[meteorite-list] Re: Blood Auction Results

[stan .]

>Dear Michael;
>If the auction is such a bad deal for all the dealers, why do the dealers 
>so eagerly attend the auction?  I think that is the issue,  buy low sell 
>high. Isn't that related to your non disclosure issue?
>I should think that some information on what was paid by 
>happy-to-disclose-select-individuals would seem to bolster attendance at 
>next years auction for all the great deals....


i would be very surprised if alot of dealers attend the auction with the 
hopes of buying cheap material for resale - there may be a few occasiaonl 
excpetions to this - ie both this year and last year there were a few 
'dealer lots' of tatahouine - alot of weight and many peices, not something 
that is likely to go into a collection...

While Michael has some fair points with regards to the value of a specimin, 
I think it's also worth pointing out that meteorites have no inherent value 
- they arent gold or diamonds that can easily be converted into cash 
anywhere in the world - they are worth what people pay for them. a perfect 
example of that is any nutcase can offer 'alleged' lunar dust for sale for 
ridiculously high prices - say 150k$ a gram - is the material REALLY worth 
this much money? well if said dealer never sells a speck of material at that 
price I'd say the answer is no.

The audience at the Blood auctions consists of a large number of serious 
meteorite people that have collectivly spent many millions of $ on their 
collections - I would say an IDEAL place to sell a specimin would be at the 
blood auction. You may argue that the auction price isnt indicitive of the 
'value' of any particular lot, but what is the value of something anyway - 
is it the price you wish to put on an item and MAYBE sell it now, or maybe 
still ahve it for sale 4 years from now? or is it the price that you can 
reasonably expect to get for the item in a reasonable amount of time?

i too hereby add my 'vote to publish the prices' to the list :) (just incase 
Michael was doing a survey and was curious what the meteorite community 
thought of the subject)