AW: [meteorite-list] Quesations and AD - Bilanga

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed May 10 05:38:42 2006
Message-ID: <005b01c67415$83415530$4f41fea9_at_name86d88d87e2>

Hiho,

indeed I still keep back Matteo's prices vs. reality letter L-Z :-)

With Bilanga we see that typical pattern of price fluctuation with new
falls, which I told yesterday.
When Bilanga first came to market, it was offered by only 2 sellers and it
costed 60$/g. Some months later other were able to get material, the prices
dropped to 25$/g, and consequently, because the ebay-fans thought there
would be no hurry even sometimes to 12$/g on ebay - but at this point of
time the best material was already gone, only splinters and fragments of
minor quality compared to the before sold were listed there on ebay. Now
Bilanga is more or less gone, rarely offered on ebay and in bad quality and
for the few remaining pieces you have to pay at least 30$/g at the dealers.
Remember Park Forest. Same pattern. In the first hype prices between
25-60$/g, more offerors, more ebay - I bought a little endcut from ebay,
which hadn't seen the rain at 9$/g, nowadays we are again at 40$/g and up.
Bensour - for a while standard price was 6$/g, on it's depression it was
down to 1$/g on ebay for half a year, nowadays - I'd have to look, but I
guess even on ebay it's 4$/g and larger complete specimens are difficult to
find.
Take Amgala/Oum Dreyga - first, which came out 8-10$/g, now it is still at a
dead point of 3$/g on ebay, but the problem is, that those extremely fresh
entire stones, which are so fresh, that you dare to touch them only with
gloves are gone. And soon you won't find material at 3$ anymore.
Christian's Kilabo - 4$/g were a joke for them, most material is gone and be
sure to pay in 2 years 8/g.
Hammami... and so on.

Now to Anne's Bilanga, it is a truly unique piece!
I never saw such an inclusion in Bilanga and I had a large bunch of pieces
and I was looking around, because I had one with 2 shock planes and I tried
to find others with a similar feature.
Anne's is outstanding. I had only two pieces with metal, but the metal was a
single tiny grain each where you needed a looking glass for.
It is an important piece. I never found any clasts or xenoliths in Bilanga,
and without the piece with shock lines, no others with signs of melt,
so I would speculate, that the metal wasn't induced by impact, but that the
parent body rather wasn't completely differenciated.

Btw. Matteo, a friend of mine listed a small Bilanga with crust, which he
once took from me 2 months ago on ebay and the result was 40-50$/g if I
remember right. I personally was selling my Bilangas quite early after the
50-60$/g phase at 25$/g - for the main load I received a trading offer with
material with a trade ratio, that would correspond to a gram price of 45$/g.

My unique shocked Bilanga I sold without any remorse this year I think at
35$/g and the buyer was more than content
and seen this extraordinary unique feature I think that Anne's price is
appropriate.

So Matteo, I think you are long enough in meteoritics to know, that
outstanding and special pieces are paid with higher prices than crappy ones
of the same locality. And additionally that ebay with its often erroneous
prices on both ends of the spectrum is a bad guidebook.

Cheers!
Martin

PS: Have to apologize for the Lanc?, Kernouv?-mail, I clicked the wrong
address, was thought for a client.

-------------
You are funny Matteo. You complain "the market is ruin" and then make
comments like the above, while you yourself have some of the highest prices
on meteorites.

Did Haag's piece have nice crust like that? Did Haag's piece have the nice
crystal as shown by Anne's great photos? Was Haag's piece over 100 grams
(which is something you rarely ever see)? Likely not. That specimen should

command a premium.

I guess this just goes along with your market in ruin theory. Like you
should be able to buy a meteorite like Park Forest for $4.00 a gram, when it

was being retailed at $30 a gram....and you wanted $50 a gram.

Perhaps Martin should repost his price comparison list on what you want and
what others want for the same meteorite.

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
www.meteoritearticles.com


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Received on Wed 10 May 2006 05:38:35 AM PDT