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Post by wollastoni on Feb 28, 2011 1:18:44 GMT -8
I guess you are right Claude. Except French collectors and Nymphalidae specialists, Salamis augustina is not that known.
I have spent one month looking after it 10 years ago in La Reunion... I went to known "spots" but did not seen any.
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Post by wollastoni on Sept 28, 2011 5:35:19 GMT -8
LP < Check on ebay again ... ;-)
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Post by bobw on Sept 28, 2011 6:04:16 GMT -8
As Papilio28570 says, this is just capitalism. It's no different to foreign dealers buying bugs in Peru or Indonesia and selling them at a profit in Europe or America.
I'm sure that nobody has a problem with dealers making a profit, as long as it's not excessive, the problem I have is not this but the whole concept of selling bugs by auction. Before the wretched eBay came along the market was controlled by dealers. For the most part they had the contacts, set the prices and controlled quality. If you were buying you knew what you had to pay and could make a decision based on that; if something was already sold you knew straight away. Now, with eBay you have to decide in advance how much more than you think a bug is worth you're prepared to pay, then it's always won by the person with the deepest pockets. It's incredibly frustrating that somebody that wants to do serious research is always beaten to good bugs by a rich man who wants pretty bugs to stick on his wall.
Bob
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2011 6:42:09 GMT -8
hmmm, makes me wonder what some rich Japanese collector would pay for a pair of cirrochroa imperatrix!!!!
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Post by starlightcriminal on Sept 28, 2011 9:58:33 GMT -8
It is frustrating, but it is capitalism. Alas, this system will always favor the wealthy in almost every area. It is no different than coffee or diamonds or art. The first hand gets the scraps, the real money is made after that. There are always loop holes that people eventually learn to navigate, but maybe if chose not to sell via auction or only sell domestically or exclude shipping to certain countries/add money for export handling if shipping to certain countries you can even out the playing field- that's what tariffs and such are supposed to do, in theory. Nothing says you can't arbitrarily assign your own handling and shipping rates based on the expected clientele or that it has to be the same rate for equivalent destinations, that is capitalism too. S. augustina, $100 USD with $5.00 s/h domestic, $20.00 to Europe and $700.00 to Japan. No shipping to Brazil or Australia ever, of course. You can decide what you consider fair in this respect, that's the part of the transaction you are in control of. Either you will get a fair price based from brokers or you will have a lot fewer Japanese clients. It only happens because it is possible, but there are ways of making it impossible so they have the same feeling as we do- "I would never be able to pay that much for..."
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Post by downundermoths on Sept 28, 2011 14:18:39 GMT -8
Lordpandarus... Get over it... That's eBay... If you really want something badly enough then go well over your limit... If you then miss out the pain is not so bad...
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Post by pennswoods on Sept 28, 2011 16:46:49 GMT -8
I've been collecting insects my entire life, and to this day I don't fully understand buying specimens for a collection. To me, buying butterflies would be like buying deer antlers or mounted fish. Fun and interesting to look at, but no personal value.
I'm not opposed to it, I honestly have no clue why someone would think to pay big money for this butterfly.
On my last move, the shipping company asked if I had any exceptionally valuable articles to insure... I said my insect collection- it would easily cost me $250,000 or more to travel back to all the places I've been at the right times to collect those specimens again- not to mention the time to curate them all. The person just laughed and said they don't insure dead bugs. Perhaps that's the difference- if one could produce a sales slip, it could be insured. ??
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Post by lordpandarus on Sept 28, 2011 22:50:34 GMT -8
LP < Check on ebay again ... ;-) Yes, i saw it.
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Post by lepidofrance on Sept 29, 2011 2:19:32 GMT -8
If, in Google images, you are looking for Salamis augustina, you almost always find one and the same picture! This shows much the rarity of the species endangered. I personally know of only one collector with augustina in his boxes, captured in Reunion island a good twenty years ago. About Japan, when I was staying, I was surprised by the abundance of butterflies flying even in big cities like Tokyo. In this city, as in Kyoto, I have captured many samples (without a net, by hand) flying in parks, in temple gardens or in small gardens located in front of many homes. Among these butterflies, many Papilionidae. Amazing! Attachments:
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