Jason Utas wrote:
<There will never be a standard price for a certain
meteorite, but there can be a reasonable price range.
Unclassified NWAs for example range from six cents a gram (I saw this
price in Tucson this year) to upwards of fifty cents a gram. The
average seems to be between ten and twenty-five cents a gram.
Anything above or below this range seems really cheap or somewhat
expensive to me.>
That is the meteorite market in a nutshell. The only caveat is that the
range changes from time to time. Last year in Tucson almost every Moroccan
mineral/fossil dealer also had meteorites and many had achondrites for sale
too. There were literally tons of unclassified meteorites in Tucson. This
year I didn't get to look around a lot, but NWA meteorites were a completely
different story with maybe 10% of what was here last year. The price I had to
pay (on 40+Kg) after a lot of negotiating was up 50% over last year. The
moroccan dealer I bought CV3 and achondrites from last year didn't even have
any ordinary chondrites this year. Speaking of the CV3 the one or two places
I saw it for sale, it was up $3/gm over what I paid last year and considering
it retails for $7/gm that is a pretty significant jump. Part of this is
certainly supply, but the Moroccans most often mentioned the declining dollar
as the major factor. I would guess the dollar is down 40% or m
ore over the last couple years. That is a pretty significant impact.
For me Blood's auction was pretty typical. I listed 2 items, one didn't
sell and the other went for 30% less than I usually sell it for. I bid on
several items, but only bought one thing, looking for steals not deals ;-)
Most of the things I paid attention to sold at the low end of what I thought
they were worth. There seemed to be a general lack of interest in NWA items
except Martian and lunar. Personally I see no reason not to publish the sales
prices. Sure the prices are mostly low end, but dealers are under no
obligation to match them. If nothing else the prices should encourage more
people to attend the auction next year.
The worst part of this Tucson show was the closing of one hotel and the new
management at another, which scattered hundreds of dealers all over Tucson.
People I had bought from for years because I knew where their room was, this
year I couldn't find because I didn't have the company name and had no clue
where they went. Comet shop, which I usually hit a dozen times or more during
the show, was across town and I never even made it once.
The best part of this Tucson show were the deals in Bob Haag's room.
Unfortunately as soon as I walked in the door Bob decided he had raised enough
money and stopped selling collection items. The worst part about having a
room at the show is not being able to spend the whole day ducking in and out of
all the rooms in the show looking for those hidden gems.
Speaking of hidden gems I have a bunch of things on ebay including good
sized 12-17 gram tatahouine at $15/gm buy it now. There is also a 13.5
kilogram lot of unclassified NWA that as I write is a less than 2/10 of a
penny per gram, that is $0.002 / gm. Cheap at 50 times that price.
<http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=katy2kary>
--
Eric Olson
ELKK Meteorites
http://www.star-bits.com
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