[meteorite-list] No market for meteorites

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:50:39 -0500
Message-ID: <oo2465dlp64b2cgju95egsck4n0ef6813c_at_4ax.com>

http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_198230636.html?keyword=topstory

Buyers delve for treasure from local troves
By BERNIE HORNICK
The Tribune-Democrat

Being a field buyer for The Great Treasure Hunt is as much art as science.

How to know, for instance, that the wedge of lumber a man pushed across the
table was not the genuine piece of Noah?s Ark he claimed it was?

?It was just a piece of petrified wood,? buyer Matt Block declared with
self-assurance Thursday, recalling the incident from another city. No sale.

The Great Treasure Hunt is akin to a roving pawn shop that goes town to town,
setting up for a few days at a motel and scarfing up a panoply of stuff to haul
away for profitable resale.

Sellers can unload items collecting dust to make a buck and ? in the midst of
this Great Recession ? business is booming. The buyers tallied 25 customers
before lunchtime Thursday at the Holiday Inn Express, 1440 Scalp Ave.

?Every week we get people in who are having trouble paying their bills,? Block
said. ?People would rather have the money. Eating is more important.?

In Johnstown, a woman sold items to pay for repairs to her car. Someone else
here sold merchandise to heal a rescue dog that has cancer.

And what an eclectic mix of goods Johnstown-area residents have been bringing
in.

Thursday?s spoils included a Martin acoustic guitar, a menu from the 1940 maiden
voyage of the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner and trench knives from World War I.

Block and fellow buyer Tony Adams say they will look at anything that comes in
the door, though not necessarily buy it. They see meteorites often, though
there?s no market for them.

The Kernersville, N.C.-based company of 45 people has five teams of buyers on
the road.

Popular items the buyers pay for include scrap gold, old coins, watches and
flatware. Each of the four buyers has a computer at his table to help determine
a price.

Block said they offer the best prices they can, but added, ?We?re here to make
money, and people realize that.?

The Great Treasure Hunt often finds a rich vein in older communities ? where
residents might have good stuff and need a few dollars ? and where alternative
outlets, such as pawn shops, are lacking.

Do the buyers ever get rooked?

Sure, on a weekly basis. They sometimes even buy dubious merchandise
intentionally.

?We might buy knowing there?s an 80 percent chance it?s fake,? Adams said. ?We
might buy a Babe Ruth autograph for $500 on the off chance it?s real. If it?s
real, that?s seven or eight grand.?
Received on Sat 18 Jul 2009 01:50:39 PM PDT