[meteorite-list] Ad New Canadian Meteorite for sale

From: Dave Gheesling <dave_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 15:09:31 -0500
Message-ID: <1A07E86766A640C289C5B5310ADB6C3C_at_meteorroom>

Darren/All,

>From the perspective of the customer, Darren, I'd agree with a lot of what
you've said below. Your example has more to do with market efficiencies and
the removal of unnecessary costs from a channel, though, and I don't think
this is what Darryl was driving towards. Meteorites are different from flat
screen TVs. For all intents and purposes, "everyone" knows what a flat
screen TV is and that they come at a fairly predictable price. Very, very
few know much about meteorites (it's easy to forget that from the vantage
point of this list), and even those predisposed (say, astronomy buffs) to be
interested in acquiring them tend to not realize this is possible. As we
continue expanding our reach into space; as extremely effective marketers
such as Darryl get the word out to more and more across the globe; as
science continues to unveil more fascinations locked up within meteorites;
as the global population grows and the internet bandwidth continues making
that growing world smaller; as all of these things happen, more and more
human beings will be interested in acquiring meteorites and it will drive
specimen values up (to where they "should" be, given an efficient
marketplace distributing them, which we don't yet have) and -- the best part
-- more and more people will be inspired by the "electric" feeling (as
Norton put it well) one gets in holding a rock in your hand older than the
one you're standing one. It seems inevitable, excepting other possible
short-term reserves such as the Sahara holding back this progression as
weathered finds hit the market for a while, that the pace of collector
growth will far outstrip the supply of meteorites over the long haul.

You also wrote: "Why? What is illogical about that thinking [THAT IT'S A
GOOD THING TO SEE THE VALUE OF THINGS FALL AFTER ONE PURCHASES THEM]? When
you see something that you like, do you think "gee, that's cool-- I'd like
to have that-- but I wonder how much money I can get back for it at some
point in the future if I decided to sell it?" The value of hobbies is the
pursuit of the hobby, not the theoretical future depreciated value of the
subject of the hobby. HELL YES I want price collapses on the things that
interest me! See, I think of money as a necessary evil to be used to buy
things that I want, not an object of worship in and of itself. I'm not a
Republican."

It goes without saying that you are not a Republican, but I'm not either.
We've come to think in North America that the necessities of life fall off
of trees and the advancement of civilization is some foregone conclusion.
This is unfortunately not true. Money isn't a necessary evil; it is a
vehicle which makes trading more efficient than it was in the days of
barter. It also motivates people to take all sorts of risks in search of
the meteorites you seem to enjoy yourself. The staggering facts associated
with meteorites at least provide some wonderful perspective to those of us
willing to contemplate it, and I think I'll go spend some time with a few
now...

Best regards,

Dave
www.fallingrocks.com

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Darren
Garrison
Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 2:26 PM
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Ad New Canadian Meteorite for sale

On Sun, 7 Dec 2008 12:57:16 -0500, you wrote:

>This is a serious business...

One last point on this-- of course a "business" will legitamately want to
make as much money for product or service X as they can for it-- but it is
entirely a different matter to expect customers of said business to want the
business to charge more, which is what Darryl said and I was replying to--

quote:

"Everything else being the same, no witnessed fall should ever sell for a
couple of bucks a gram, and we should all strive to make certain this
doesn't occur."

Meaning-- we should try to keep the prices of these high, even if they could
sell for less. With the implication that this is to attract "serious
collectors", which seems to mean rich people collecting for future profits.

Now, while (to illustrate with some other buyable product) it is well and
good for Best Buy to want $1000 for a flat-screen TV if they can get it.
But it isn't reasonable to expect the customer to want Best Buy to charge
$1000 for that flat-screen when it COULD sell for $100. If what it costs to
sell it at a profit is $1000, then fine. But if it could be sold for $100,
why on Earth would the customer be expected to get behind selling it for
$1000 just because $100 is "too cheap"? My position as a consumer is to
attempt to pay the lowest reasonable cost for any item.

I'd think that the main expense for hunters isn't the travel costs, but the
cost of buying the meteorites from the land owner, who always expect it to
be a "get rich quick" situation. If the land owners expect (and get) a
price that requires hunters to resell it at around $50 a gram, then that's
what the hunters will have to charge. But if the land owners didn't expect
as much money, then the resellers wouldn't have to charge as much money. It
is a feedback loop.
______________________________________________
http://www.meteoritecentral.com
Meteorite-list mailing list
Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Sun 07 Dec 2008 03:09:31 PM PST