Re: Daylily Vs. Hosta
- Subject: Re: Daylily Vs. Hosta
- From: h*@open.org
- Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 22:02:06 -0800 (PST)
Chick:
>..but I think essentially what he is saying is - Daylily People Are
>Nuts.
Only SOME daylily people are nuts! In some respects, buying a really
nice new daylily for $100, propagating it for a few years and then
selling 10 fans for $50 each is a much better return on your
investment then putting it in the bank at 3%.
>But if I remember my Economics 101, since there is no shortage of
>daylily breeders or daylily sellers, and certainly no shortage of
>high quality daylilies, you would expect this over-abundance to lead
>to lower, not higher prices.
You are assuming that Economics 101 is at work here. The law of
supply and demand isn't perfect and isn't without its rough edges.
The daylily market is more like the diamond or art market then an
agricultural market. There is a lot of daylilies on the market, or so
it appers, but in fact a lot of these daylilies are not in much
demand. Every year there are only a few dozen daylilies that really
attract a lot of attention and demand. The big named hybridizers keep
the supply on the short side so they can keep the price up. Even
though several hundred daylilies may be offered for sale every year,
in fact relatively few of them are hot items that attract a lot of
attention. Thus, there appears to be an over abundance, but in fact
there is a lot more demand for a limited number of these
introductions.
On top of this you have to throw in the snob factor. Some people just
have to have the best of the latest introductions because its a
prestige factor. They don't really need it, but they want it because
they want to stay on top of the social scene, and they really don't
care about the price as long as it's not too unreasonable.
>...a logical person simply says, I'll take one of those $20
>daylilies.
But a lot of those $20 daylilies don't have the newest traits that are
most attractive. Even though a lot of people can't affort to buy the
$100 daylilies, they still desire those daylilies. So, what they do
is pospone buying some of those $20 daylilies and wait for the $100
daylily to come down to a more reasonable price. Thus, people buying
for the secondary market will pay the high $100 price because they
know there is a demand for the plant at a lower price.
Now, there is one more important consideration that messes up the
Ecomonics 101 theory. The law of supply and demnad works only the way
you think it should when you have a real business - real buyers and
real sellers. If I had a full time job making $50,000 and I had a
wife making $50,000 and I was hybridizing daylilies and I had some
really nice seedlings I could price them at $100 or $150 and it
wouldn't make any difference to me if I sold 10 or 20. If, however, I
had my own nursery business and hybridizing and selling daylilies was
my total source of income, then I have to consider how to maximize my
income/profit on each introduction. The hobbyist hybridizer/grower
doesn't have to consider this as much. Personally, I think a lot of
the big named hybridizers could do a lot better by propagating the
plants to far larger numbers and offering them at a much more
reasonable price, because in effect that would put a real dent in the
secondary market and that money would flow into the hybridizers pocket
instead of the secondary grower.
>Sorry, I was kidding.
Shucks, I thought I had a sucker baited! <G> The prices are going to
be very reasonable!
Joe Halinar
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