[meteorite-list] NWA's

[John Birdsell]

Hi Larry, Mike and list. Yes, at first this sounds like good advice, 
however this can lead to numerous problems as well. For instance I 
obtained a beautiful large chunk of NWA 482 in a trade with you Mike, 
and I know that numerous other dealers also have NWA 482 for sale. If we 
were only to purchase from the dealer who had the meteorite classified 
then this would pretty much eliminate such trades as all such traded 
pieces would become worthless. Another example is Dhofar 019. There must 
be 20 dealers all legitimacy selling this shergottite, which they 
themselves purchased wholesale. Now if everyone were only to buy from 
the individual that had Dhofar 019 classified (Serge), then Serge would 
be stuck with around a kilo of Martian rock with no market for it except 
for the retail market. He would be relegated to selling off 200 mg here 
and 300 mg there for the next forty years. This would make the 
acquisition of large, rare rocks retarded unless someone wanted to spend 
40 years recouping their initial investment.  The same can be said for 
hundreds of other meteorites.  This also screws the collector who may 
want to sell one of his expensive meteorites to buy something else. If 
everyone only purchases from the person that originally had the 
meteorite classified then the resale value of these meteorites would be 
zero. I don't think that the collectors are going to appreciate paying 
top dollar for some expensive planetary meteorite and then being told 
that "Oh yeah, by the way don't try to sell that expensive meteorite 
that we just sold you because you are not the one that had it classified 
and no one will buy it from you."  This would really piss me off if I 
were the collector that had spent my hard earned money on an expensive 
and rare meteorite specimen. The best thing for dealers to do is to get 
their meteorites classified by a legitimate research institution, and to 
use their own numbers. If they want, they can say "my NWA XXX is 
probably paired to NWA YYY" or "my NWA is paired to NWA ZZZ" depending 
upon the provisional or final classification respectively.  For those 
buyers that want to be sure they are getting properly classified and 
named specimens, they should keep track of which dealers do follow the 
Nom. Com. guidelines and avoid those that do not. Fortunately the 
overwhelming majority of dealers are honest and play by the rules. 
Unfortunately, there is a lot of BS being put on the meteorite-list by 
certain meteorite dealers of the "my meteorite is better than yours" 
sort. Don't be fooled by this non-sense either-it is just a transparent 
attempt at self promotion. There are a lot of very reputable meteorite 
dealers out there that do not engage in these types of sales tactics, 
and I would prefer to support these honest, reputable dealers.


Cheers


-John
Arizona Skies Meteorites
http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com







Michael Farmer wrote:

> Larry, this is the problem I was getting at.
> I will tell you the simple solution, buy the meteorite from the dealer 
> who had it classified, then there can be no error.
> Mike Farmer
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry Harrison" 
> <L_Harrison at infostations.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 9:54 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] NWA's
>
>
>> Greetings List,
>>
>> I am but a small time collector (>200 specimens). However, I cherish 
>> my small example of the evolution of the solar system. I am also an 
>> astronomy educator. I always include meteorites in my lectors AND I 
>> am always asked "how do you know if it is really a meteorite? My 
>> answer: Irons are simple to recognize, and I explain the 
>> widmanstatten figure and how it forms. Stones on the other hand 
>> require analysis especially when chondrules (I explain chondrules) 
>> are not easily visible. In those cases it is very important to know 
>> your source. I have always made it clear that I only deal with 
>> reputable dealers.
>>
>> The posts of late have put a very large question in my mind about who 
>> is reputable. The saddest part is that many reputable dealers are 
>> being scamed by the Nomads. I prefer to collect the rarest of the 
>> rare. And this is where most of the scams are being made.  My 
>> absolute certainty of the authenticity of my collection is now in 
>> question! I do not question that any piece in my collection is or 
>> isn't a meteorite, but that it is not the specimen type that I think 
>> it is. I have always been more than excited about the immense number 
>> of new and rare meteorites coming out of the Sahara. If not for these 
>> finds I could never afford as many representations of the early solar 
>> system or of the achondrites of lessor differentiated bodies. I am 
>> crushed, uncertain and totally confused! What to do? Since I am not a 
>> big time buyer, my reluctance to purchase further NWA's will not hurt 
>> any of you. However, I feel that I am Mr. Average. If this mess curbs 
>> my desire to purchase more meteorites, I assure you it is doing the 
>> same to many more. This is the saddest moment in my 20 years of 
>> meteorite collecting.
>>
>> Thanks for letting me vent,
>>
>> Harrison
>>
>>
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