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Record Collectors and Network Exchanges

Japanese collectors travel to the United States to find records that are essentially unwanted by Americans but considered valuable by Japanese fans.  These collectors go to conventions and record dealers to scour thousands of records and buy the rare, cheap records then sell them for about three times as much in Japan.  While the records they are interested in were not particularly popular in the US, they are still rare, and it is difficult to find such records in good condition.  The records unpopularity resulted in low production numbers, and therefore, the collectors have to go through very many records in order to find one that is worth anything in Japan.  Dedicated collectors get to these record-buying events early in order to have first pick of all the records, and they negotiate with the dealers to get the best deal on these unwanted records.

The way these record collectors operate is similar to the network exchange theory.  Only two people, the dealer and one collector, can make a deal on a record and negotiate in order to reach an agreement.  The dealer sets an initial price on the record and the collectors can either accept that price or comeback with another price, which the dealer can counter or accept.  This cycle will continue until the two agree on a price or the collector decides to no longer buy the record.  In terms of power, the two have slightly equal power.  The dealer holds power of the collector because he owns the record and knows that these collectors find his unwanted records valuable.  The collector holds power over the dealer since he is willing to buy something that may be hard for the dealer to sell otherwise.  If another collector wants the same record, the power of the dealer increases, and he holds more power than the collector. The number of collectors and dealer present at such an event as well as the rarity of the records all contribute to the amount of power each person holds in this network exchange of records and money.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443696604577647870908169992.html?mod=WSJ_business_AsiaNewsBucket

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