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Re. Meteorite "worth"

Hey guys,

I have thought about this a lot, and it seems to me that a meteorite has 
different values, i.e. a purely physical "value" (the value of its various 
elements), a commercial "value" (how much collectors are willing to pay for 
it to own it) and an aesthetic "value" (which, as with all beauty, is purely 
in the eyes of the beholder... :-)  )

It's a bit like my own situation, and reflects a dilemma I face day after day 
after day. I work for a gift manufacturing company called Lilliput Lane, 
which makes miniature ceramic cottages, and because they are all hand-made 
they obviously sell for quite a price. Collectors all over the world adore 
them, buy each one when it appears, and proudly display them in specially 
made cases... sound familiar? The thing is, to me they've never been more 
than just... well, house-shaped lumps of plaster, and even when they're 
painted up and looking brand new I can't for the life of me see the appeal! I 
shudder when I walk past a gift shop window featuring a display of them, and 
I would never buy one, cos I simply couldn't bring myself to hand over cash 
for something that I can only think of as a lump of plaster... 

...and yet, I'm quite prepared to hand over that cash for a charred bit of 
rock! 

If I put the two things on my desk here, side by side, I'd know the cottage 
had been "made" by half a dozen people: poured into and then pulled out of a 
mould byu a caster, fettled with a knife by someone else, dipped in fixative 
by another, painted by another and then packed and despatched by yet another. 
My brain tells me the models cost £x because all those processes cost money - 
and they're good investments too, because, like most collectables,  each 
one's a limited edition and the moulds are destroyed after so long... But 
given the choice between one of those models and a meteorite of equal or 
*lower* value, I'd choose the meteorite every time, because the meteorite 
MEANS something to me. That's very subjective, I know, but that's just how I 
feel. 

Meteorites move me, inspire me and excite me. And if one's price matches my 
interest in it / desire for it, and I have enough cash then I'll get it, it's 
not a difficult thing! I don't scroll down an online page, or flip through 
Haag's catalogue and think about how much the iron or nickel the meteorites 
contains is actually worth, I don't moan about how it's a lot of money for 
something so small... I think "Wow, that's cool..." or "That's 
**beautiful**..." 

You know?

Stu

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