[meteorite-list] NWA's

From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Nov 24 14:57:19 2004
Message-ID: <BDCA2829.13C4E%mlblood_at_cox.net>

Hi Larry & All,
        I read your post with some degree of sorrow, Larry, but many of us
figured all this out years ago as the flood began and the stories came out.
Some people I know won't collect any NWA material, others jump on
everything they can lay their hands on, due to the relatively VERY low
prices, while others are varying degrees of selective.
        I fall in the latter category as a collector (and as a dealer) - and
at a relatively extreme end of conservative - BUT, the richness of material
coming out of NWA is so great, I still have a major portion of my
collection that is labeled NWA. Why? besides for MANY great
specimens of total variety, and exceptionally low prices, I am
convinced that AT LEAST 99% of the material is accurately typed.
The only question is of paired meteorites - and this is due to a
combination of the approach of the scientific community and
to dealer greed.
        When NWA material first started many dealers claimed they were
PERSONALLY finding the material, but refused to divulge coordinates
to protect the fall from other dealers going there before they got all of
it themselves. While this may have been true in a few isolated cases, the
truth is the vast majority of falls were picked up by nomads and sold
in a city market - the dealers only knew they came out of the desert.
Dean Bessey was the first dealer I knew who openly admitted buying
EVERYTHING from the nomads in the marketplace, but I don't remember
Mike Farmer & Jim Strope ever claiming to "find" anything there in
the early days, either... though I think they actually did a little of that
after becoming familiar with the area after several trips. (None of
this is in reference to any particular dealer - but more in terms of the
"trend" of behavior. I KNOW E.T. often went to the actual location of
some falls - but they usually had names - like El Hammami - which he
carried out of the mountains on a string of camels. A few of the pieces
still show a rusted side where they lay against the sweating camel in
gunny sacks!).
        Meanwhile, the scientists decided they couldn't "pair" ANY
meteorites from NWA since there was never a location provided - therefore,
each and every stone got its own "find" number or was unidentified.
Dealers then started "pairing" the visually obvious (which was never 100%
accurate, of course - but mostly).
        And here we are, today - we get some of the best, rarest and most
zappy material ever at sometimes less than 10% of what we could have
expected to pay before NWA opened up -but NOT 100% accuracy in
identification - BUT, almost always true typology. Since we never knew
exactly WHERE anything was from anyway - the answer I came up for
myself was to limit my collection to OBVIOUSLY different falls of any
given type. While this doesn't 100% guarantee I don't have differently
numbered members of the same fall - it comes close.
        I also limit NWA primarily to the zappy looking or the very rare
typology.
        Everyone has to decide how to deal with this, themselves - but this
is part of the "price" of getting cool material dirt cheap.
        Best wishes, Michael


on 11/24/04 8:54 AM, Larry Harrison at L_Harrison_at_infostations.com wrote:

> Greetings List,
>
> I am but a small time collector (>200 specimens). However, I cherish my
> small example of the evolution of the solar system. I am also an
> astronomy educator. I always include meteorites in my lectors AND I am
> always asked "how do you know if it is really a meteorite? My answer:
> Irons are simple to recognize, and I explain the widmanstatten figure
> and how it forms. Stones on the other hand require analysis especially
> when chondrules (I explain chondrules) are not easily visible. In those
> cases it is very important to know your source. I have always made it
> clear that I only deal with reputable dealers.
>
> The posts of late have put a very large question in my mind about who is
> reputable. The saddest part is that many reputable dealers are being
> scamed by the Nomads. I prefer to collect the rarest of the rare. And
> this is where most of the scams are being made. My absolute certainty
> of the authenticity of my collection is now in question! I do not
> question that any piece in my collection is or isn't a meteorite, but
> that it is not the specimen type that I think it is. I have always been
> more than excited about the immense number of new and rare meteorites
> coming out of the Sahara. If not for these finds I could never afford as
> many representations of the early solar system or of the achondrites of
> lessor differentiated bodies. I am crushed, uncertain and totally
> confused! What to do? Since I am not a big time buyer, my reluctance to
> purchase further NWA's will not hurt any of you. However, I feel that I
> am Mr. Average. If this mess curbs my desire to purchase more
> meteorites, I assure you it is doing the same to many more. This is the
> saddest moment in my 20 years of meteorite collecting.
>
> Thanks for letting me vent,
>
> Harrison
>
>
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Received on Wed 24 Nov 2004 02:59:37 PM PST