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Re: Misleading statements and the responsibility of Meteorite dealers.

Dear Frank,
    	No, I certainly do not think you have spoken out of turn or are
being pushy - also, I suspect this topic (prices) are of some interest
to most people receiving this mailing, so, I will speak some to what you
have last brought up - Zagami.
	You say you understand the principle of supply & demand, yet, in this
instance you iether ignor those principles or are lacking in
information. The ONLY reason Zagami is not very rare is that Bob Haag
traded for many LBs of it in the not so distant past. He then sold it at
a relatively low price ($100 to $ 200 per gr., for the most part) Ok, so
far. Then, within the last year or so he STOPPED cutting & decided to
keep the remainder of his "specimen" in tact - certainly his perogative,
as, like most dealers, he is a collector - & probably has the best
private collection in the world, bar non. 
   	Remember my last dialog on this subject. Three factors are key -
what you paid for it, what people will pay for it AND what it will cost
you to replace it. As soon as Bob started raising his prices to dealers,
Zagami started being a bit harder to obtain. When NASA made its
anouncement, Bob had ALREADY stopped cutting off his specimen, so, even
HE was now limited - He set HIS price at $2,500per gr - most other
dealers stopped selling it all togeather. Later, a few, I included,
offered it for sale again BUT now the demand was much higher AND
replacement cost MUCH higher - of course the price went UP! This is
really very simple - if it will COST me $2,500 to REPLACE what I am
selling, I would be a fool to sell it for $500. What has changed since
then is the demand - it has slowly, then more rapidly, declined. I can
now, IN QUANTITY(ie 20 to 50g), buy Zagami for $750 a gr - AND I am
offering it at $800 a gram in small quantities (ie 1/4 to 1/2 gr) Sorry,
Frank, but on THIS particular topic, you are simply badly mistaken.
   	Again, no offense taken.
	I think many people have held some misconceptions about pricing & it is
an apropriate issue to be aired out. 
	(What I, personally,  find outragaous is when a dealer asks 3, 5 or
even 10 times the price other dealers are asking for the same material.
This is frequently defended as a matter of "quality" - and, sometimes,
quality IS significant, but very rearely to such a degree, and
reasonable exceptions are limited to such factors as outstanding
differences in "freshness" (lack of weathering), % of fusion crust &
orientation. But, this is another story altogeather.)
	Best wishes, Michael
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