...weird things w/o commercial potential.
That is really the key right there. The private offer list was set up for the benefit of Pearl-Guide members, not as an outlet to sell pearls. In fact, it has never been my intention to make any profit on that list. It is a gift to the members here.
The exotics, for example, are something we would never sell on PP. They are just too rare. But I sent Mia to China for a week to go to factory after factory after factory and collect every exotic she could. She collected enough for this list - that was the goal. And when we do finally offer the exotics, the prices will not come anywhere near covering the cost of collecting them. But the members here will have the opportunity to own something they would never, ever be able to find on their own.
Advertising, which is something we all dislike to see here very much, is very different in my opinion. Advertising is all about making a buck and has nothing to do with giving anything back. As Raisondetre put it, we have a 'commercial' list. But that and the private offer list are two very different things.
If you want to do the same thing, collect all the exotic pearls from your next harvest. I don't mean just the really peacock ones, or the perfect ones. I mean the ones that anyone at the Vaima Center would say "Wow! That is really special!" Then offer them to the list for a lot less than anyone in the 'biz' would be willing to pay for them in an instant - that would make it a gift. Anything less would make it a 'commercial' list.