[meteorite-list] Handling rust problems after buying Irons

[MexicoDoug]

Hi Matthias,

I am very saddened to hear of the problems you experienced with your Morasko 
specimens you bought at auction from that Seller.  The comment about your 
Nantan never rusting is odd with Morasko rusting, making this a curiousity - 
though I'm sure it is frustrating to no end to see your beautiful meteorites 
rusting away.

I just have two comments,

First, did your Morasko have fissures along the crystal bountries as is 
common due to high impact shocking in that iron?  This probably could play 
havoc if not properly cared for if dunked in tap water especially and not 
dried...and not all Morasko are equally fissured.  If it did exhibit this 
natural condition, was this illustrated in the photos for you, or is there 
evidence it was purposefully occulted?  Then you'd have a case of fraud.

Second, could you kindly share the "obscure treatment" the Seller suggested 
with us?  That way when you make your complaint public we can all judge for 
ourselves better what is happening and it would be much more effective IMO. 
Plus, I'm sure listmembers would love to know of a potentially different 
treatment out there being used on that locality - I would!

I wish you good luck with the Seller, any time a meteorite rusts it's not 
only a loss for the owner, but for humanity as well.  It would be helpful if 
preparation was not used as a competitive advantage of dealers.  This is one 
of the aspects of commercialization of meteorites I really find revolting. 
In a perfect world where meteorites come first, Sellers should be required 
to say exactly how the meteorite is prepared or what it is exposed to.  And 
Sellers should be more responsible to conserve and provide this information 
even before asking more mundane things like TKW 's since TLC beats that, and 
w/crust, since w/rust beats out that for importance to know...This is more 
than a labeling issue - it is a processing issue which directly affects the 
scientific and commercial value of the piece.  Off the soap box...

Best wishes,
Doug

PS, it was sufficient to post the Seller's eBay ID, without his name.  EBay 
policy is that posting in public name and ID after participating in auctions 
is not legal and more to the point with your problem, you probably loose 
some leverage with eBay taking punative action when there is a case to be 
made that the Seller has already answered you, no matter how lame or nice 
the Seller's sugestion.

ref: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/identity-contact.html.  I don't 
make a big deal out of this since you can't reach over "with pleasure" and 
choke a seller, depending on how much hard earned $ is at stake, and maybe 
all you are really looking is to stike back at him after a negative 
transaction where you feel fooled. No further comment!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Matthias Bärmann
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 9:02 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Handling rust problems after buying Irons


Hello list,

I'ld like to ask whether anyone of you ever bought Morasko from ebay-seller 
starrymet (Lukasz Smula) and how his/her experience is until now. I did so, 
and my personal experience is not very good, unfortunately (although 
starrymet's ebay-feedback is excellent).

I bought, step by step, 4 pieces: 2 individuals, 1 etched slice, 1 etched 
endpiece. They really were pretty when I received them, the etched pieces 
with marvellous Widmannstaetten pattern and even nice and delicate Neumann 
lines. I didn't hesitate to give very positive feedbacks. So far, so good.

But it took only a few months and all 4 pieces began to rust, heavily, over 
and over. Meanwhile all of them have really dramatic rust-problems. And I 
need to underline: I never had such rusting on/in iron, not even with Nandan 
(!).

I informed the seller about this problem and received only a quite lapidary 
answer, advising me to work with a (regarding my impression) pretty obsure 
chemical treatment. So I contacted the seller again, asking hin whether 
he'ld help me with a better solution or take the pieces back. But from now 
on I never received any reaction from him. I tried several times and finally 
informed him that, still remaining without any reaction, I'ld make the 
problem public - what I'm doing now, not with pleasure.

Would also be interesting for me to know how the sellers of the list use to 
handle such problems.

Thank you, best regards,

Matthias Baermann









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