Poecilotheria metallica on sale in Europe.

Well, Henrik has opened a sac and P.metallica have gone on sale to the general public in Europe.

The price?

200€ a piece, which is £140, or $240 of your American Dollars.

So, any of our European contingent making a purchase? I have to say it's still too steep for me, but the price will soon fall with time. Personally, I'm more interested in P. miranda at a very reasonable 60€ each.

Saying that, I really wouldn't complain if I got to unwrap a P.metallica spiderling on Christmas day

Haha it's eight-legged-piracy. Taht's some cheek charging that much, knowing full well that people will readily pay it IMO. With what 'guarantees' etc do they come with?

There'll soon be a swarm of people showing off with them anyway... The question is, will this de-value them to the 'original owners' of this species?

Give it a year and I think we paupers may get them at "reasonable" prices, at the minute, I'd rather use £140 to buy a nintendo or something rather than one scabby little blue spiderling

Nah I rather get a nice little nasty lividum instead if its just a blue t im after
If Im after a poec, I would rather go for ornata
Metallica is not all That in my eyes

/Lelle

Nicely putt, Lelle

Talking of which... Any news on the subfusca? I don't see the hype in the metallica, miranda etc... But the subfusca delish!

Originally posted by deifiler
Nicely putt, Lelle

Talking of which... Any news on the subfusca? I don't see the hype in the metallica, miranda etc... But the subfusca delish!

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If someone really are stuck on poecs I guess they want them all
No havent heard anything on the subs sorry
Agreed on subfusca, they are amazingly beautiful!

/Lelle

Originally posted by deifiler
Haha it's eight-legged-piracy. Taht's some cheek charging that much, knowing full well that people will readily pay it IMO.

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Hmmm....I agree with you to a point, but surely if you know they are worth that much and that people will pay it, you would be foolish to ask any less? If you had a 100 gold coins worth £1000 each would you sell them for £25 each just for the heck of it?

I've already stated my views on the breeding and selling of these spiderlings in a thread a while back, and as I said then, personally I'd do it differently. But remember you have to see this from Henrik's point of view as well.

They are only worth what people are willing to pay. If Henrik sells all these quickly then the price was justified. They will come down in the future, especially when daft people like myself get hold of a few and start breeding them and giving away the offspring

I dont see what all the fuss is about???? so what.... a blue spider, much rather have a versicolor any day of the week!!!!!!!!

Yeah I'd be foolish to sell the coins if I had them, but the coins would be antiques; something that's of actual value and has been of great vale and in existance for along time. As I see, these "blue spiders" are just a fad, and with tiem the prices will most probably drop, thus proving this.

Yes and the second you give away the offspring, you'll be discarded amongst the senior sellers, regarded as foolish for doing so and probably irritating them at the fact that you're giving them away. Unless you only plan the elitist attitude to give them only to those with more "experience" or the bigger name arachnodealers.

Everything you say is true, and I too know that people WILL buy them, just I can't get past the initial feeling of... 'mitigated-disgust' of such attitudes.

But I'll aid you in your quest for justice! Possibly by investing in one of these £140-wonders

Originally posted by neil
I dont see what all the fuss is about???? so what.... a blue spider, much rather have a versicolor any day of the week!!!!!!!!

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I think it's more the fact of the rarity of the species at present... People want the spider partially because others don't have it. When these become more popular, and more people own them the prices will drop. Perhaps analogous to when a band you've loved for years releases a song on MTV and the next day every one has their T-shirt, which after time sometimes has the effect of you disliking the band, for some strange reason. I guess their novelty wears off.

Argh

Originally posted by neil
I dont see what all the fuss is about???? so what.... a blue spider, much rather have a versicolor any day of the week!!!!!!!!

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All Poecilotheria are basically black, brown and grey mottled spiders. All members within the genus are very similar, and I bet unless you had them side-by-side a lot of people would not be able to tell regalis from fasciata from striata for example.
P. metallica on the other hand is blue. Imagine it like a bright green Brachypelma - quite special when you consider that most of them are brown and orange.

