OFF: consumer economics (was: Hawkwind MP3's)

[nickmedford at HOTMAIL.COM]

Damn, I knew I should have resisted the temptation to sift through this
thread.

Anyway:

On Thu, 3 Apr 2003 11:53:59 +0100, M Holmes <fofp at HOLYROOD.ED.AC.UK> wrote:

>Secondhand value is *estimated*
>conciously or unconciously by buyers of new product.

This really seems to be the crux of Mike's argument, at least as far as
CD's go.

I've bought hundreds of CD's, as have most of us here, and not once can I
remember pausing to consciously consider what the resale value on any
particular CD might be and then factoring that guess into my "shall I buy
or not" deliberations. Of course this might not be true for everyone, but a
quick straw poll of friends indicates that others do not make this
conscious consideration either.

Which leaves us with the assertion that we are all doing this
*unconsciously*. Now, I wouldn't claim to know much about economics, but I
do know quite a bit about theories of conscious and unconscious mental
processes. And in general (although I'll happily admit this is a conceptual
minefield), unconscious processes are thought to include certain elements
of sensory/perceptual processing, and some cognitive and emotional
processes such as the repression of unpleasant impulses or prejudices etc.
And undoubtedly unconscious factors can affect our behaviour in all sorts
of curious ways.

However, I have never come across any theory which would allow for an
unconscious estimate of the secondhand value of a consumer item, and the
idea strikes me as wildly implausible.

If people are not, in fact, thinking about possible resale value when they
buy CD's, where does this leave the argumnent?

Nick