AW: AW: [meteorite-list] insomnia can cause clouding of consciousness

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue May 9 15:43:04 2006
Message-ID: <01ad01c673a0$c51ab020$4f41fea9_at_name86d88d87e2>

Contra, Stan!
you are speaking from that era, when almost nobody was collecting meteorites
and there were worldwide 5 dealers, hence no market, the golden age of the
70ies and partially 80ies, when there was so few interest in meteorites,
that there wasn't a market at all and the prices even lower than in the
1880ies.
You are right, when you're telling, that in the 90ies the prices grew
enormously - main factor, I think, was the upcoming internet and with it,
the increasing number of collectors. Before almost every collector and every
dealer, they all knew eachother in person (but not Martin, the kid).
But the development of internet is irreversible, so those times are gone.


"it was no
where nearly as easy to pick up a 5kg ureilitie".

Well said, to illustrate it:
Dingo Pup Donga, Dyalpur, Hajmah(a), Goalpara, Haver?, Lahrauli, Nilpena,
North Haig, Novo-Urei had altogether 9kg.
And else existed only Kenna with it's 10.7kg, wherefrom you could get your
specimen and if you were extremely clever and lucky perhaps a historical
crumb from Goalpara. That was it. And this we can exercise with all rare
types.

Nowadays Buckleboo-Martin was offering an Ure with 2.5$/g and he couldn't
get rid of it, while 5-6 years ago, you had to pay 80-400$ for the first
DaGs; 170-400$/g for the SAH-UREs, 350-900$/g for Goalpara.

What would Stan have done, if he needed an R for his collection?
Would he have paid 10$/g like today? No, he wouldn't have had any other
choice, then to run to the Labennes to pay there 600$/g for their SAHs, (or
to Sinclair at 750$).

And what, if he would have felt a hunger for Moon? Hmm, ask Blaine, what he
took for his first Moons, the alternative would have been to beg the MASTER
on the knees to sell you a gram of Calcalong for 1 Mega$ and more.
Make your homework and check the years of find/fall to see, how mere the
assortment of the market was.
Hah! When the famous HaH 237 was coming out first, even a collector from USA
paid the European, who had it, the flight&hotel only for showing him the
stone!

Man, Stan! Before desert with all rare types you had the choice between Zero
and 1-3 stones and you simply had to take, what you were offered, for
getting any at all into your collection.
I would estimate, that there were not more than 100 different locales
permanently available at all. Nowadays you have thousands to choose from.
Of course there were also some meteorites, which were ridiculous cheap
compared with today, take e.g. Allende, but others costed a lot more than
today. Sikhote, when it became available. Chinga. Munionalusta. Campo and so
on.

And all in all, even if you would have been a multimillionaire, it would
have been absolutely impossible for you, to built up a collection comparable
to that, what you have now, Stan.

Meow,
In writing this lines, two things came up in my mind:
Wasn't there an ureilite called "Bartail"? Never heard again from, or was it
a hoax from Casper?
And, there is so much literature by and about Nininger - do there anywhere
exist pricelists from him?

Buckleboo!
Martin


-----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht-----
Von: meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com] Im Auftrag von stan .
Gesendet: Dienstag, 9. Mai 2006 19:29
An: Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com; altmann@meteorite-martin.de
Betreff: RE: AW: [meteorite-list] insomnia can cause clouding of
consciousness


>Bernd, Joern, Dieter, Blaine, Alex - please you veterans help me to
>enlighten all those groups, that nowadays we are living in a meteoritical
>paradise !!!
>Tell them, how it was in the years before the desert rush.


I dont know about the other guys you mentioned, but Blaine has 'been in the
game' long enough to tell us how it was before not only the 'nwa era' but
before the 'speculative frenzy' era. When I first became interested in
meteorites common chonderites might command a few $ per gram - but zagami
could be had for 50$/g, millbillillie or camel donga for 2$/g - even 100%
crusted specimins. Nakhla at 400$/g was considered the ultimate rarity an
murchison could be found for 10-20$/g for tumbnail sized pieces. The price
crash of the nwa era was directly preceeded by a price inflation period when

people with more money than sense thought meteorites would be a good
investment. prices were driven up by new dealers trying to see if they could

raise their prices faster than their competition. And this was faily recent
history too. This time predated the nwa era by only a handfull of years.
IIRC it was 13 or 14 years go when I was tickled pink that the price of
camel donga had 'skyrocketed' to 4$/g and I unloaded a large number of
complete individuals to Blaine Reed. Not a bad investment for a kid who
saved up his lunch money to buy shiney rocks from space while in high
school.

I will admit that the avalibility of material was less back then. it was no
where nearly as easy to pick up a 5kg ureilitie or winonaite then as it is
today - but alot of the rare material was still much cheaper back then than
it is today. (and let's not forget the cheap odessa and canyon diablo that
was avalible by the barrel load)


______________________________________________
Meteorite-list mailing list
Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Tue 09 May 2006 03:42:54 PM PDT