[meteorite-list] Meteorite economics revisited

From: Michael Farmer <meteoritehunter_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:45 2004
Message-ID: <00d901c4015a$2f53ec10$0200a8c0_at_S0031628003>

Adam, find me a person on this list who was not honored that price when I
started selling. I sold hundreds of pieces. Again, I refused one offer from
David Gregory, again as he was buying from Morocco, why should I sell to my
competitor? My choice I belive.
Did anyone try to buy from me and I refused? I did run out rapidly and did
raise the price later, my choice in this free economy I belive.
Mike Farmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Hupe" <adamhupe_at_comcast.net>
To: "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 9:44 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorite economics revisited


> Dear Rob and List,
>
> This could prove to be a good subject for friendly debate.
>
> In response to this question asked on the previous post.
>
> "When someone offers material at a fire-sale price, I fail to see how
> that hurts other sellers of the same material. After all, what's to
> stop those sellers from simply buying-out the "rogue" seller?"
>
> In this case, the so-called "rogue" seller was not willing to honor the
> publicly made offer to anybody who put in a large order, in other words it
> was more for show. The public perception then became that this material
has
> now dropped in price to a certain level even though in most cases it was
not
> being honored at that level. This caused problems for honest dealers
trying
> to protect their investments. Perceptions are very important as anybody
who
> runs a business will tell you.
>
> Another point is that even if the "rogue" party was willing to sell to
> another dealer at half his initial costs. The dealer would have to
> dollar-cost-average down his inventory never reaching the break even point
> due to the limited amount of material. Why should the honest dealer shell
> out more money when he already has a considerable amount invested?
>
> "Why, yes - no damage at all. Meteorite dealers don't set prices --
> buyers do. Since meteorites are a non-essential commodity, if the
> price is too high, people simply go without."
>
> That is why I used a birthday fall as an example. If one source was in
> control of an entire fall because others felt it was not worth going after
> than they could ask anything they wanted. Say a few collectors wanted the
> fall very badly because it landed on their birthday. My guess is if they
> could afford it they would pay the unreasonably high price. Say two
dealers
> had the same fall. Then the price would be in check because if one
dealer's
> price was two high then the collector could always approach the other
> dealer.
>
> Yes, dealers sometimes do set the prices. It then becomes a matter of
trust
> for collectors that they are not paying too much. The standard business
> supply and demand argument only works for true commodities not for
> meteorites in all cases. This is because no two falls are alike just like
no
> two pieces of fine art are alike. Is fine art a commodity in the business
> sense? Do investors buy futures on meteorites or fine art?
>
> Just some more thoughts,
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
> http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Wed 03 Mar 2004 03:00:31 PM PST