(Fair) Market Value

The case of Heirs of Tantoco vs. Court of Appeals (G.R. No. 149621, May 5, 2006) defines the concept of fair market value:

"Simply put, just compensation is the fair market value or the price which a buyer will pay without coercion and a seller will accept without compulsion."

Although the case dealt with the power of eminent domain and such definition is culled from a DAR Administrative Circular, the case of Republic vs. Gingoyon (G.R. No. 166429 December 19, 2005) discusses that this power can also be exercised on personal property, making my dream of commandeering a sports car in a police chase (I would have to be a police officer or aiding such officer, I suppose) a reality.

Now for the ICT point. After another hearing in Manila postponed because of heavy rains and because the judge lived in Navotas, I decided to go on a Quiapo adventure, in a barong. I resolved that I was not to buy anything because my clothing might affect the price, I usually go shopping in these kinds of places in shorts and slippers to fit the scenery and to be in better haggling position. But the best way I suppose would be to don a police uniform (again the police chase fantasy creeps in).

But I digress, as I was asking for prices of bicycle parts in the hope of upgrading my oldschool bmx, I realized a fundamental change in which I made sense of prices. My mind would remind me "pucha i-check mo muna sa net kung magkano talaga 'yan." Thus I realized that the (fair) market value of goods has now been shaped by the internet. One of the problems I remember of Economics, i.e. asymmetrical information, has now been partially solved.

I was far from the hours-long canvassing of prices of my youth, had I Internet connectivity this morning I would have decided to buy the rims I found which is from $37-98 from my research which they sold for PhP 350, but this was Quaipo and I would have run the risk of losing any Internet device especially because I was in a barong.

Of course there would also be the question of whether these rims were not counterfeit, which again the Internet solves, virtually complete information.

Later I will go to Quiapo to buy the rims and take up BMX again, and although I believe that mountain bikes are for mountain goats, I wouldn't mind a few more gears of I were to climb a mountain not made of dirt.