[meteorite-list] Ethics question?

[Brian Cox]

Richard, Bill, Barrett and List,

Personally if a meteorite were glued together I'd want to know, but I'm 
positive I could tell it were glued together. Now, to be honest with you, 
unless the person was an expert at gluing meteorites, I'm sure most people 
could tell it was glued, I would think. If you had a great deal of 
experience at gluing Native American or Pre-Columbian artifacts and or stone 
or metal objects together most people could tell that also, and in any case 
you should always advise someone it's glued if you were selling it.

I would think most people selling their meteorites at that point would sell 
them separately and they would probably make more money selling the separate 
pieces than as a whole. As you know every year the specimens are getting 
smaller and smaller, and then you're down to micro-mounts and dust. I 
recently bought a decent crumb, about 144 mg of New Concord that I can see 
and a 19 mg Weston, which is just too small honestly for me, and I'd rather 
have a 1 gram piece but none were available. We all know dealers buy 
meteorites and break them down to smaller and smaller specimens and they 
make more money per specimen that way, since it's more money per mg or gram. 
This is also helpful to beginners or those not wanting to spend a great deal 
of money and for those who want to have a specific meteorite in their 
collection and the small specimens do allow this.

I recently bought eleven very nice meteorites ( 9 separate names) and there 
were 2 pieces of Agoult that fit together that were sold separately, a 1.6 
gm and 1 gram piece. I was happy with them, and the seller made more money 
probably than if they hadn't been broken and sold as a 2.6 gram specimen. I 
also bought his 2 Bruderheim pieces, a 9.7 gm and a 1.0 gm piece that fit 
together like a puzzle. I'm happy, and they look nice, and if I sell them 
I'll probably sell them separately too since again if they broke 
accidentally or were broken to sell separately and to make more money, 
either way is fine. I bought them and someone else will also. Honesty is the 
best policy.

Take care and may a large Lunar or Martian Meteorite fall into your yard 
today.

Brian