[meteorite-list] The problems with Amgala

[stan .]

>The problem is that Amgala has not been completely classified yet so it is
>being sold as an unclassified meteorite. One of the reasons it is taking so
>long to classify is that many interesting features have been found in 
>Amgala
>and the scientists want to describe them properly, something every fall
>deserves.


Adam, please forgive me for being overly cynical, but what does the 
classification results have to do with the signifigant dip seen in the price 
of amgala? regardless of what it classifies as, your price for stones 
already in your possesion arent going to change. if it gets classified as a 
common stone the price isnt going to go up. if it gets classified as 
something exotic the price would go up, but we ahve only seen a steady 
downward trend in the prices - you can find smallish well crusted amgalas 
selling on ebay pretty regularly at 5$ a gram - not as good a deal as i just 
got for buying a large stone - but still about 50% of the price being asked 
when it first came out.

this trend isnt really seen in only amgala - look at lunar material - years 
ago it was all priced at several thousand $ a gram - now you can get it for 
a few hundred per gram. NWA 1929 was going for 50 to 100$ a gram and now you 
can buy it for 20$ - or even as low as 5$ if you buy a big piece. olivine 
diogenite was going for what, 600$ a gram now you see people offering it in 
the 100$ ballpark. kickass LL3's like begga were several tens of $ a gram 
and now they can be had for 2$ a gram. look at what happened to park forrest 
prices.

when stuff first comes out - be it a rare classification - or just an 
especially nice new fall it's price tends to be high - after a while more 
and more sources of the material open up, and competition drives the prices 
down. it's not about dealers not having business sense - it's about free 
market dynamics pushing the prices where they need to be based upon the laws 
of supply and demand.

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
hthttp://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/