Venting My Spleen about "Tire Kickers"

[Navy]

All,

I realize that this may sound to some like the pinnacle of arrogance or at least a lot of misplaced hostility <img border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" title="" src="graemlins/cussing.gif" /> , but I would like to comment on folks (you know who you are!) who enquire about a piece that is FS and request pictures, When the pictures arrive, then they ask the price, which was posted in original advert,

Then, they go into what I call a "Great Aunt Tizzie Hissie" about how over priced the piece is for the condition and a laundry list of other venial sins.

Well, I would like it noted for the record, assuming anyone keeps a record, that when I offer a piece FS, it is only to make a home for an upgrade. I do my luger stuff as a hobby and am not a dealer nor do I depend on revenues from Luger sales to put bread and wine on my table. I am a hobbyist; a collector. My profession is that of a business development consultant, for which I charge and receive an exhorbitant hourly wage.

When a tire kicker e-mails me and wants pictures, well, I go from being billable at the exhorbitant hourly rate to unbillable. In short, it costs money in the sense of unrealized opportunity costs.

So I do it any way and then the yucca-putz, after knowing the price going in and having the initial photos, says he needs more and better photos. Well, what the heck, one does what one can for the good of the order.

More pix and more aggrivation getting them uploaded...all at the expense of client billable hours.

Then the reply, "Whoa, that price is way out of line..yadda, yadda, yadda."

Point of rant: For most forum members this is NOT a business; it is infact, a money losing hobby that is about as costly as one lets it be. If someone offers a piece on the FS column, fer gawd's sake don't ask for pictures if you aren't pretty seriously interested. It wastes people's time (The only unrecoverable resource) and is a pain in the keister.

Rant switch to flight idle.

Tom A.