To get the money factor off (gold diggin') would give more respect out for the t's, for sure. The removal of riff-raff, that would be awesome. I-can-haz-gooty-breed-pairz -to-make-teh-moniez noobs, I hate that mindset. This is the quintessential Klausing around.

But - making them cheap enough that people discard them... No prize possession there if you start off feeding a T to another one. No respect for the tarantula hobby, the breeds, their origins.

The money factor of "people entering the hobby just for the money's sake". I'll say support those who support the hobby. If you sell your T for 150, I'll sell mine for 149. That is economics, that is capitalism.
But there is a turning point in all of this where I'm selling that T for R10, cutting off my own nose.
And that is it. Make things affordable. But don't make it so cheap that the awesomeness of having a T is down the drain plainly due to the price point.

A lot of people on this site sells Ts. Some even tries to make a living out of it. Some supply Pet Shops, or even have their own pet shop. In that sense, this dumping of T's onto the market really makes a lot of hurt. The long term effect (as we've seen) are people closing up shop, and that is sad.

One of my previous bosses always said: "If you want to make money, do it now. The market isn't going to wait for you to get your act together."

I agree with all the statements above, I just have to raise another point.

Going to use the cow example (I like cows)..

Klaus (coz he's the bad guy in here) has a prestine prize winning bull that produces the most awesome offspring. Klaus only has one other cow that can be mated with that specific bull, but she's not doing so well in the mating department and the mating fails constantly.

Peter, just down the road, has the exact same breed cow, but because Klaus hates Peter or Peter doesn't really fit into the Klaus clan, Klaus refuses to share the bull and the bull eventually dies without producing offspring, resulting in nobody making money or expanding the breed (introducing new bloodlines, etc).

What I am trying to say is this: Perhaps the overbreeding in some species occurs as a result of underbreeding in other species.

I'm not saying the hobby should resort to socialistic or communistic breeding, I'm just saying that you cannot address the one problem without scrutinizing the source - and the source being ..... EXCLUSIVITY ..... we are obsessed with being "the first, the only, the 'boss', the shiz " ....

Spunky wrote: Going to use the cow example (I like cows)..

Klaus (coz he's the bad guy in here) has a prestine prize winning bull that produces the most awesome offspring. Klaus only has one other cow that can be mated with that specific bull, but she's not doing so well in the mating department and the mating fails constantly.

Peter, just down the road, has the exact same breed cow, but because Klaus hates Peter or Peter doesn't really fit into the Klaus clan, Klaus refuses to share the bull and the bull eventually dies without producing offspring, resulting in nobody making money or expanding the breed (introducing new bloodlines, etc).

Or, Klaus let's Peter use his bull and he gets lots of offspring for years to come with his female and his 3 buddies (Tom, Dick and Harry) female cows, which he sells on the sly. He then claims one of the following:
A) That his vicious female cow ate Klaus' bull before he managed to do the dirty
His female cow is infertile.
C) The newborn calves died.

Klaus finds out whats happening and realises he is getting screwed 6 love and Peter is making a killing. Klaus no longer shares his males as he already bends for SARS and the government and doesn't feel like a charity service anymore. He no longer let's his males go out...

Not always to do with selfishness.

Ceratogyrus wrote:
Not always to do with selfishness.

I know. And to some extent I agree with you!

But maybe Peter doesn't want to spend all of his time kissing arse all over town to (maybe) get a male out of the deal.

Not all friendships made in this hobby are sincere?

But alas, Peter and Klaus will live unhappily ever after, screwing each other along the way.

The End topicsucks