[meteorite-list] Self Proclaimed Pairings Issues (SPPI)

From: Adam Hupe <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri May 5 14:52:17 2006
Message-ID: <033001c67074$c46af920$6401a8c0_at_c1720188a>

Dear List Members,

Here are some of my thoughts on Self Proclaimed Pairings Issues (SPPI).

I feel this subject needs to be breached again as a few have not caught on
to how destructive and lowly this practice is.

Saying something is "likely paired" is the same as saying "I am too cheap or
lazy to have my material studied by a qualified Nom Com approved facility."

Using notes provided for official meteorites to describe unofficial material
is the same as stealing as far as I am concerned. Why should dealers who
spend upwards of thousands per month having their material officially
classified and getting their very own nomenclature allow others to violate
this information? I know ebay will enforce number borrowing issues as they
have been trained that although nobody owns these numbers they are treated
the same as serial numbers. These serial numbers only apply to a certain
amount of material and to borrow them is fraudulent. Some more news; ebay
treats all product descriptions as proprietary data and will shut down
auctions immediately if descriptions are borrowed and then reported.

Even if somebody who deals meteorites is 99% sure their material is paired
to somebody else's they should still follow the correct protocol, have their
material made official and receive their very own number. The only
meteorites excluded by this rule are from rare falls as stated by the
Meteoritical Society. NWA 869 is an exception in that multiple type
specimens from multiple dealers were submitted so all that contributed can
share this number, a rare case. The I.M.C.A. stated that they stand behind
the Meteoritical Society rules and so should members who belong to this
organization that stands for "Authenticity" above all else. How can a
dealer claim his material is authentic when no qualified laboratory has even
looked at it?

Collectors are entitled to official material or at the very least
provisional if the rules are being adhered to. The rules have been
stiffened up considerably on provisional numbers because only after a type
specimen has been submitted to a Nom Com approved depository and studied
will a provisional number be assigned. The market has moved a long way in
the last year and a half with more than 95% compliance to these rules. It
makes good sense 20 years down the road when others take over these
collections or they are passed down to family members that they can say with
confidence what they have. Terms like a Moroccan stating "these are that"
or a dealer saying, "likely paired" or "in my opinion" won't fly because
unstudied material has very little scientific or intrinsic value in my
opinion. A few years ago, many unknowingly violated these rules because
they were unclear. I was partially guilty of the same thing a few years
back but have since reapplied and received new numbers for anything we
brought out and noted this in my descriptions. The rules have been clear
for the last two years and to continually violate them will only serve to
undermine collector confidence.

Enough from me,
Regards,

------------------------------------
Adam Hupe
The Hupe Collection
Team LunarRock
IMCA 2185
raremeteorites_at_comcast.net
Received on Fri 05 May 2006 02:41:52 PM PDT