Tom once again proves his lack of business sense by stating 'its easier to sell 500 1$ rocks instead of selling 1 500$ rock.'
Let's break this down.
Selling in bulk only works if you sell 'in bulk'. People inherently associate price with quality; if You're selling me something for a dollar it's either A. extremely cost effective to make (like fried dough) or B. pretty goddamn shitty. So let's say I want to buy Tom's 500 1$ rocks. Going by price alone I can attest the quality has gotta be real, real low and chances are with a batch like that most aren't even gonna make the cut and be considered waste. Considering the time and energy needed to sort through them I'd feel compelled to haggle them down to, oh...150$.
Now that 1 rock for 500$; that sounds like it might be a choice hunk of mineral there. Could probably make a nice piece of jewelry or hell, a paperweight. If the person selling it is smart (so not Tom) they'd roll high and haggle down to 500$ to make just what they were looking for.
Tom is trying to play businessman when he spent 4 decades pretending to actually be one. The fact that he's bankrupting himself in the process is just icing on the cake.