[meteorite-list] Meteorite market trends - a critical note

[Darren Garrison]

On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:02:57 -0500, you wrote:

>certainly entitled to wish for what he wants but I see it as a 
>unrealistic and it is at this time. I simply disagree with with him. The 
>_market_ determines the price along with many factors. Posting  messages 
>here on the list it seems someone will always twist things around in 
>ways you never thought they could. 

Cuts both ways-- I didn't anticipate you twisting my fantasy about how I WISHED
things could be as being "unrealistic".  "Unrealistic" seems to me to imply that
you thought that I thought that there could be some chance of that happening,
and you had to lecture me on how I was wrong.  I was simply replying to the
statement that all collectors want the prices to remain stable.  I disagree with
that.  People truly obsessed with collecting something care only about getting
more of the something-- and the lower the prices go, the better.  I brought up
the computer analogy: do I cry over once paying $40 a megabyte for RAM, $3.00 a
megabyte for HD space, when now it costs $40 a gigabyte for RAM and 3 GB to the
dollar for HD space?  (Roughly-- rounded for symmetry).  Do I care that I'll
never recoup the thousands paid on that old hardware?  Heck no!  And the same
goes for meteorites-- if I paid $500 a gram for a lunar, and suddenly enough
lunar material hit the market that I could buy 500 grams for a dollar, would I
cry that I'd never get back the money I spent on the original material?  Nope,
I'd gleefully buy lots of it at the new price.  When I buy something, I intend
to keep it for the rest of my life, so I don't care about the value of something
once I have it.  (I've given away a few meteorites, but I've never sold one of
mine, probably never will.  When it comes time to give them up, I'll donate them
all to a small museum or college or something).  So, if prices crash, bring it
on!

>
>I'll walk you through my thoughts on what I was trying to say. Darren, 
>wants to be able to buy meteorites by the truck load. I compared that to 
>my desire to be able to buy automobiles cheaper than they are now as an 
>example. 

Oh, I also wish that all material goods were esentially free (and thus, as you
mentioned, all traditional economies totally collapse).  I don't expect that
world to come about, but it is the one that I want to live in. 

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_scarcity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie