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PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:05 pm 
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Location: Colorado USA
The world just keeps on getting weirder.

One of the rules of the appraisal business is that the for most appraisal assignments, the comps used must occur in a legal market. That is to say that the prices being offered by the local ring of thieves is not considered a legitimate comparison, even for genuinely comparable goods and even if they sell them for very low prices (their cost of goods is lower and they pass the savings on to you :? ). How does it change if the thieves aren’t local? I’m not sure, I never really considered it. Does it matter if their crimes are more complicated than simple thievery? I’ve long been uncomfortable with the freshwater Chinese pearls for these sorts of reasons. The pricing structure can only be supported if they’re dumping at less than cost or if they’re using slave labor. I think it’s the later but does it really matter?

Neil

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:49 am 
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I was talking to someone from Burma the other day. They told me the inflation rate is unbelievable. They have to take bags of money with them to just go shopping. Due to this the best thing to do with their money is to buy goods to keep up with inflation. The best are either stones or real estate. I heard the price of real estate costs as much there as it does here in the US. Some homes are over $1,000,000. They change currency everyday and don't leave funds in cash since it will be worth less the following day. This explains the price of stones in Burma but Thailand is quite different. The only explaination is either they bought rough at a great price, stored it for awhile and are now cutting it and are all selling the stones for a small profit at the same time or are money laundering (buying from one area and selling it in another, even at a loss, just to get the money out of the first area). My father told me about an Indian in Burma back in the 1950's that was selling distilled water in Burma for less than the cost of production. His family had wealth in Burma but could not get the money out of the country so he set up a company in India sent the distilled water to Burma with an invoice and paid the money to the India Company. He sold the goods in Burma for less than he paid but he paid himself in India.

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