There is also the fact that for almost 100 years they were thought to possibly be a misidentification, or just a non-valid description until they were re-discovered by Andy Smith and Rick West recently.

Additionally, India is now closed to export (okay, not specifically, but put it this way, you won't get any spiders out through customs) meaning that the ONLY source of these spiders is from captive bred spiderlings from the original WC adults. When you bear in mind there are probably something like 10 or 12 people in Europe who actually have adults (I can think about 8, sure there are a couple more) then the source is always going to be limited until these spiderlings mature.
Of course you could always wander around India for a few months looking for them yourself, but you'd still have to get them home and Henrik reckons 50 maybe 70% of bags are thoroughly searched....

So they are pretty, unusual, rare, tricky to obtain. I think that quite probably accounts for their desirability.

Yeah I'd be foolish to sell the coins if I had them, but the coins would be antiques; something that's of actual value and has been of great vale and in existance for along time. As I see, these "blue spiders" are just a fad, and with tiem the prices will most probably drop, thus proving this.

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Good point. They are animals and can therefore be bred and replaced, so they are not unique.

Yes and the second you give away the offspring, you'll be discarded amongst the senior sellers, regarded as foolish for doing so and probably irritating them at the fact that you're giving them away. Unless you only plan the elitist attitude to give them only to those with more "experience" or the bigger name arachnodealers.

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I have to admit, if I were to do this I would be pretty damn selective about who would get the offspring. I can think of about 20 off hand who I would consider "worthy" - God that sounds so elitist of me, but to hell with it, they'd be my spiders to do with as I wish.

Everything you say is true, and I too know that people WILL buy them, just I can't get past the initial feeling of... 'mitigated-disgust' of such attitudes.

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Yup I know what you mean. Perhaps because I'm older than you those feelings have faded over time because you see it all the time =)

But I'll aid you in your quest for justice! Possibly by investing in one of these £140-wonders

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If the price drops below £80 Henrik and I will talk business

I think it's more the fact of the rarity of the species at present... People want the spider partially because others don't have it. When these become more popular, and more people own them the prices will drop. Perhaps analogous to when a band you've loved for years releases a song on MTV and the next day every one has their T-shirt, which after time sometimes has the effect of you disliking the band, for some strange reason. I guess their novelty wears off.

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OMG who wants P.metallica they are sooo mainstream. Totally sold-out!
Hehe I know what you mean, it is natural for us to covet what we cannot have or things that are rare. Just basic human nature I suppose.

allright, even if I was willing to spend all that money on a spiderLING (That might die with no reason), what would I do it?? I think it'd be way better for them to be sold to breeders that will make the T available to more people.....

IMO if someone buys and doesnt intend to breed, well [!$!@!@$]

Hi Leon, i can see where your coming from mate, but i also think that maybe P.metallica, should be distributed to experienced breeders, this way at least you can 90% guarantee that they are going to be bred well, thus meaning that more P.metallica will become available, and hopefully the prices will drop. i myself wouldnt pay £140 for a sling. everyone knows how delicate and fragile slings are and some can easily die, for reasons that may be unknown!!! so to splash out all that money and to have the sling die on you is a big loss!!!! yeah ok ok, they are an attractive beast, but there are plenty of other brightly colored T's out there at the moment to keep me from digging deep into my pocket. maybe when theyve been on the circuit for a while and there numbers have increased in availability on the market and of course the price comes WAY down. i wont even entertain the idea of getting one. But each to his own;P

Originally posted by Lopez
Imagine it like a bright green Brachypelma

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Forget blue pokies, if they had one of these I'd be drooling! Or a green pokie, for that matter... Green rules! =D

Sorry to hijack the thread, but... upon reflection, it surprises me more arboreal Ts aren't green, hanging out in all the leaves and such, a nice leafy green T would have excellent camouflage.

Of course then there are the photos of wild pokies I've seen - all mottled and striped and greyish and spread out on bark. They do blend in very nicely there.

