[rollei_list] Re: OT: eBay as History
- From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:28:24 -0400
At 01:17 PM 7/22/2010, Eric Goldstein wrote:
>Marc -
>
>eBay is extremely useful as a SOURCE for historical data. Few sellors
>have the skills or motivation to doctor the images of what they
>display there. The descriptions/narratives are unreliable, but that is
>nothing new to historians... just about all narratives from all
>sources are.
>
>What can be very unreliable is the interpretation of that data in the
>hands of historians, few of which enter into their investigations with
>neutrality... they almost all have a position to prove or uphold and
>facts to spin spin spin...
Eric
You do not know the dozens and dozens of
occasions on which it has turned out that sellers
have misidentified the item or listed the wrong
serial number. It is true beyond all question
that relying on eBay as an historical source is
like using the NATIONAL ENQUIRER for the same
purpose. eBay is helpful for establishing the
selling price of an item over the past month, but that really is about it.
I will admit that I scored some really nice
pieces back in the day from idiots not
understanding what they were selling. But
history? Nah! I had to dig up the history elsewhere.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
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