Good evening list, In my mind, nobody can give a true number of meteorite dealers.
Asume that we are talking only about professionals. Are they all meteorite dealers? I think no! You can sell a meteorite only, if you have the sureness that the piece is a meteorite. Otherwise you are a mineral seller (dealer). And that is the problem! There is no gapless tracking information about the most (small) items. 1. If a piece of rock contains chondrules it must not be a meteorite because some complex sediments or some porphyric contain chondrule-like pebbels 2. igneous rock may have a fusion crust different in color of its interieur, 3. Haematite-Magnetite clusters can show on a polished cut a hexagonale texture like Widmanstaetten 4. Regmaglypte-like buckles can be on a piece of metal of a nade from WWII time 5. to be the member of IMCA or other parties gives not the certitude for the buyer, that he will buy a meteorite. Normally, if the gapless tracking is interrupted, a new certificate must be produced to start a new gapless tracking for the item. But this is not given in the market. So, if you have found a number of meteorite dealers, devide this by the number of fingers you have. The result may be an estimated value with a certain trueth. After beginning collecting meteorites, I bought a lot of rebbish stuff for expensive money. Now I have my own small LAB for physical, chemical and petrological researches. This gives me some sureness that the seller from whom I buy might be a true METEORITE DEALER. Uwe ______________________________________________ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
