[meteorite-list] AD: Video Footage of our trip to Oman

From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jun 5 15:14:19 2005
Message-ID: <BEC89D2B.1D7A2%mlblood_at_cox.net>

Hi Darren,
        First, please take note: this response is not directed at you,
personally, rather the frame of mind you so eloquently expressed
and which is so common in the meteorite community.
        I am continually amazed at the lack of awareness of commercial
justification of pricing. If collectors in the meteorite community were
subjected to the kind of thinking expressed below in their own professions,
they would be totally outraged.
        Completely ignored (in this specific case) include (but are in no
way limited to the following:
- Extensive (lifetime, really) experience on the part of the producer
that allowed him to make a video of any significance in the first place
- The cost of the trip, overall, in immediate out of pocket expenses that
allowed him to make the video
- The relative unlikelihood of the vast majority of potential buyers of
ever going on a journey like this themselves.
- The expense of going on a journey like this one's self
- The educational value to those who might actually go on such a trip
in the future.
- Countless other factors.
        Why should bypass surgery cost so much if a "smooth" operation
can be performed in just a few hours? Why should one have to pay a
welder $25 for a single weld he can do in 6 minutes? Why should one
have to pay $125 for a golf pro to spend just one hour helping one
knock a few strokes off one's game? Why should we pay $6 at a matinee
or $10 at night to see Star Wars when we can own a knock off for a few
bucks? Why, why, why? I pay a friend $40/ hr who has the know how to fix
anything on my computer - with a one hr minimum. If he fixes it in 6
minutes, $40. Why?
        I have continually been amazed at the shoddy way many collectors
relate to professional meteorite dealers.
        If all the engineers, professors, welders, computer tecs, Dr.s,
lawyers, etc. who collect meteorites had that happen to them in their
professions, they would yell bloody murder and, likely, several murders
would occur (note the deaths involved in the formation of unions in the
first half of the 20th century).
        I, being a dealer, immediately sent my $12.50 to Steve, knowing I
would be getting something far more valuable than my stinking $12.50.
I know, because I am aware of the countless "hidden costs" in everything
to do with this business.
        It boggles my mind people still think this way about meteorite
dealers. This resentment can be heard over and over again in hundreds
and thousands of posts to this list, in aside comments at shows, etc.
Darren, this way of thinking is in no way unique to you - it is a major
common head set - perhaps held by the majority of collectors - and if
not, certainly a huge minority of them. So, again, please don't feel I am
directing these comments to you - it is to everyone who holds onto
this strange notion that meteorite dealers are some sort of scam artists.
(There are a few - but VERY FEW, and to the best of my knowledge, they
are all very well known).
        So, all the hundreds of collectors that I have heard voice disdain
for people making a profit in this business. Have you noted how many
dealers are actually wealthy? And those few that are, have you noticed all
they went through to get where they are today?
    It is to all of you I ask the question, what would happen if people
thought that way about YOUR profession? What if you were resented
by 30 to 60% of the people you deal with just for making a profit at what
you do? Not an outrageous profit, mind you, just a survival/try to get
ahead a little profit?
        No answer required - really. Just food for thought.

        

on 6/4/05 10:07 PM, Darren Garrison at cynapse_at_charter.net wrote:

> On Sun, 05 Jun 2005 00:28:33 -0400, MeteorHntr_at_aol.com wrote:
>
>> For all of you who ordered the DVD, please give me some feed back on what you
>> think?
>
> I didn't order the disc myself because I found the price too HIGH. Granted, I
> assumed that it would
> be simply a burned DVD-R and that you wouldn't be going through all the
> trouble of buying cases,
> labels, inserts, etc. Good brand-name DVD-Rs or DVD+Rs should cost you under
> 50 cents each and
> "slim line" jewel cases should run you around 35 cents or less each. So each
> disc plus case would
> cost you under $1.00 total (shipping excluded, of course). I doubt anyone on
> the list was expecting
> a fancy box set for it, after all. (Fancy box sets to lust after here:
> http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=392401)
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--
"You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we are."
     -Herb Cohen
--
If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

Received on Sun 05 Jun 2005 03:14:35 PM PDT