[Taxacom] another ebay auction of naming rights

[Les Watling]

On reading this discussion, I wonder whether two things are here 
conflated, viz., the issue of the specimen vs the issue of the name. 
It is not the specimen that is for sale, its the name. Granted the 
name is attached to the specimen, but the specimen itself can be 
shipped, etc., and still declared to have no commercial value because 
the specimen is not to be sold.

On the matter of a specimen going from one museum to another and then 
gets put forward to be named for a price, then the first museum 
should stipulate when loaning specimens that they cannot be used for 
that purpose. Pretty simple, but yet another restriction that will 
need to be considered.

I am not sure I would use e-bay for auctioning the name, but I have 
named a specimen after a person whose organization gave me a grant 
with the specific purpose of honoring a member of their board. The 
grant paid for a student for a year. I would do something similar if 
the opportunity arose.

Les Watling, University of Hawaii at Manoa