[meteorite-list] Duck Chondrule

[Rob McCafferty]

--- drtanuki <drtanuki at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Ken and List,
>   The dangerous thing I see happening is
> foreign buyers buying the stuff in Thailand and
> elsewhere and taking it back to their countries to
> sell.  Yes, I have seen several foreign buyers
> buying
> it in Thailand.  Best, Dirk...Tokyo
> 

This started out with me thinking, "Ha, this is like
seeing the virgin Mary in a slice of toast, isn't the
human mind wonderful?" and ended up with me thinking,
"Cripes. I need to be more cynical"

Many say I'm too cynical already but I'm in this less
than a year and am only just recognising real from
junk. Poor quality photos don't help. (OK, I know a
chondrite should have a greater chondrule density than
this with hindsight but it's been a long, hard week)

It really is a concern. I'm trying to get kids excited
by meteorites. Idiots like this are making it
difficult. 
The lesson is, buy only from whom you can trust, I
suppose. 
I don't like monopolies or cartels which are possible
if the diabolical situation of uncrupulous fakers
continues. Fortunately, with starting prices of 99c on
ebay, it still seems like a free market economy.
I don't mind paying "over the odds" for something I
really want from someone I trust. Especially when it
seems that "over the odds" is simply more than anyone
else was willing to pay in a free auction.

I've bought some lunar stuff at more than I wanted to
pay on Buy It Now because I REALLY wanted to compare
it to Apollo stuff (you know who you are) and this is
a pride of my collection because of my perception of
the material, not what I paid for it or anything else.

I also bought a lunar sample which I would have gladly
paid twice as much for (I'd i'd had the money) but
nobody else seemed to want from someone (and you know
who you are, too. Probably felt I robbed you. Maybe
every other collector was broke that week). Its a
bless the free market economy time again.

My biggest concern (I'm sure I've said this before) is
that one of my students comes to me with a lump of
pumice or similar and says "I bought this meteorite
off ebay". If I have to tell them its not a meteorite
because the "5 billionaires" or similar have conned
them. How am I going to feel, having got them
interested?

Nail them up, I say! Nail some sense into them!

I know the sellers names of the guys I trust but I
don't want to be advertising them but what else could
I do? (OK, I tell them anyone with an IMCA no. is OK)

In difficulty

Rob McC



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