Hi all... My collection is modest by many of your standards, but is sufficient (in my opinion) to warrant insurance. I'm aware that it is currently under-insured, but having spent some time reading and absorbing Kevin Kichinka's 'A comparative study of worldwide meteorite pricing' I'm determined to come up with a more realistic insurance value. Kevin approaches the issue from the perspective of tracking the value of his collection, but it applies equally to calculating a value for insurance purposes.
Insurance generally covers a replacement cost, which is intrinsically difficult for such scarce items. The amount I've spent is not a realistic replacement value since it has been over a number of years and taking advantage of good deals whenever and wherever they were available. If I was to attempt to replace my collection I would most likely be by paying retail prices for the items, ebay would not realistically be a consideration since many of the items I'd be looking to acquire rarely or never appear on there. Kevin begins with costs taken from dealers websites and has developed a method to ultimately calculate an average cost (more information on his approach is in the publication - read it yourself if you're interested!). The approach is most reliable when a lot of data is available. Therefore I have begun by compiling my own list of meteorite dealers websites. After several hours work (going through past deals, bookmarks, emails, web links, etc) I've got a list of 67 sites. Some sites will most likely be removed from the list before I begin the valuation for the following reasons: - Sellers that are now exclusively using ebay (although I may need to include/add those that have a large ebay store with many buy-it-now items). - Sites which have not been updated in a long time, although it can be hard to tell since I'm not familiar with all the individual sites. - Sites that could probably be classed as private collectors selling off their spare, upgraded or bulk bought items. I'm not sure they are a good indicator of a 'retail value'. Since the accuracy of my valuation will depend on the volume of data available, I would like to ask for some assistance from the list. If you can spare the time, please contact me if you: a. Know of a site that is missing. b. Spot an error. c. Can comment on or make suggestions regarding the process of evaluating a meteorite collection. So here's my list so far. Note that although there are many excellent dealers on this list, there are also many I've never had any dealings with. Inclusion on this lists does not infer that I recommend or endorse them in any way: Aerolite Meteorites (Geoff Notkin) - http://www.aerolite.org/ Arizona Skies (John & Dawn Birdsell) - http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/ ARN Meteorites (Ken Regelman) - http://www.meteorites4sale.net/ Astro Artifacts (Mike Bandli) - http://www.astro-artifacts.com Atacama Desert Meteorites (Rodrigo Martinez) - http://www.meteorites.cl/ Austromet (Christian Anger) - http://www.austromet.com/ Bavarian Meteorite Laboratory (Dieter Heinlein) - http://www.meteorites.de Blaine Reed Meteorites (Blaine Reed) - http://www.reedmeteorites.com/ Caillou Noir (Michel Franco) - http://www.caillou-noir.com Carion Minerals (Alain Carion) - http://www.carionminerals.com/ Catch a Falling Star (Jim Strope) - http://www.catchafallingstar.com/ Cosmic Matter (William Kroth) - http://www.cosmicmatter.com ELKK Meteorites (Eric Olsen) - http://www.star-bits.com/ Erichs Meteorite Sales (Erich Haiderer) - http://www.meteorite.com/Erichs/ Fernlea Meteorites (Rob Elliott) - http://meteorites.uk.com Francesco Moser (FRancesco