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

Sun Jun 5 21:24:48 EDT 2005

Hi Captain Blood,

many thanks for your words.
I wish you could speak German to tell this to some of the German collectors.
Can't understand that discussion. If someone thinks, that the DVD is to
expensive, no one will force him/her to buy and he/she should say: No
thanks.
If one thinks that dealer prices are to expensive and that one can get the
stuff cheaper in the same quality and in the same broad variety, he schould
compare the prices or try to get it by chance on ebay - or what would be the
best for reckognizning, that it's not that easy, to try to be a dealer too.
No need to become personal. With US-collectors I made only good experiences,
but what some dealer have to experience at the moment in Germany - it's just
unbelievable.

Best!
Martin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael L Blood" <mlblood at cox.net>
To: <cynapse at charter.net>; "Steve Arnold dealer/Qynne" <MeteorHntr at aol.com>;
"Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] AD: Video Footage of our trip to Oman

> 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)
> > ______________________________________________
> > Meteorite-list mailing list
> > Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>
>
> --
> "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.
>
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