Earl Brunner on sun 20 dec 98
I put this under this heading because that seemed to be where the thread
was. I'm just a little curious. What percentage of the potters out
there are computer literate? I know some really FINE potters that are
indifferent to, or scared to death of computers and the internet. Yet
those of us that use this list see value to this connection and
interchange. Is this the only use for the internet that we see? How
many of us have bought anything through the internet? Or do we apply
the same mentality to the rest of our purchases that we do to buying
books? Is it ok to buy a wheel or a kiln from one of the dealers in
Ceramic's Monthly that offers 1/3 off instead of from the store in town
that charges list price? What's the difference? Where do you draw the
line? Did you buy your computer from a Super Store, or a mom and pop
shop? Are we saying its ok to buy from any "pottery only" supplier but
not from the big guys? This whole argument is crazy. We need the local
suppliers, but my local supplier doesn't make the majority of his sales
on books, or for that matter kilns or wheels. He does it on all the
other things, clay, glaze, chemicals, tools. He has to do his part too
to stay in business.
It doesn't bother me to buy from Amazon, it's convienent and fast, I'm
doing my bit for the environment by not driving all over town. I
probably have between 30-40 titles in my Ceramics library and I
'thumbed" through darn few of them before buying. Half of them I bought
either out of print or used, many from abebooks.com (a great place to
find out of print books by the way). If I can order glaze materials
from out of town cheaper than locally, gasp! I do that too. And oh boy,
forget clay from the local guy! WAY over priced. I am not in business
to keep him in business. I'm in business to feed my family pay my
bills, have fun, and buy more toys.
Earl Brunner
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