[Jewelry making - Article 00231] - Re: [Orchid] Lunar stones apprisal

[Daniel R. Spirer]

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>     I wonder what they would sell for if they are exported by the Moon
>     Town? 

    Ok I'll bite. 

    Let's assume, for argument's sake, that it costs 500 billion to set
    up Moon Town (perhaps we should call it Lunacity or just Lunacy for
    short) a not unreasonable figure given what the war in Iraq is
    costing. Then the question is, what other exports are they going to
    have? Are moon fossils the only ones? In that case, how many moon
    fossils are they going to find? Let's say they find 100 pounds of
    fossil rock to export to Earth. So the 100 lbs would be worth about 5
    billion dollars (this of course isn't including any profit on it).
    That's about 50 million dollars a pound. I'm not sure there's going
    to be a huge market for them at this price, so you would have to
    adjust the price downwards to reflect the marketplace. 

    Of course then there's the problem that once Lunacy is set up, we
    can assume there will be fairly regular space trips. That means that
    anyone with some extra cash can fly to the moon and set up their own
    mines for moon fossils. What happens if they find out that the whole
    moon is one big fossil??? In usual human fashion, the entire thing
    will be dismantled and sent to Earth (given the market value we've
    already established). But then where are we going to store the entire
    Moon on Earth (even if it is in bits and pieces), not to mention the
    expense of having the whole thing shipped back to Earth. I mean if
    Fed Ex is already charging about $25 for an overnight shipment just
    from Boston to New York, what do you think Space Ex is going to
    charge to get the stuff back from there? 

    Plus somewhere, in my admittedly old, science education, I was
    taught that we kind of need the Moon to keep the tides running
    properly. So if we're going to mine the entire Moon, then we'll have
    to build a new synthetic moon to replace it. But then this raises
    another question. What would be the value of synthetic moon
    fossils??? I mean after all, synthetic diamonds go for a fair piece
    of change. Then, of course, we would have to develop machines to
    distinguish between synthetic moon fossils and real ones.
    Certificates would have to be issued. We would have to create the
    Moonological Institute of Lunacy (MIL for short) to issue them. But
    then competing labs would be jumping in there. Soon we would have the
    Marsological Institute of Lunacy (also MIL for short thereby
    creating issues of ownership of abbreviated names and wreaking
    absolute confusion among people trying to identify these moon
    fossils), and perhaps the Venus Institute of Real Analysis Labs
    (VIRAL) all competing to issue certificates on these items. Actually
    this could be really good for the economy as you'd be creating jobs
    right and left. Plus you'd have a whole new collection of jewelers
    specializing in Moon fossil jewelry (available on the web for half
    the price of any bricks and mortar store). 

    And then think about it. This is only the Moon we're talking about.
    What about Mars? Jupiter? Saturn? My goodness, think of what those
    rocks would go for!!! 

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
www.spirerjewelers.com
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