[meteorite-list] meteorites vs. tektites on ebay

From: William Feek <lunarmajor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:12:54 -0700
Message-ID: <BAY178-W41B0048C33C019C0E50368D0B50_at_phx.gbl>

Is anyone else sick of encountering tektite listings when searching for meteorites on ebay?
A search for "meteorite" yields both meteorites and tektites, a search for "tektite" yields only tektites, so someone interested in tektites has the capability of viewing only what they want to see while the meteorite enthusiast is stuck with having to wade through a lot of extra crap. The way I see it, tektites are not meteorites, yet sellers of these items are able to add the word "meteorite" to their listing because ebay has lumped them both into the same category.
I just searched "meteorite" in the "meteorites and tektites" category and the results were 7,899 listings, a "tektite" search yielded 1,623 results, this is a ridiculous amount of worthless tektites mixed in with and diluting the more important meteorite listings. I'm prompted to write ebay, to point the situation out and suggest the creation of a separate category for tektites, a category which should also include impactites, but before doing so I'd like to ask if any of you prominent meteorite dealers have a problem with this, am I missing something or does my problem with tektites make sense?
By the way, an "impactite" search yielded a mere 80 results, but again like when searching for tektites, impactites are easily weeded out from all the true meteorite listings, and again a meteorite enthusiast is unable to refine their search and eliminate the impactite listings just as they are unable to eliminate the tektite listings.
So the simple creation of a separate category, a "tektites and impactites" category, would be an improvement for the meteorite buyer and at the same time would have no impact on the tektite or impactite buyer, but I could be wrong about all of this, I admit I could be overlooking some aspect, thus want to ask for input.
Received on Wed 24 Apr 2013 04:12:54 PM PDT