#92 - STAMP COLLECTORS

RFWhen I was a boy I collected beer cans. It was something that many kids of my generation did. There were few beer bottles back then. I also collected police department shoulder patches. My father was a policeman who eventually retired as police chief. He was able to get me law enforcement insignias from all over the country and even some from international forces. I never collected coins or stamps, but many of my classmates did. Today I am the polar opposite of a pack rat so I don't accumulate things, but I do have a small but growing coffee cup collection.

When people talk about "stamp collectors" in the tarantula hobby they are referring to non-breeders who buy one of every species they can find.  There are many species of tarantulas available to hobbyists and most dealers try to outdo each other by offering the greatest variety. "Stamp collectors" fall in line with this and try to buy as many different forms as they can. Is this a bad thing? Not to the dealers. As a dealer it was easy to tell the "stamp collectors". When I would hatch or import something rare, the "breeders" would order perhaps a half dozen of a species to have the greatest chance of obtaining a least one sexual pair. "Stamp collectors" would buy one, or sometimes splurge on two in case one died. "Stamp collectors" place orders for six tarantulas and the order is one each of six varieties.

There is an elitist attitude among the "breeders" or self-proclaimed "serious hobbyists" who use the term "stamp collector" derisively. When this topic was suggested I got the sense that it was implied that "stamp collecting" is a bad thing and that I would agree with that sentiment and rant against the practice. Sorry to disappoint. That's not how I feel. I am a libertarian. I believe in personal freedom and individual choice. I am also a capitalist. I believe in people spending their hard-earned dollars in anyway they choose. Not every arachnoculturist has to be a breeder. Not all species should be bred. Even rarities can be kept without propagating, at least by those with the means to purchase them and, more importantly, the desire. If you wish to keep one lone Sahydroaraneus raja or Harpactira pulchripes or Thrigmopoeus psychedelicus more power to you.

Some of you may have listened to my interview on Herp Nation Radio's "Nick Mutton Show". The only segment I hated was when I began to go off on a tangent about "stamp collecting". I became less eloquent and didn't complete my train of thought. I had heard so many colleagues bemoan "stamp collecting" that on auto-pilot I brought up the topic, but then I just didn't have the strong opinion against it to make my point. I realized that I have no distaste for "stamp collecting" of my own. Part of the reason is that I made my living selling exotic animals for three decades. I'd rather sell one T. psychedelicus than none. Sales are oddly enough the goal of a business that sells. But even philosophically I couldn't rail against those who keep rare species and don't breed them. Sure, I'd rather if all species that are in short supply got into the hands of breeders instead of any "collector" who can afford them. But it is un-American to restrict free trade.

Let's not get too philosophical about this. Let's further examine the realities of "stamp collecting". First, let me educate you: the average American hobbyist, including the "breeder" or "serious hobbyist" does not have enough disposable income to purchase many rare spiders. I can tell you firsthand that I expected my first US-bred Pachistopelma rufonigrum and Harpactira pulchripes to sell out in one day. That didn't happen even though I basically cut the selling price of the latter in almost half. Years ago when I was among the first to breed Poecilotheria metallica I actually sold my first sac in three days. At that time it was still an expensive spider too! Maybe it was just because it is blue, or maybe it is just because it was a Pokie, or maybe the average hobbyist had more money. It is an interesting thing to contemplate. Regardless, most people bought one or two H. pulchripes, not the four to eight that a breeder would need to buy. The same was true for my P. rufonigrum and other American firsts I produced. So I ask you this: shouldn't someone who wants to spend $200 on a tiny bug (plus shipping!) be able to do so? How many of you out there wish you had even one H. pulchripes and don't? Should you only be allowed to keep the species if you buy six with the intention of breeding them?

Let's move on to a different species. We'll choose one that I have never had a commercial interest in. In fact, I have never seen a Thrigmopoeus psychedelicus "in the flesh" and have no interest in keeping it. They were collected and bred by Denmark's Nicolai Pedersen and came into the country exclusively via one seller I won't name. The price was/is ridiculous. I tried to educate Nico about the economics of the American spider hobby a couple of years ago when he first collected and produced Haplocosmia himalayana, but he found someone ignorant enough to think there was a large market for the "hot new tarantula", T. psychedelicus. How many were sold? I know one person who bought a few and he is a "breeder" not a "stamp collector". I hope he produces the species and the price comes down and availability goes up. I am very pro-breeding and very pro-AMERICAN breeding. But if any of you only could afford one and it is the pride of your collection I fully support you as well. There only is a market for so many "pet holes" no matter how uniquely colored they are. That's the truth that is overlooked by many. The American market quickly becomes saturated, no matter what the species is. When I produce more Harpactira pulchripes I will once again cut the price in almost half. Other people will breed it too. Before long it will be $50. So do we really need everyone who buys them to be a breeder? If we really want to expand the debate we could even go so far as to suggest that "stamp collectors" serve the hobby by limiting the explosion of availability that quickly affects the commerce within the hobby and makes it difficult for dealers to earn a living.

You have to realize that tarantulas are fecund. That is, they are prolific breeders and we do our best to work against nature's plan and keep every little spiderling alive. I've bred tarantulas so long that I've seen every species I've bred go from "hot seller" to "can't give it away". I've seen the same in my herpetocultural career, of course, too. It's the nature of animal breeding. I covered this in an early blog entry. Customers become your competitors. Rare becomes common. Everybody is looking for the next new thing. And it better be blue.

I understand the basis for the belief that "stamp collecting" is bad for the hobby. I just don't agree with it. There isn't a tarantula in the hobby so endangered, or rare, or difficult to breed, or that produces so few young, that those who keep one of the species are negatively impacting its captive propagation. There isn't a Bornean earless monitor or Fiji banded iguana. Those are lizards that are very rare. The former has just been bred for the first time. It would be horrible if there were only twelve in captivity and ten of them were kept individually by ten different wealthy collectors. That is the scenario that I expect those against "stamp collecting" in arachnoculture are envisioning. I just don't see an analogous situation. If the only adult Thrigmopoeus psychedelicus that were collected had been sold one each to different collectors around the world then I'd be at the forefront of condemning the "stamp collecting". But that isn't what happened. Nico kept them and bred them and now spiderlings are available to anyone willing to pay the price, both those who want only one to keep on their office desk or those who want to raise twelve to establish a breeding colony. Within a few years it will become widely available. Eventually they'll be hard to give away.

In closing, I suspect there is a bit of envy involved when people are adamant that "stamp collecting" has a negative impact. What is stopping anyone from buying up a species so there aren't many to go around for the "stamp collectors"? Money. That is the point about the American hobby and its commerce - most hobbyists don't have the funds to spare. Many live paycheck to paycheck and shouldn't be strapping the budget by buying bugs at all. Some are maxing out credit cards to serve their arachnocultural obsession. It's a free country. 'Murica. Don't covet thy neighbor's big hairy spider. Focus on your own breeding and leave those who choose to just have cool terrarium pets be. Divided we fall.

$0.02, MJ