Moser) - http://web.tiscali.it/francesco.moser Gipo Meteorites (Carsten Giessler) - http://www.gi-po.de/ Hanno Strufe Meteorite Homepage (Hanno Strufe) - http://www.strufe.net Impactika (Anne Black) - http://www.impactika.com/ Island Meteorite (Geoffrey Cintron) - http://www.islandmeteorite.com Jensen Meteorites (Mike & Bill Jensen) - http://www.jensenmeteorites.com/ Labenne Meteorites (Luc & Jim Labenne) - http://www.meteorites.tv/ Macovich Collection (Darryl Pitt) - http://www.macovich.com/ Mare Meteoritics (Mike Martinez) - http://www.meteorflash.com/ Marmet Meteorites (Peter Marmet) - http://www.marmet-meteorites.com Mcome Meteorite (Matteo Chinellato) - http://www.mcomemeteorite.it/ MeteorFinder.com (Mike Miller) - http://www.meteoritefinder.com/ MeteoriteLabels.com (Roman Jirasek) - http://www.meteoritelabels.com/ Meteoriteshow (Frederic Beroud) - http://www.meteoriteshow.com Meteorite Articles (Mark Bostick) - http://www.MeteoriteArticles.com Meteorite Collection of Dave Carothers (Dave Carothers) - http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4xxhd/ Meteorite Exchange (Paul Harris & Jim Tobin)- http://www.meteorite.com/catalog/ Meteorite Market (Eric Twelker) - http://www.meteoritemarket.com/ Meteorite Martin (Martin Altmann) - http://www.meteorite-martin.de/ Meteorite Recon (Svend Buhl) - http://www.niger-meteorite-recon.de/ Meteorite Shop (Dean Bessey) - http://www.meteoriteshop.com/ Meteorite.de (Peter Jäger) - http://www.meteorite.de Meteorite.fr (Bruno Fectay & Carine Bidaut) - http://www.meteorite.fr Meteorites Australia (Jeff Kuyken) - http://www.meteorites.com.au/ Meteorites Plus (Kevin Kessell) - http://www.meteoritesplus.com/ Meteorites.com (Eduardo Jawerbaum) - http://www.meteorite1.com/ Meteorites-R-Us (Nelson Oakes) - http://www.meteorites-r-us.com/ Meteoritica (Philippe Thomas) - http://www.meteoritica.com Meteor Center (Pierre-Marie Pelé) - http://www.meteor-center.com/ Michael Blood Meteorites (Michael Blood) - http://www.michaelbloodmeteorites.com/ Michael Farmer Meteorites (Mike Farmer) - http://www.meteoritehunter.com/ Michael I. Casper Meteorites Inc. (Michael Casper) - http://www.caspermeteorites.com Midwest Meteorites (Tim Heitz) - http://www.meteorman.org/ Mile High Meteorites (Matt Morgan) - http://www.mhmeteorites.com/ Mineralogical Research Co (Eugene & Sharon Cisneros) - http://www.minresco.com/meteor/meteor.htm Nakhla Dog Meteorites (Rob Wesel) - http://www.nakhladogmeteorites.com/ New England Meteoritical (Russ Kempton) - http://www.meteorlab.com/ Planetbrey Meteorites (Scott Brey) - http://www.planetbrey.com/ Polish Meteorite Laboratory (Marcin Cimala) - http://www.polandmet.com R.A. Langheinrich Meteorites (Allan Lang) - http://www.nyrockman.com/ Robert A. Haag Meteorites (Robert Haag) - http://www.meteoriteman.com/ Rocks from Heaven (Jason Phillips) - http://www.rocksfromheaven.com/ Rocks on Fire (Norbert Kammel) - http://www.rocksonfire.com/ Ron Hartman Meteorites (Ron Hartman) - http://www.meteorite1.com/ Schoolers (John Schooler) - http://www.schoolersinc.com/ Simon Camm's Meteorites (Simon Camm) - http://www.nleboutillier.freeuk.com/ Southwest Meteorite Laboratory (Kitty Killgore) - http://www.meteorite-lab.com/ SpaceRocks (David Bryant) - http://www.space-rocks.wanadoo.co.uk/ SR Meteorite (Stefan Ralew) - http://www.sr-meteorites.de/ SV Meteorites (Sergey Vasiliev) - http://www.sv-meteorites.com Tektite Source (Norm Lehrman) - http://tektitesource.com/ World Wide Meteorites (Fabien Kuntz) - http://wwmeteorites.com Thanks to anybody that has read this far! If anybody has anything to add I'd like to hear from you on or off list. Matt. ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
