The meteorite market is shifting rapidly as we adopt digital communication. While we are all going to fit in wherever we can I thought it would be helpful to share some of my thoughts on where folks "fit in" in the meteorite supply chain. If you are new to meteorites it might be helpful to think about which role would be most satisfying for you. Sometimes finding a new role, or an new angle on an existing role, is a great way to find success.
*Finder/Manufacturer: The folks who find meteorites in the field or people who fabricate a unique product, both of which supply the foundations of our trade. Expenses include travel, time, materials, a workspace or homebase, marketing, and such. These folks may have 3-10 customers they work with in a year.
*Distributor/wholesaler: Folks who connect retailers to the finders or manufacturers of unique items. Expenses include travel, shipping, marketing, time, a homebase, trade shows, and a major investment in inventory (at the expense of a passive investment income, or lost opportunity). Wholesalers are expected to regularly place large bulk item orders from their suppliers. These folks may have 10-50 customers they sell to in a year.
*Retailer: Folks who buy from either of the above groups and then sell individual items to retail customers. Expenses include a physical location, lots of time doing individual retail sales, big investment in inventory, shipping, marketing, sales fees, travel, social media and store maintenance. Retailers will generally only buy from wholesales when they need to restock or get new material. They may have 50-1000 customers they work with in a year.
*Retail collector/institution: Folks who are only buying limited samples of individual specimens, either for collection or study. Expenses are paying retail and storage/display gear. These folks are the financial foundation of the entire trade.
Roughly speaking these are the roles people play, often with a lot of overlap or bypassing. You can estimate that the price doubles at each step as everyone needs to cover their expenses and eat. Someone new to the meteorite world has no way of knowing all of the work, expenses, and time that goes into each of these links in the chain of commerce.
Conflict often happens when people learn a small part of a much bigger picture and it doesn't seem to make sense. I will share my story about how I learned this in the 90's as a glassblower. I would make an item and also distribute it (overlap) to a retailer. I would sell it to them for $100. Then I would come back to the store and see a $300 price tag on it. That made me very envious and jealous. I though that all my hard work was being taken advantage of because I was only taking home $20 on that $100 sale. It was only later that I learned the store was paying $6000/mo in rent for a small location, that they had a huge payroll, and that in the end the store was making even less of a percentage in profit than I was. I was jealous of nothing. I simply did not understand the bigger picture.
Here in the meteorite world someone may see a retail price at $6/g, but then later see a wholesaler offering it at $3/g. This leaves them feeling like they were ripped off because they don't yet know everything that goes into getting meteorites into their collections. They may also not know about cut loss of 1g per 40sq cm and then another few grams lost polishing. Even the opportunity costs of holding a large inventory is something I try not to think about.
Anyone is welcome to participate wherever they fit into the chain of commerce. Individuals will have to decide for themselves how they are approaching the sale. The most important thing is that wherever you fit in, you act with honesty and integrity. No one will fault you for making a living with meteorites if you can.
