Hi, I think what we are talking about is connoisseurship. Being a connoisseur has nothing to do with deep pockets. It is about deep understanding. One of the best stories about connoisseurs is the story of Herbert and Dorothy Vogel a postal worker & a librarian. The couple amassed an art collection worth hundreds of millions of dollars on their civil servant salaries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_and_Dorothy_Vogel
Unfortunately in our world today few people have the time to invest in becoming a connoisseur. Connoisseurs can lead the market. Sure, they may compete against one and other to get that special rock (this is where deep pockets help) but dealers may also want to place a sample with a connoisseur. For example a David Weir write up may help draw attention to an otherwise overlooked NWA. That attention may lead to more sales. When Adam Hupe was marketing NWA 5000 he used a meteorite rating scale that attempted to quantify all the factors that a connoisseur considers when looking at a meteorite. Perhaps someday a rating scale will become common place in the meteorite world. Until then we all need to continue to study meteorites in order to become better connoisseurs. Thanks, Peter -----Original Message----- From: Meteorite-list [mailto:meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Stefan Ralew via Meteorite-list Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2015 10:53 AM To: Stephan Kambach; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] high-end collectors high-end meteorites andrareness I agree. If someone falls into the category "high end collector", then it should be David Weir. And this has nothing to do with a bank account. I know him as a real enthusiast, and his website is endless inspiration for many other collectors! On the other side, I don´t like the term "high end collector" at all. Michael F. explained us already what it means, a collector with deep pockets who buy expensive pieces. And what are the other 95+% of meteorite collectors? Low end collectors who buy the "crap" (btw, another word which I don´t like to hear in conjunction with meteorites) on Ebay?? Please don´t misunderstand me, it´s totally fine with me if wealthy people buy expensive meteorites. I´m happy for them and I´m happy when I can serve them with my service. I know that some of them donate material to institutions, or make their impressive collections accessible to the public, which I find very noble. What I don´t like is to sort people into categories depending on their wealth. Btw, my clients are mostly the same after 15 years, I still sell to meteorite collectors and institutions, small and big collectors alike. And it still works! Cheers, Stefan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephan Kambach via Meteorite-list" <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com> To: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2015 10:16 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] high-end collectors high-end meteorites andrareness > Hello, All > > If I combined Michael Farmers and Greg Hupes writing up about high-end > collectors and high-end meteorites, so I should come to the conclusion > that dealers aiming know a days to collectors with big wallets. > Regardless to the amount of money you can effort for collecting > meteorites, for myself, the high-end collector is the one, who > understand in deeper details what he is collecting. > Means, before he can real enjoy it, he must crack his head by studying > in a private or profesional way mineralogy, physics, (bio)chemistry > and etc. . Otherwise, confrontated with the foolishness, he can only > marveling with an open mouth, but the real enjoy comes be looking at a > meteorite with the specialed (knowlege) view about what you are > looking at. > Collectors like David Weir for example buying the small samples, but > they are the high-end collectors. > Some companies or also some single rich peoples (or even the most) > often have rudimentär interest in meteorites but supporting the > interest of the nature of an dealer – that's a own class of high-ends. > > Last at least, something about lunar and martian meteorites. Meanwhile > the amount of it rised up to huge amounts compare to some real rare > space samples, for ex. the ungrouped cc's like NWA 5958 from Greg > Hupe. > A sample like this, unique by it's O-isotopes compared to the rest of > all meteorites, provide an absolutely less amount of material compared > for ex. to a NWA 5000, but comes in price much more efordable. > Martians and Lunaites describe more a less a single parent body > history/evolution but a CM2 like a Murchison, a Tagish Lake or CI > spans with it's information through the rise of the solarsystem and in > some way also beyond. Some of such CC's you find in between the 393 > CC's of the MetBull 101 to 103. > > My regards, Stephan Kambach > > > PS. my special thanks to David Weir supporting all the real > collectores for his well done work and also to the scientists, who let > us, they one who is opend enough for it, to understand the value of > the meteorites ______________________________________________ > > Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and > the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com > https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > ______________________________________________ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com ______________________________________________ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
