[meteorite-list] Meteorite market trends - a critical note

[AL Mitterling]

Greetings,

Sorry to see there are people out there that want the market to crash. 
Not very realistic.

I want the automobile market to crash so I can buy two or three high end 
cars that I can't afford now. Of course if that happens then I suspect 
that the stock market may crash along with that and many other things, 
so effecting our economy that it would put people out of jobs and buying 
cars and meteorites would be far remove from our minds and survival from 
day to day would be our biggest concern. While buying meteorites for 
pennies on the dollar sounds nice, in truth you might as well wish for 
the collapse of our economical system. It's a nice fantasy but I hope 
that specimens maintain their value so I can go on and enjoy them and 
save up and buy my next one _when_ I can afford it.

People will buy meteorites when they have some extra money over what 
they need for every day living (well I know a true meteorite 
affectionate will buy one over food :-). Meteorites aren't a necessity 
but rather a intriguing scientific curiosity. Certain specimens, falls, 
finds are more rare than others or have some other interest to the one 
who buys the specimen and why he or she will pay a certain price for it. 
They are more valuable because the scientific community unravels their 
secrets for us, the collectors. Otherwise Moon rock would be just 
another achondrite to be collected and a wonderment where it came from. 
(which was true in the past)

The market is what it is because of the competition (that is all of us 
collectors, dealers, scientists and museums, etc.) who are bidding for 
the various items that are on the market at this point in time. Prices 
are what they are because that is simply what collectors, dealers, 
scientists and museums and so forth are willing to pay.

If they were as common as rocks, I think they would loose quite a bit of 
their appeal for many. It is their rarity that makes us take notice and 
ponder them. It is also the era we live where we are finding out so much 
about their history and want to be closer to that history and study it 
for ourselves by owning them. So if ninety percent of all you guys would 
just stop collecting them, I'd be able to pick up all the bargains and 
get the really nice specimens for my collection, so you see, you guys 
are responsible for my dilemma.  All my best!

--AL Mitterling


Darren Garrison wrote:

Not me.  I collect them because I want them, not because I hope to turn a profit
for them in the future.  I'd be very happy if every class of asteroid material
became cheap and abundant enough that you would casually buy them by the ton and
have them delivered by dump truck.  If that means that the money I've already
spent on meteorites would never be recovered, so what?  I'm never going to
recover the multiple thousands I've dumped into computer equipment over the
years that is now so obsolete I'd have to pay a landfill to take them.  I want
the meteorite market to crash, hard, so that I can pick up the bargains.