[meteorite-list] Meteorite smugglers anger scientists

[Darren Garrison]

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:06:52 -0400, you wrote:

>Hello Moni and List,
>If the article is referring to unclassified material,which would make sense, 
>thereby allowing material never to reach the scientific community, the point 
>is well taken.

The problem with that argument is that from the stories that the people who go
to Morocco tell, those nomads aren't nearly as clueless as the article writer
claims that they are.  They may have been at first, but they learned to notice
the difference between a common meteorite and a valuable one.  Which is why
people like MF and the Hupes have to make big negotiations to get their lunars,
Martians, and other rare achondrites instead of getting them for 10 cents a gram
in heaps of OCs.  The rare stuff is going to be recognized by the original
dealers and sold at rare stuff prices to rare stuff dealers/collectors.