Steven Knoetze wrote: or perhaps jealous at not being able to afford the rarer species?

THAT always pisses me off. Sure, I may not drive a fancy mercedes or earn the big bucks, but for me, it's not jealousy at all. Most people know where I stand with blue spiders.

Sure, justify importing because it means you can have more species which will lose their value in a year.

The fact remains:
Importing is still illegal, thus being a crime. So you yourself (not Zane btw, but importers in general) are a criminal. All we end up doing by importing is showing NatCon we're a bunch of assholes who can't be trusted. Look at how many locals are still being exported, coupled with the fact we still import, I would not be surprised if we never get awarded permits and the hobby gets outlawed.

Also, I feel as a International forum, we should set a better example by not supporting imports publicly. By all means discus it in private, but not here

Sadly the world today is all about rare and worst of all is that people are bored and need something rare to excite them.

I wonder if our hobby was just trading and there was no price tags on spiders? These are animals and I will keep insisting that no value or price tag should be put on them. At the end of the day its all about making money in this hobby when it comes to rare species. How many people have come and gone in the last 2 years?

Why does everyone want a rare species when they don't have a P cambridgei for example? Most probably one of the most beautiful tarantulas but yet they will go for a M balfouri which they will never see!

I would love to imagine what our hobby would be like if we just traded species and no one was allowed to sell.

@Dimitri: I like your idea of only trading tarantulas, but then again...who would trade B. Albopilosum for P. Cambridgei?

It's a pity about all the politics. Sometimes I like to just stay naive...

All the squabbling about pricing will help no-one. No matter what price list you make and publish, it will have no effect on the seller who wants more. I recently paid high prices for T's I wanted. If the list said it was worth less, it would effect me nothing at all. I can't get it at the list price, so what now? I can get it for the higher price and want it, so do I leave it because someone listed it for less?

Some T's will always be rare and harder to breed. I know of breeders who do so quietly, because collectors will buy them and sell for a profit, because no-one else has them. All the arguments on imports etc and fair pricing will have ZERO effect on market forces of supply and demand.

I love Dimitri's comment about trading, have a few myself, maybe trade 2/3 for one you want ?

Deon and Dimitri for the win!

You guys have the right idea there...

I think Dimitri and Deon might have gotten the ball rolling on this idea...

Why not create a new section in the classifieds for this. Maybe "To Trade" perhaps.

Just my thoughts...