[meteorite-list] Meteorite numbers

[Rob Wesel]

While I truly believe this practice is ultimately costly to the collector, 
truer words have never been spoken. Thanks Mike:

"Virtually every dealer including myself has been or is guilty of
this, we are in the process of correcting the situation and to start people
MUST immediately comply or this will just spiral downward as we see 
tonight."

So, for now, we make it right. We follow the rules and pay out to prove 
pairings. We wait longer to get to market and costs go up because repeat lab 
fees and repeat type specimens factor into prices per gram. I don't like it 
one bit but that's what we do. I will be finishing off my "likely paired" 
howardite as such but new specimens are already off to the lab, specimens I 
know are paired.
While I seriously doubt the law has any holding here, the NomCom asks this 
of us. Bottom line, if two folks buy bread from the same baker...they're 
eating the same bread. The full weight of this ruling will soon be felt by 
all as we bog down institutions who want to study meteorites with incessant 
pairings, not much grant money in pairings, not much recognition. But this 
is what we do...for now.

Rob Wesel
------------------
We are the music makers...
and we are the dreamers of the dreams.
Willy Wonka, 1971



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Farmer" <meteoritehunter at comcast.net>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 7:56 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite numbers


> To clarify something that is obviously causing some problems in the 
> meteorite world right now, I want everyone to know that
> NWA 788, 787, and NWA 482 are numbers that came from rather large or 
> meteorites with hundreds of pieces bought during one of my expeditions.
> The Hupes and many other people have the right to those numbers.
> Now, there are other numbers being widely used without proper title (as Dr 
> Grossman has stated publicly and with finality that people do not own 
> numbers, but numbers are assigned to specific meteorite specimens and must 
> not be used with other meteorites just because you heard or someone told 
> you it is the same).
> Let's all please stop this practice as it is really hurting our business 
> and hobby. Virtually every dealer including myself has been or is guilty 
> of this, we are in the process of correcting the situation and to start 
> people MUST immediately comply or this will just spiral downward as we see 
> tonight.
>
> I perused eBay today and it is still rampant with sellers using numbers 
> they seem to have drawn from a hat. So please ask you seller next time you 
> buy something, how they got that number, who it was assigned to and if not 
> them, just how they came to call it that.
> Mike Farmer
>
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>