[meteorite-list] Fwd: How many meteorite dealers are there?

[ALMitt]

Hi Alex and all,

I'd say there are about two or three hundred dealers. While my 
definition of a dealer is someone who has a tax license and is listed as 
a business in their state or country it's a little more complicated than 
that. There are certainly individuals who buy a quantity of a certain 
item and sell all but the one they want to keep (ok maybe two). While 
that might not be a dealer in the eyes of most if they are making a sale 
then those customers of this individual aren't buying from say Michael, 
Tim, the meteoriteman or me for example. That is taking a sale from out 
of the registered dealers who are out there, so those small time 
individuals "dealers" are most certainly a dealer.

There are many collector/dealers and I am certainly one. I'd say there 
are fewer, very few, strictly dealers who don't collect. Of course you 
have your collectors who simply collect. Again just about every 
collector upgrades their collection in their collecting days. So if they 
don't trade in a piece or a similar piece they are buying, they usually 
offer the extra piece for sale so it can become cash to offset the new 
purchase or whatever. Keeping the piece is also an option. That again 
puts them in competition with the dealers that are doing business out there.

I'm not sure what other dealers keep as inventory but I usually have 
about 5 to 6 figures in specimens at anyone given time. While that might 
not always be smart depending on the economy, it provides me with items 
to sell when someone is looking for something I might have. I've been 
selling items since 1988, was on Compuserve first and made sells there, 
later when the internet came along I didn't have any kind of spot on the 
net I sold from but went to areas and advertised to interested parties. 
So I guess I am one of the first dozen dealers out there. Bob Haag at 
one of the Tucson conventions told me there were over two dozen dealers 
dealing meteorites at that time. He was concerned.

While my post has probably muddied the water still more I still think we 
have well over 200 dealers of meteorites of some kind or another.

--AL Mitterling