I think ...with this whole thread... that it is being short sighted to undercut the market value of a cat for what ever reason.
I sold art for years. Limited editions of very impressive prints...Bateman Brenders Seery-Lester...and original art like rare Animation...original Sericels of Disney and Hanna Barberra WarnerBrothers...
The market is only as strong as how much you value your own art.
In the art industry there is a certain bottom line that is respected and expected by every single retailer in the business. It is called a release price. NO where can you find a print under release price unless in a pawn shop. Why. Because no one buys them. Why because we value the artists. And because you lose your licence to sell the millpond prints or the disney if you do not follow the rules
In all my years selling art I have never seen it depreciate. I have prints that have tripled in value in the last 10 years and if I were to sell it in the market right now there would be a listing in a quarterly "journal" that would tell me bottom line list and market prices. It would tell me what the current value of the print is worth and it would be expected of me to fall within a certain guide line for that particular print. AND it would not help me to undercut in the market because it would DEPRECIATE the prints as a whole...every single one of them.
Now you say you do it as a hobby. Understandable. And i can see how you would want to turn a profit occasionally. But it doesn't help anyone anywhere to undervalue a cat. In the Art industry we see so many different types of people from the very very wealthy to the just scraping by. They all have a certain range they KNOW they will have to pay for their hobbie of collecting...and on the flip side they KNOW that the value of their purchases will increase and not decrease.
This can be likened to selling house like they did in the states when the banks foreclosed. Lots of people lost profit on something they should never have lost money on. Everyone but those in it to capitalize on someone else's loss was appalled and disgusted by what they were witnessing. The only way to have stopped it is at a higher level as in government much like...in a much less important instance... Millpond and all the rest of the big print publishers did.
The only way to stop this from happening here is to have a way to regulate a bottom line. That can only happen from Kitty Cats themselves. And in this day and age with the technology we have there should be some way of signalling or disabling the cat or something...something i don't know what...when a cat is sold under the original purchase price we get them for at Kitty Cats shop.
If everyone knew that there was no undercutting the original price...JUST LIKE there is no way to transfer a starter kitten...then NO ONE would do it. Simple.
Very bloody Simple.
And that my friends is the ONLY way this crap will stop. I like my hobby and I don't need the money from the sale of cats to continue to do it. THis is not about how much I can make but how i see the value of my cat. Sometimes we spend months to breed a special cat that for us is a work of art. I have personally ...and not embarrassed to say it...shed tears during the process. I feel like I've released a work of art...a Bateman ....and then having that print be sold at the dollar store because Millpond didn't keep the value at a set level.
I want to see my cats valued. All good breeders...Artists...Want to see their product ...their creation valued. And I personally think that it starts with KittyCats. The reason being is that they would NEVER sell a cat for what we are. So why are they letting it happen in the secondary market . And they have done it in much bigger industries so it can be done at this level. Allowing others to devalue their cats eventually devalues KittyCats in general is is not good business. The big breeders which buy I would say the majority of the kibbles and vitamins will have to stop breeding entirely eventually if this continues. That breaks down the market and puts it in recess. AND would put a huge dent in their pocket let alone the reputation of being the number one bred pet on SL.
That is my opinion. I don't care if you don't agree...at the bottom of it fiscally and ethically and as an artist this must happen at a higher level and soon or the market will completely collapse and every one looses...even those who buy cats at a stupidly low and embarrassing cost. There would be no more 9t cats to buy at that price... then your hobby might have to change.
No one is going to listen to my lone voice with cat prices particularly, but it there were no option at the level of business then it would change. Just like i cannot resell kibble...I can give it away but I cannot resell it....there should be some governing here with the prices of the cats. At least there would be a bottom line and no one would feel sick about selling their months of hard work and money they invest in their art...for less than the price of a chocolate bar.
My god, people spend more on Starbucks for a regular small coffee and think nothing of it. The cost of a cat at the Kitty Cat Shop in Canadian dollars is about a loonie. A dollar. Really people? We cant value each others time and effort a little more than that?
Steps off my soap box
Quote:I am in Kittycats as a hobby.
I breed as a hobby.
I sell as a hobby. I like keeping a shop, I like deciding which kitties I want to sell to other homes.. Its fun.
I don't expect my kitty sales to pay for my kibble. I never have. I only buy or breed the kitties I can afford to feed.
Since I don't expect the income from sales to balance my expenses on cats and kibble, the prices I set have *nothing* whatsoever to do with needing money to keep up my cats. In a business, costs and income should balance. In a hobby, there is no such expectation.
If you interpret the prices I set on my cats as being driven by some short term need for kibble or some desire to make up what I spent on special editions, you couldn't be more wrong.
Assuming that all of us in Kittycats, or that all of us who care about Kittycats, share your business perspective, is assuming way too much.
Surely we all have our own reasons for being here, for breeding what we breed, and offering the kitties we set for sale at whatever prices we set.
And every reason, I think, is as valid as every other one.
The 9T for 100L "bargain"
