But it's a fair consideration in that you would probably get much higher prices if you did a one-and-done Apollo-style mission, because the assumption would be

But it's a fair consideration in that you would probably get much higher prices if you did a one-and-done Apollo-style mission, because the assumption would be that there aren't more coming, at least for a while. In that case, the world's billionaires are competing for status by owning one of a limited few (maybe only one?) Mars rocks. If you're clearly setting up a colony up there, then world's billionaires are only competing for temporary status, since there will eventually be more on the market, and they probably won't be whipped into a such a fervor in the bidding.