Hi Don and all
I am a collector with a tight budget, but I would still not buy a speck
that only is identifyable buy the card that follows it. I would rather
save money and buy a small piece or an individual. I agree that as long
as the tiny speck is waste from cutting it's OK, but how do we know that
it is? The price per gram for a tiny speck is often a lot higher than a
bigger piece. It might not be for all, but I've seen this quite often.
Regards
Lasse
Don Merchant wrote:
Hi List. My thoughts on specks with a little funny story about them. I
realize not every collector out that has unlimited funds and so many
collectors with budgets and families alike have just so much to spend
on their treasured specimens. Lets face it meteorite collecting can be
very addicting and can get many collectors in a financial bind if not
careful, much like the out of control compulsive gambler so to speak.
With so many available meteorites to choose from and in many different
sizes and weights as well as new finds every year, this can make any
collector especially the novice, feel like a kid walking into a candy
store for the first time! I think it is fantastic that dealers like
Mike Farmer, Greg Hupe, Mike Cottingham, Dean Bessy and others can
offer small milligram size meteorites for what I feel is the majority
of collectors with budgets out there. I take my hat off to these men
as they have open up a new world to meteorites and collecting that 10
years or so ago was unheard of. Specks......I agree with others that
to own a piece of a super rare hard to acquire meteorite especially
under a budget that sometimes that speck in one's collection can look
like a boulder! Is that Speck really the type of meteorite that was
said it is? I always felt that buying from top name dealers was the
safest way to go because as Mike Farmer said money is not the issue.
When your at that level of the game as a dealer, selling false type
specks is not even in ones vocabulary. There will always be cutting
losses when cutting meteorites Period. So why not sell those cutting
losses to collectors who can't afford say the 1/4-3/4 gram of ultra
rare sub type of whatever meteorite. Not everyone can own a 1943
copper penny but give me a steel 1943 penny to put in my collection
and I'm happy. I have made a habit over the years of only buying from
a certain group of dealers and if I run into something that catches my
eye from a non-regular dealer I will do my homework before I buy. Most
specks will never get that huge price tag. It is true in meteorites
that bigger is better or simply put you get what you pay for. I prefer
to say I buy what I can reasonably afford. Forgive me List but I
always look at a piece of meteorite I buy as what I would be able to
get back on it for resale. I say this because of my last statement
"bigger is better" and maybe I cannot afford that 1/2 gram of rare
meteorite today but I will buy a 1/4 gram of it and then later catch a
deal on that 1/2 gram and sell my 1/4 gram to "step up" so to speak.
Ok I'm rambling on. My speck story.....I remember years ago when I
started out collecting meteorites and of course with family and all, I
was under a microscope watched eye budget by my wife! I really wanted
a Martian meteorite so I could brag to myself and friends that I had
an actual piece of stone from the Planet Mars. I'll never forget when
my speck came in the mail, of course bought from a famous well known
dealer (I did my homework) and I could hardly contain my self as I
opened up the package! I don't know about many of you List members out
there but I have this habit of removing the specimen from the gem case
into my own brand new gem case, gem jar whatever you want to call it
and then into my collection cabinet. Well, I am in my office and all
ready to make this delicate surgeon type transfer. I have gone to
great lengths to make sure all goes smoothly. No FANS are on, door in
office is closed, 1,000,000 candle light of light power is on! My
first though looking into the gem jar was, DAMN that sure is a speck!!
I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed BUT, I had a piece of MARS
right in front of me and so I'm easily pleased! I continue on to
making the transfer by ever so gently opening up the gem jar cap.
BOING!!!!!!!!!!!! That #%$!&%#$#%!#^!%$# speck sprung out of that DAMN
gem jar like a Martian on a Mission back to MARS! The fibers on the
felt pad actually acted as a spring board when I relieved the pressure
of the gem case cap! The speck fell on the thick carpet below (I
think) which was my next problem and mistake. I searched for that DAMN
speck for over an hour! It NEVER made it to my collection! I couldn't
believe that I could be more disappointed then when I first saw the
speck in the gem jar as I was on my hands and knees searching for it
on/in the carpet, but I was! That's when I knew I loved meteorite
collecting and never looked back or for that matter never looked for
that speck again. Since then I have my own scale of size minimum for
meteorite purchases. I remember using a pencil to part the carpet
fibers looking for this speck. I was using the eraser end. The eraser
fell out of the pencil and I had no problem finding the eraser. So I
never buy anything smaller then an eraser size meteorite specimen, no
matter how rare. I will save up till I can. I have never forgotten the
feeling of loss that day, even for a speck. That speck taught me
something that day! It taught me to get rid of my wife because I could
of avoided that DAMN disappointing day if I had spent more on a bigger
piece!!
Sincerely
Don Merchant
IMCA #0960
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