Are Dealers Necessary?

It was pointed out to me that I seemed to have come down hard on dealers. Not so. I have come down hard on crappy greedy dealers. The ones that lie, cheat and steal as the only thing they collect is money, with no care for what they sell (or respect for whom they sell to).

Of course, one might ask- are dealers necessary? Yeah, probably. Before the internet certainly. Now it might be possible to do only collector to collector exchanges (such as on ebay), but good dealers do play an important role. Not only do they work as a sort of collectibles bank (storing items until a buyer can be found) but most importantly they can be vast repositories of information. Assuming of course they do not sway their info to make a sale. Which, sadly, far too many do when their next meal depends upon making a sale.

In some ways the cost you pay to a dealer actually includes the value of his experience: identification, checking authenticity, and just in general having spent many years learning about the stuff.

I'd make a terrible dealer. I've tried. I hate to sell anything. Even just to trade it off. No matter what it is, I always end up missing it.