It IS a geographical thing, as some of you have pointed out. In Australia, Acanthastrea's for $30-$50 CAD.

Not really...generally a jeweller can tell the difference very easily and will have the ability to perform the analysis. I doubt that most retailers can't tell the corals apart. Just like Acans. Apparantly there are a lot more out there than people realize. It's a gotta have thing...just like the cabbage patch doll or tickle me Elmo.

I meant when the markets are similar: "I've never been a believer that geographical location is a reason for stiffer competition between similar markets."

What is the difference between the Toronto and Vancouver market? I'm saying that it is not the geographical location that makes Toronto corals pricier than Vancouver. Do you disagree and think that Vancouver is cheaper than Toronto due to geographic location only???

The prices in Australia are cheaper because they are already in the tropics. The markets between Australia and Canada are going to be different and that goes without saying. Therefore, you can't compare the 2 entirely different markets.

I don't know. Those expensive sun corals look pretty different than the sun corals I have. Also, experts might be able to tell between Cubic Zirconia and Diamonds but from what I read, it isn't easy. Sort of like trying to identify 2 similar corals to me. Both are hard to identify with an untrained eye and both can be identified with a microscope.

http://www.answers.com/topic/cubic-zirconia

"Cubic zirconia is so optically close to diamond that only a trained eye can easily differentiate the two. There are a few key features of CZ which clearly distinguish it from diamond, some observable only under the microscope or loupe"

If the sun corals are virtually impossible to distinguish, how are the collectors identifying them and how reliable is their identification going to be?

Sam, you must be bored. :lol:

Dendro's vs. sun coral
 

Those dendros have a much larger polyp size,like the size of a toonie,plus they stay open all day and eat like pigs.They are much rarer than the normal sun corals!

Hey Jack. Yeah, I get worked up everytime there is a suggestion that Vancouver's market is abnormal and doesn't follow basic principles of Economics.

:smile:

So how is the relationship of price versus median income applied in other markets in Canada? It doesn't follow that same trend.

Im with Kyle on this one.

It would be extremely difficult to find a correlation, at least statisticly significant with respect to the price of corals and the median income.



Sam:

What specific economic priciple are you referring to ? I looked back in the thread but cant find one that is suggested that Vancouver does not follow.


Wendell

http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/DEm_Sup/shifts.htm

"In other words, at higher incomes for the buyers in this market, the whole demand curve would lie to the right of the original demand curve. This we call a "shift in demand" cause by an increase in the income level. It is shown in the next diagram. According to this diagram, what happens to the equilibruim price P and quantity Q when the income rises? Yep, more folks want the product so the price will go up! "

This type of demand curve applies to all non-giffin goods. Coral is a non-giffin good. Therefore, there is a correlation between price of corals and median income.

What I'm saying is that Vancouver, Toronto, etc all follow this principle. Prices might be higher in TO because the demand curve is higher (ie. higher median income. See the URL to see the effect of income on the demand curve.). There is nothing at all that is special or abnormal about Vancouver. The prices in Vancouver and Toronto and everywhere else are the way they are because of market conditions. Prices in Vancouver are not artificially low and prices in Toronto are not artificially high in my opinion. Income isn't the only factor but its something that definitely does make a difference, given all else equal (similar markets). Its just common sense that the more money someone has, the more they can afford to spend.

Wendell, in this thread there had been suggestions that geography and cut-throat pricing are the reasons that prices in Vancouver are low. That suggests Vancouver prices are below equilibrium. What I'm saying is that I don't believe that to be true. I believe that the prices in Vancouver ARE at equilibrium because I believe prices in Vancouver (like everywhere else) are set by the market (where the demand curve is a function of income and other variables), not by firms undercutting each other (below equilibrium).