[meteorite-list] Excessively Large Reward a bad precedent.

[Notkin]

Dear Mac:

You and I must have some kind of a psychic link  : )   I was planning  
a post on this very topic, but you beat me to it.

This may stir things up a bit, but that is not my intention. As  
someone who goes out in the field, and does part of the actual work of  
recovery, I feel I should voice my opinion on this. As best I can  
recall, four well-known members of the meteorite community have  
recently offered large rewards for stones from new falls. You're all  
my friends, so please don't take this personally -- I'm just throwing  
this out for your consideration.

We all remember that Bob Haag offered a $10,000 reward for a piece of  
Buzzard Coulee. At the time, I thought it was very clever. Bob is a  
great promoter, and his reward offer, naturally, got him in the news.  
Since then -- correct me if I'm wrong -- there have been at least  
three other $10K rewards offered (that I'm aware of) for recovered  
material from the meteors seen over Texas, New York, and Georgia.

So: (a) You guys are copycats  (b) Making these big cash reward offers  
to the general public is interfering with hunting in the strewnfields.  
Yes, one dealer might make a quick profit by buying up one piece from  
a landowner and turning it around before hunters on the ground can  
recover anything, and I guess that's your right in a free market. But  
please consider the damage you are doing to people out in the field.

In Texas, there were several instances when I was personally told by a  
landowner something along the lines of: "Nah, you can't hunt on my  
land. I heard in the paper them's things is worth ten thousand a  
pound," or whatever. I know others had similar experiences. If someone  
sitting in their office sends a press release to local papers advising  
landowners that black rocks on their land might be worth five grand  
per pound, do you think those landowners are going to be receptive to  
working with hunters who have gone to the trouble and expense of  
traveling to the fall site? Not likely.

Since several List members can't even manage to respect the  
gentleman's agreement we already have about one ad per dealer, per  
week, I hardly think we're going to have any more success with a  
gentleman's agreement about reward prices. But I guess it's worth a  
try and, Mac, I do like your thinking.


Respectfully,

Geoff N.

www.aerolite.org
www.meteoriteblog.org