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" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Matson, Robert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
