[meteorite-list] Re: Blood Auction Results

From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Feb 17 22:04:53 2005
Message-ID: <BE3A9B23.1802B%mlblood_at_cox.net>

Hi Ryan,
        I happily report price of sale to individuals who placed an
absentee bid on a given item.
        The reason I do not post prices is out of consideration of
all the dealers in Tucson - and even those not at Tucson. For some
reason, people are under the misconception that the price at an
auction means something about the "value" of said material. I have
even heard a DEALER state that price at auction DEFINES market
value! I could not disagree more. What the price at auction means
is that
1) Given all the other items up for sale AND
2) Given the priorities of the bidders at that particular auction
3) at that particular time
4) and given the amount of money they have to spend at that moment
5) and relative to weight and
6) visual appeal of the item
7 relative to all other items and the bidding pattern on them and
8) the bidding activity on the given item
one person was willing to pay that amount, at that time, etc.
        In other words, it means NOTHING in terms of the market.
        Have you ever heard of someone buying a house at a tax auction
for less than 10% of the "market" in the area? Or someone paying 5 times
the "market value" of a meteorite on ebay? These are only a couple of
instances demonstrating my point.
        Yet, people will go to a dealer the day after the auction and try to
beat him down on a price of something saying, "At the auction this
sold for XXX a gram and your asking YYY a gram. That's way more than
what it is worth."
        Of course, the perspective buyer is trying to get a deal, but if
what he was saying were really true, he wouldn't be trying to buy it today,
as he would have bought it at the auction. Frequently the dealer is offering
a much smaller piece, possibly with more eye appeal, etc.
        So, no, I quit publishing prices because people kept beating up
dealers with them. Of course, when I tally up everything after an auction,
I inevitably beat myself up for letting more than a few TERRIFIC buys get
past me! I do not, however, pretend I should be able to find those prices
anywhere else.
        Furthermore, dealers in Tucson almost all had to:
A) Travel a long distance
B) Rent a room & buy meals daily
C) Tie up capital in their stock
D) put in countless hours to make all this happen
        1) packing,
        2) planning
        3) renting the room in advance
        4) getting airline tickets or driving great distances
        5) etc)
E) Usually buy a nice display box of some kind
F) Rent display cases for the show
G) Make labels, keep records, etc. etc.
        They do not need to then have their prices held up to completely
arbitrary comparison to a one night a year auction. In addition, I have
never heard of a single incident of a buyer saying, "Gee, this sold for
MUCH more per gram at the auction! You aren't charging nearly enough.
Can I pay you more?" Though you can be sure the opportunity to
do so happens quite often.
        NOTE: this statement is not aimed at anyone in particular, so,
if anyone is taking it personally, you are mistaken.
        Best wishes, Michael
        
Received on Thu 17 Feb 2005 10:04:03 PM PST