[meteorite-list] An insight to Amgala and other recent falls

From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:44 2004
Message-ID: <BC6976C3.11CC9%mlblood_at_cox.net>

Dearest Gregory,
            You are right on on some things and way off on others. IE:
you are QUITE right about not being able to get two dealers to agree
on anything longer than a few minutes, let alone 3 or more dealers.
Any hallucinations of "price fixing" are worthy of a hash pipe.
HOWEVER, regardless of whether you (or I or anyone else) likes
being "in the know" about what was paid by whom and when is
quite secondary to the "my dog is bigger than your dog" tone of
said discussions. It is that "tone" of the discussion to which I
was protesting, not the content, itself.
        If people want to huff and puff and see who can pee highest
up the wall - REGARDLESS OF CONTENT, they should do it AT LEAST
off this list, and preferably in private - but DEFINATELY off the list.
        Again, it doesn't matter what the content issue is - it is the
PROCESS that is the point. There is PLENTY of information I would
like to have, but no mater WHAT the info is, bringing it out in the
context of a "my dad can beat up your dad" format on the list
isn't OK.
       (I will refrain form mentioning MULTIPLE specifics of things
written that SPECIFICALLY violated list rules in the above exchanges -
as doing so is just one other way of putting it on the list).
        BTW - I quite agree - the content was most interesting.....
        I always appreciate your wit and perspective, Gregory, but
on this one..... well, maybe after reading the above you now agree
with me? If not - no prob.
        Best wishes, yer bud, Michael


on 3/1/04 5:40 PM, Sharkkb8_at_aol.com at Sharkkb8@aol.com wrote:

> mlblood_at_cox.net writes:
> Why is all of this being done ON THE LIST instead of in private?
> Must respectfully disagree on this one, Michael - this is a conversation
> about the inner-workings of the meteorite-market, seems to me that not only is
> it
> perfectly relevant for this list, isn't it also ideal fodder for your
> "Meteorite Market Trends" column? As long as the discussion doesn't descend
> into the
> realm of the personal attack, seems to me it couldn't be more appropriate.
> More information is always better than less, it seems to me - I like knowing
> about wholesale and acquisition costs when I consider paying retail for
> something....and not just meteorites.
>
> That said, I, for one, get a little nervous whenever I hear rumblings about
> "destroying the market." To me, the only way a market could only be
> "destroyed," is if it is disproportionally controlled by somebody to begin
> with. If the
> market is a healthy one, the fluctuations and highs and lows are the result
> of healthy competition and normal supply-and-demand among a large group of
> buyers and sellers, too large for any one buyer's or seller's activity to
> affect
> the "big picture" much. From reading their list-posts over the years, it
> would
> seem that meteorite dealers would be incapable of getting together and
> agreeing on pizza toppings, much less be able to conspire to keep prices
> artificially high, much much less be able to maintain that conspiracy for very
> long
> without someone jumping ship. So if it's true any one dealer (or worse, a
> complicit group of dealers) is even capable of "destroying a market" for
> something,
> then in my opinion they have managed to seize unfair control of it in the
> first
> place, possibly approaching the point of it becoming (at best) unethical or
> (at worst) illegal...it's called price-fixing.
>
> Buyers can and should occasionally flex their muscles, too, and should
> respond by refusing to buy from dealers who engage in any unethical or illegal
> practices -- and price-fixing is not much more deserving of buyer-tolerance
> than
> the meteorite acquisition-style popular near Bethany, Connecticut. So those
> dealers who band together and conspire to keep prices artificially high should
> do
> so at their own peril - let the seller beware, too. $0.02.
>
> Gregory
>
> J. Gregory Wilson
> 2118 Wilshire Blvd. #918
> Santa Monica, CA 90403
>

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Received on Tue 02 Mar 2004 02:24:51 AM PST