Greensleeves

Hmm, there's one heck of a difference between an H. lividum and a P. metallica. My P. metallica sit around in plain sight 99% of the time. It makes me wonder how they were "lost" to science for a hundred years.

BTW, how big are these slings being sold and are they related to the clutch sold in the U.S.?

Karen N.

Two waves.
One for the species, Poecilotheria metallica and one for the hypocrites. Once again, there are a few people who allows price to cloud judgement. You, that talk smack of "the blue one", know that you would not only buy one, but perhaps two, if they were cheaper. Nobody is fooled here. There's a reason behind all the fuss with this species. It's alright to like them. We'll understand
I'm glad that they are costly now. It helps to "put" them in the right hands.
Little Jimmy: "I need help! My metallica spider is on his back and I don't know what to do!"

Originally posted by Crotalus
Nah I rather get a nice little nasty lividum instead if its just a blue t /Lelle

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/Lelle,
My little Gooty isn't quite the angel. During a feeding last week, one little 3 incher diplayed with the typical Poec. salute. She was like..."what if I did THIS!". Didn't have the camera ready so I missed it.
john

losing your 200 euro sling in an outdoor fotoshoot, that would really be stupid=D

BTW, how big are these slings being sold and are they related to the clutch sold in the U.S.?

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I think Henrik said in another thread that these slings are not related to the clutch sold in the U.S. If I remember correct he also said that some from the new clutch would be sold to the U.S. The slings hatched in November. I have ordered 4 metallicas and some other pokie slings from Henrik. Got some pokie slings from him earlier this year and Im very satisfied with them, hoping my new order will be as healthy as the first. The metallicas is expensive, but some of the U.S. members said they where worth the U.S price(around 400$), so they should be worth the european pricetag too.

Robert

Anybody heard if the next batch for sale will be mostly female again?? Thats what I heard about the first shipment to the US, and it makes sense for Henrik to keep the males...for now

Or maybe somebody in the U.S. will get some adults or sacs or have already gotten them, the same way the europeans did. I mean there was never any official sanctioned commercial export of Poecilotheria from indiia was there? Even prior to the 2000 cites amendment concerning them. Correct me if im wrong sources please.

The estimate is by 2005 they will be extinct in the wild.( i dont know if thats accurate or not but that what the study cited says but without a accurate tally of wild populations i dont know how they could get this figure, unless they are going by habitat destruction alone. Which is going pretty fast from what ive read. But the fasciata seem to be adapting moving into houses with people and the new coconut plantations replacing the forests even if the other species arent.).

3.2 International trade: Both India or Sri Lanka permit collection and export of Poecioltheria spp. for scientific purposes. However, the numbers collected and exported for scientific purposes is unknown. Sri Lanka prohibits the commercial collecting and exportation of all Poecilotheria spp., but these species are not specifically protected under Indian law (A. Kumar, Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), in litt. to OSA, USFWS, November 1999 and S. Molur, Zoo Outreach Organization, India, in litt. to OSA, USFWS, November 1999). Thus, they can be collected commercially and exported legally from India.

So its kinda crooked collecting no matter how you look at it, using a loophole doesnt make it above board lol, so im sure as time passes we'll be getting some wc bred here as well, if they're not wiped out first.

Declared imports of Poecilotheria into the U.S. from 95 to 99

TOTAL
177 - 95
310 - 96
1,212 - 97
748 - 98
247 - 99

The actual number of captive-bred or wild-collected Poecilotheria spp. imported into, or exported out of the United States or other jurisdictions (e.g., Canada, the European Union) is unknown, as many imports and exports likely are not reported.

http://international.fws.gov/cop11/poecilot.html

Theres a good chance some P. metallica wc adults are already here just waiting to produce sacs.

Its not legal to export any animal out of India or Sri lanka. You will need a permission, and Henrik said that its very difficult to get one. Discussed on another forum:
http://www.spidertalk.net/SpiderTalk/viewthread.php?tid=2828

Robert