathen wrote:Sgt. Kuntz will know better, but Germany for example have had a very good economic growth rate of late, the same can be said about other EU countries besides the PIIGS. I do not hear any reports of unemployment growth in the developed countries. There is no recession in the US either. So the "ongoing recession" is a bit exaggerated.

If the prices did not drop in 2008 (at least not in CDs) then why should they drop now?

In Poland things go fine?

I am a bit confused?

OK economic crisis maybe partly absent or totally absent in some countries of Europe.But the crisis is expanding both in Western And Eastern Europe like a plague.

Greece was the first country(or Iceland?) of Western Europe to face really difficulties.Next Ireland,Portugal now Italy,Spain,UK also have difficulties and cut downs in spending.Most Eastern Europe countries face also economic difficulties.

Not all countries in the world are Switzerland.So don't be sure the worst are past....

I think the next years if we continue with the same ritmus.Most of the Eurozone will face serious difficulties one after the other.