[meteorite-list] New Zealand Man to Sell Meteorite

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jun 15 12:36:15 2004
Message-ID: <200406151636.JAA18321_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.odt.co.nz/cgi-bin/getitem?date=15Jun2004&object=KEC3583650SO&type=html

Publicity push for meteoric price rise
By Stu Oldham
Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
June 15, 2004

A Lawrence man who last month decided to sell a meteorite he found when
digging a long-drop toilet in the 1950s says he could not have picked a
better time to sell.

"Who would have thought everyone would be talking about meteorites at
the same time I decided to get rid of the thing," Jim Nettleton (75)
said yesterday.

"I mean to say, a meteorite crashes through someone's ceiling and then
everyone wants one. That's pretty good timing."

The avid "collector of everything" has been following intently news
reports of a meteorite which crashed through the roof of an Auckland
home on Saturday.

Phil and Brenda Archer have been inundated with calls from around the
world about the 1.3kg rock experts say could be worth a lot of money.

Mr Nettleton plans to sell his own meteorite - a misshapen, hollow
object he found when digging a long-drop toilet in East Roxburgh in the
mid-1950s - at auction next month.

"I just thought that it is no good lying around the house and when I'm
gone no-one will know what it is and they will probably just throw it
out," he said.

"So it's better off going to someone who knows what it is; to someone
who appreciates the funny-looking thing I got out of the ground."

The object was confirmed as a meteorite by Otago Museum several years
ago, Mr Nettleton said.

Dunedin auctioneers Plumbly's would check the identification this week.
Auctioneer Kevin Hayward, who had not sold a meteorite before, expected
a surge in late interest.

"The Auckland thing will no doubt help things along a bit, but I still
have no idea what it'll sell for. Maybe $300, maybe $2000-$3000 - it's
up to what a collector is prepared to pay for it," he said.

Central Otago man John Lunam was hoping for similar success with a
meteorite he found in Central Otago's Manhureikia River in 1980.

Just like Mr Nettleton's, it had been sitting around the house gathering
dust until the right moment came along.

"And that moment is probably here," he said on Sunday. "Good time to
sell, when everyone is talking about them."
Received on Tue 15 Jun 2004 12:36:00 PM PDT