[meteorite-list] AD, New Meteorite Men Collectible on Ebay Closing on Thursday Night

[MeteorHntr at aol.com]

Hello List,

I am excited to announce the prototype to a new line of  meteorite 
collectibles Geoff Notkin and I are working on.  Several years  ago, I put some 
pieces of Brenham Shale in a plastic "slabs" as a test as a  Limited Edition 
Collectible at the Haviland Kansas Meteorite Festival, they  seemed to go over 
well.  I then took it a step further and made six  different slabs holding 
dust from various meteorites (Moon Dust, Mars Dust,  etc).  

I put that project on the back burner, until  revisiting the concept with 
Geoff now.  

These slabs are  manufactured for the rare coin industry and are quite 
popular in that industry.  The slim clear plastic cases also work great for 
holding thin part slices of  meteorites as well.

With our TV show "Meteorite Men" airing on  Science Channel, more people 
are being introduced to the world of meteorite  collecting, and as such we 
thought it would be nice to make it a little easier  for them to get started 
with meteorites with a little different packaging.   

Of course, most all of you on the Meteorite List are not in need  of help 
in getting started collecting, but we wanted to get your feedback on  this as 
well.

Some of you remember our limited run of Brenham part  slices in Lucite from 
Tucson.  These were quite popular, but at $99 they  were priced out of the 
range of a lot of beginning collectors.  We wanted  to have something in the 
$3 to $50 retail price range to offer.

We  are expecting that more "Meteorite Men" episodes will be coming in the 
near  future.  If more TV episodes do materialize, then we will almost 
certainly  take these slabbed meteorites collectibles up to a far more 
professional level  in appearance, as well as with a wider selection of available 
specimens.   But for now, this is what we have.

Some of these will slabbed  specimens in the future will not be limited 
editions, where we would most likely  set the retail price and then make as 
many as the market would continue to  buy.  While others will be limited to a 
just a few limited number  specimens, in some case a very limited number. 

So we have made a  "prototype" assortment of limited edition meteorites 
encased in the slabs, and  we have some of them up on Ebay right now.  Getting 
the exact same size  part slice for each of a limited edition of 20 pieces, 
for example, would be  very hard to do.  With low priced per gram material, 
it is not a big deal,  as they can all be priced all the same.  But with 
more rare material, the  actual value of the specimen could differ greatly base 
upon the weight of the  slice.

Then there is the value of the item as a collectible.   It is so hard to 
predict what the values should be, as that is so  subjective.  Ask some 
people, and they will say the collectible factor is  not even worth $1.00.  If our 
TV show does go to series, and becomes a big  hit, and we start cranking 
out thousands of these specimens in slabs, then the  first ones out in this 
batch theoretically could become more valuable up and  beyond the raw value of 
the meteorite specimen enclosed in it.  Why are  some rare coins with the 
same about of silver in them worth more than  others?  Why are some baseball 
cards worth more than others?  It all  has a bit to do with supply and 
demand. 

The demand is real low for these  right now, since (relatively speaking) no 
one knows about us, or these items,  yet.

Some of these specimens are almost impossible to find on the market,  while 
some are very common.  Some are exotic types, others more  common.  The 
numbers available of each range from 6 up to 27, so there is a  wide range on 
the availability factor.  

So, I have put some  of these up on Ebay with a 3 day listing.  

We hope some of  you buy these at what will be a fair price right now, and 
we hope they later  become worth a lot more. In addition to making the 
buyers happy, and us happy,  it would really tweak one person out there!  :-)

So, I am  starting each of these at $0.99, with no reserve, and we will see 
where they  go.  

Also, I have one complete set with all 18 specimens, all  numbered #4, up 
for auction in one lot.  In this prototype run, the lower  the number the 
BIGGER the specimen enclosed.  So many of the #4 specimens  are much larger 
than the others being listed here on the same night.   Remember that when 
looking to 

The Colony, OK specimen only has 6  units.  And the #6 unit is up for sale 
as an individual with this  batch.  So, at the most, there is only going to 
be 5 complete sets  available.  In fact, this one full set might be the only 
complete set that  will go on sale as such. 

Check them out  here:

http://stores.ebay.com/Steve-Arnold-Meteorites?refid=store  

Please look at the listings, and feel free to respond to me off  list if 
you would like to share some comments, or ask questions.  

Also, if you are one of the people who eventually buys one, please  check 
back with me on your opinion of these after they arrive and you get to see  
them in person.

Thanks,

Steve Arnold
of "Meteorite Men"  


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