[meteorite-list] GPAA Gold Show in Fresno Today

From: GeoZay at aol.com <GeoZay_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:26:13 EST
Message-ID: <2ce57.a4f6b49.38b1d7a5_at_aol.com>

Hi all...I just got back from the GPAA gold and treasure show in Fresno
today. It was quite crowded. Maybe a thousand or two people. Anyways, I went
there mainly for the gold panning contest. I placed third, but had a
problem with picking out the small nuggets with my fingers that slowed me down.
Besides, I already got 3 copper pan trophies and my wife doesn't want
anymore on the wall. :O) there also wasn't much of anything in the ways of
equipment that I desired to purchase. Oh...I bought a 30.5 gram nugget for only
$4. I should add that it wasn't made up of gold, but copper. Still it was
natural and river worn. It looks pretty neat. It was from Michigan. During
my wonderings at the show, I noted one vendor with several fragments of
Meteorites kinda hidden off to the side. I recognzed them before I was able to
find a hand scribbled note that simply said, "Meteorites". No prices, but I
doubt they would have sold for much. they all looked like ordinary
chondrites probably unclassifed NWA's. I'm now wondering why there's no vendor that
has a sizeable amount of modest priced meteorites for sale there? I bet it
would be worth the effort. Someone could do what several vendors usually
do with a small gold nugget or two and that is to raffle them off. Tickets
for about a buck a piece and selling maybe a couple hundred by days end.
Selling raffle tickets are real popular at these shows. At the end of the day,
the show raffles a lot of items, including what the individual vendors
provided from their ticket sales. A couple years ago, I won a 3 gram gold
nugget this way. It was a hoot! :O) Now my wife posses it. These shows are only
weekends long and there's about 10 of them thru out the U.S. each year.
I'm not a meteorite dealer, but if I was one, I sure would contact the GPAA
folks to find out the particulars. Maybe someone could set up a display at a
show that's near your location. I noticed that there's usually two in
Arizona, One In Primm, Nevada, San Bernardino, Fresno, two in Oregon, Montana,
N. Carolina, Washington State, Colorado, Penn. these were last years
locations, but often they are in the same place. Besides the gold related
paraphanalia, I see some gemstones and what have you. I'd think meteorites would
fit right in.
George Zay
Received on Sat 20 Feb 2010 07:26:13 PM PST