Mug prices, hemlines, and Ooga-Mooga

I realize this isn't a new topic, but there's certainly a trend with tiki mug prices. The problem as I see it stems from that most valuable resource: Ooga-Mooga.com.

Anyone who spends time on eBay sees that mugs usually sell for close to their OM price. Buy It Now auctions almost always seem to be priced around 20-25% above the OM average price. Any time I find a tiki mug in a local thrift store, if the mug is identified the name matches the info on OM and is priced, again, 20-25% above average. It's effectively become a feedback loop, where it slowly drives the prices higher and higher.

It's not surprising, really. OM is really the absolute best resource for mug collectors, and you can't find the information there anywhere else. The problem is that it has effectively become a ghost ship. Humuhumu announced she was going to overhaul it and then vanished off the face of the tiki scene, possibly due in part to her having a child (that can certainly change priorities!). I've emailed her a couple times, but never gotten a response, and she hasn't posted on TC in over a year after being one of the most prolific posters. :(

What I'd like to see is the price guide on OM only be available for paid supporters. That would make a huge difference in how mugs are priced, and potentially return some normalcy to the market. Heck, I'd just like to see some acknowledgement from Humuhumu that she's still around and still planning to do something with it.

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2013-08-03 09:27 ]

ALOHA TikitTacky,

The biggest problem is ooga mooga prices are not automatically added when a mug sells online..They are only added when someone sees a sell and then enters the amount of the sell.
My point is Ooga Mooga is really not the best way to value mugs.. a good reference though.
Mahalo,
Ron

On 2013-08-03 13:39, ron-tiki wrote:
ALOHA TikitTacky,

The biggest problem is ooga mooga prices are not automatically added when a mug sells online..They are only added when someone sees a sell and then enters the amount of the sell.
My point is Ooga Mooga is really not the best way to value mugs.. a good reference though.
Mahalo,
Ron

Ron, did you mean a price sighting is the "for sale price" not the sold price?
I have never added a price to OM especially if it is from a thrift store. I don't want to "devalue" something that I just scored for a song. :)

I find the price guide on OM a bunch of nonsense...always have...and if people use that as their selling guideline they are pretty foolish.

Items...tiki or otherwise...will sell at a price that someone else feels they are worth.period.

As a thrift shopper I've bought 10 Tiki Bob mugs in the past for no more than $7 a piece and have resold some of them for as low as $39 to as high as $198...all within the same year.

Seems having a price guide is pointless. I do appreciate OM as a place of reference however since sometimes find something and only after checking online do I find out where it came from.

And if you want OM improved offer to help...in the great scheme of life having a baby and starting a family is about 1000xs more important to some people than some hobby ever could be.

Due to circumstances beyond my control I had to remove an item from my Ooga-Mooga Sale/Trade list. My wife appropriated it as a gift to a friend. Anybody else have this problem? :)