[meteorite-list] AD, New Meteorite Men Collectible on Ebay Closing on Thursday Night

From: countdeiro at earthlink.net <countdeiro_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:05:28 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <18398472.1247706328298.JavaMail.root_at_elwamui-polski.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

To all from a "newbie",

What MikeG has published from the "peanut gallery" is pretty sage commentary. I'm one of the "newbies" who has been chasing sites on the web and crusing eBay buying "nickel and dime" specimens. Fact is, I have bought "nickel and dime" meteorites from Steve and Mike and MikeG and a half dozen other dealers on the "List" here, and in Europe and the Orient. That's where newbies start... and you know what happens after they have filled their cabinets with the cheap compulsory examples and read the right books, accessed the data banks, subscribed to the pubs and read your on line stories and "wowed" over your finds? Eventually, they have the good fortune to tap into the "List"..as I did a few weeks ago. What an amazing resource! The science is right there for me to read and see..and free! Wonderful dissertations by respected and credentialed professionals..the very names in the books. ( Incidentally, Martin's letters are in a class of their own.) Why, for a while there I thought I was back at Indiana U. in a gra
duate program...Well, at least until I started reading the contentious posts about the Arizona and the Pennslyvania falls and the ongoing "dust up" over the pros and cons of "hyping" the marketing of space rocks, the personal digs, ill concealed expressions of envy, borderline slanders and finger pointing... then I knew I was back in school...kindergarten.

Count Deiro
-----Original Message-----
>From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jul 15, 2009 12:47 PM
>To: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com>
>Cc: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com, MeteorHntr at aol.com
>Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] AD, New Meteorite Men Collectible on Ebay Closing on Thursday Night
>
>Hi Steve, Mike and List,
>
>>From the peanut gallery -
>
>Ok guys, enough is enough. This back and forth is making us all look
>bad and making meteorites look bad by proxy. Newbies are going to
>come here and think that space rocks infect people with Andromeda
>Strain madness.
>
>Look, when I act up and say stupid things on the List, most people
>ignore it. Who am I anyway?
>
>But you guys are the big names in the field - you guys are
>representatives of the hobby. You are in magazines and on TV. I knew
>who Steve Arnold and Mike Farmer were before I knew there were
>different types of carbonaceous chondrites. So when you guys come on
>the List and start going back and forth with general nastiness, it
>carries more weight and grabs more attention than it would if I was
>saying it. (or some other Johnny Come Lately) People are going to
>think - so this how meteorite people behave, I think I'll go collect
>pez dispensers now.
>
>Professional meteorite hunters (the successful ones, like you guys)
>live a life the rest of us armchair chasers dream of - you get to
>"work" by chasing space rocks and finding them. It beats the hell out
>of getting up at 4:30am and running a forklift at a distribution
>center or digging ditches for a living. (although, one could argue
>that finding meteorites does involve some ditch digging) - you guys
>are part of a very small brotherhood that gets to make a living from a
>PASSION. How cool is that? To wake up in the morning and ENJOY the
>idea of going to work.
>
>Steve is riding high on his Meteorite Men success right now - let him
>have it. Damn, if the tables were turned, I'd like to think that any
>of us wouldn't get our hides skinned because we revelled in our
>success of finding meteorites. And I understand what Mike is saying
>about too much hype - it what the radio does to new music - they run
>it into the ground until you are sick of hearing it. But there is no
>reason to carry out a public slapfight over this. Take it to private
>email. Mike, I'm sure you have Steve's phone number - call him up and
>bitch him out over the phone so we don't have to hear it. All you are
>doing is alienating customers/newbies - which I'm sure you don't care
>about because they are "nickel and dime" customers anyway. Actually,
>if I was profit-minded, I'd be loving this - because for every newbie
>you guys turn off, they come running to people like me - and I am more
>than happy to sell them all of the nickel and dime meteorites they
>want.
>
>I promised myself and the List, I'd keep my mouth shut and think
>before hitting "send" - which I have done for a week now while this
>continues on and on. So here you have it.
>
>Best regards and let's knock it off,
>
>MikeG
>
>
>On 7/15/09, Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> Let me get this strait, so you put it in a box, and make a label saying it
>> is from you, and all you do is put a number on it, say #4 of 45.
>> Damn, can't believe I didn't think of that first. I have thousands of
>> Allende fragments, (I used to buy kilos of them from the Mexicans direct
>> until they ran out) I could really ramp up the gimmicks to try and squeeze
>> another buck or two out of the buyer using their own stupidity against them.
>> I am sure though, when they go to sell their box later that anyone with
>> brains will say, hmmmm .35 gram fragment of Allende retails for about $3.00,
>> so I offer you $1.00 and not "wow", this is a limited edition plastic box so
>> let's call it $30.00.
>>
>> I don't know why you cant just sell what you own for what it is, and not try
>> to "Billy Mays" it all daytime TV style.
>> It is good for a laugh though.
>>
>> Michael Farmer
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>
>
>--
>.........................................................
>Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA)
>Member of the Meteoritical Society.
>Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network.
>Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and http://www.glassthrower.com
>..........................................................
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Received on Wed 15 Jul 2009 09:05:28 PM PDT