Good Points Stan.
This is not a new characteristic of meteorites coming on to the market at different prices. Years ago Bob Haag bought the main mass of Esquel. A little later another 80kg or so fell into the hands of some other dealers. They banged it onto the market undercutting Bob. Bob kept his cool and sat back and let them sell out. After the market absorbed the other dealers supply, Bob started selling again.
The dealers with deep pockets can afford to sit on their rare meteorites in the hopes of the supply coming out of the deserts drying up, which they eventually will. The partime dealers with a full time 9 to 5 job can afford to sell now with a small markup. Both strategies will make money.
If finders and dealers at a new fall want to sell before classification and their are willing buyers what is the harm? The collector has the option of waiting for classification and the possibility that something strange will be discovered and the price will be higher or they can buy immediately with the possiblity of many kg coming on to the market which will outstrip demand. It is a crap shoot.
This is still a free market society and collector and dealer alike can sell their meteorites any way they please. Even if that does not fit nicely into the perfect business model. Collectors can become instant dealers if a meteorite falls in their backyard (Park Forest) or if they decide to buy directly from Morocco because the internet makes it possible. For many this is not a business, just a hobby, which, because of the internet and ebay makes it possible to help pay for one's collection by selling extra specimens or taking a flyer on buying from Morocco.
Is all this a bad thing? I don't think so. I think that this is just the way it is, always has been (Esquel), and always will be (Park Forest, Amgala, NWA, etc)
Randy
>From: "stan ." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] The problems with Amgala
>Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2004 20:57:01 +0000
>
>
>>The problem is that Amgala has not been completely classified yet
>>so it is
>>being sold as an unclassified meteorite. One of the reasons it is
>>taking so
>>long to classify is that many interesting features have been found
>>in Amgala
>>and the scientists want to describe them properly, something every
>>fall
>>deserves.
>
>
>Adam, please forgive me for being overly cynical, but what does the
>classification results have to do with the signifigant dip seen in
>the price of amgala? regardless of what it classifies as, your price
>for stones already in your possesion arent going to change. if it
>gets classified as a common stone the price isnt going to go up. if
>it gets classified as something exotic the price would go up, but we
>ahve only seen a steady downward trend in the prices - you can find
>smallish well crusted amgalas selling on ebay pretty regularly at 5$
>a gram - not as good a deal as i just got for buying a large stone -
>but still about 50% of the price being asked when it first came out.
>
>this trend isnt really seen in only amgala - look at lunar material
>- years ago it was all priced at several thousand $ a gram - now you
>can get it for a few hundred per gram. NWA 1929 was going for 50 to
>100$ a gram and now you can buy it for 20$ - or even as low as 5$ if
>you buy a big piece. olivine diogenite was going for what, 600$ a
>gram now you see people offering it in the 100$ ballpark. kickass
>LL3's like begga were several tens of $ a gram and now they can be
>had for 2$ a gram. look at what happened to park forrest prices.
>
>when stuff first comes out - be it a rare classification - or just
>an especially nice new fall it's price tends to be high - after a
>while more and more sources of the material open up, and competition
>drives the prices down. it's not about dealers not having business
>sense - it's about free market dynamics pushing the prices where
>they need to be based upon the laws of supply and demand.
>
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