[meteorite-list] Meteors mean serious money - I think they mean meteorites.

From: Shawn Alan <shawnalan_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 10:23:03 -0700
Message-ID: <20150107102303.e8713c95af9984a493c5db01816d4c10.93f3d06842.wbe_at_email22.secureserver.net>

Hello Listers

This is a great article to read about the trending of meteorites sales
in other
country's and how this can effect meteorite collecting in the future and
in
some case the investments you have made with meteorite collecting.

Enjoy

Shawn Alan
IMCA 1633
ebay store http://www.ebay.com/sch/imca1633ny/m.html
Website http://meteoritefalls.com

Meteors mean serious money
2015-01-05 08:10 China Daily Web Editor: Qin Dexing

In China's fast-growing meteorite market, buyers of all kinds are lining
up for the outer space rocks ranging from big-spending investors
desiring the ultra-expensive to young fashionist as seeking jewelry
decorated with fragments of the outer-space gems.

However, experts and old hands are wary of the growing pangs of an
emerging market that many view to be a quick means to some serious
money.

For those who have no knowledge of meteorites, the very existence of a
market for the unusual commodity seems sudden and hard to fathom. But
for Zhang Baolin, meteorite expert at the Beijing Planetarium, the
emergence of the market has been happening for some time.

"Fundamentally, the development of the meteorite market in China is a
normal one that has seen the shift from nobody knowing what meteorites
are to more and more people knowing what they are," says Zhang,.

What is abnormal though is the soaring rate at which collectors have
increased in recent years, which Zhang describes as "exponential".

Li Bofang, a civil servant and meteorite collector, says interest has
definitely increased, especially among the wealthy, but perhaps not as
exaggerated as some reports have said.

"Wealthy collectors look for larger, more expensive pieces but seek them
for their investment value. If they spend 1 million yuan ($162,500) on a
meteorite, they want to sell it off for 2 million," Li says.

The nature of the meteorite market, where purchases are mostly made at
fairs or privately between dealers and collectors, makes it hard to
quantify but its influence has already been noticed internationally.

Christie's, the world's leading auction house, recently held its first
meteorite auction that attracted ample interest from Chinese bidders.

James Hyslop, head of travel, science and natural history at Christie's,
says: "Interest in meteorites has increased greatly in China in the last
two years. This has been at the top end of the market where buyers of
contemporary art enjoy displaying these meteorites alongside their
collections."

The highest hammer price at the auction in late November was $81,250 for
a Martian meteorite called Black Beauty, but Christie's did not disclose
the identity of the winning bidder. Other prized specimens have been
known to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

At the other end of the price spectrum, jewelry that contains small
pieces of meteorites has appealed to a younger crowd for its fashion
value.

Huang Zhuanjian, a Jinanbased meteorite dealer who started his own
meteorite jewelry workshop earlier this year, has been amazed at the
demand.

"Right now, the appetite for meteorite jewelry can't be measured, it is
simply bottomless?we can sell however much we produce!" says Huang.

source: http://www.ecns.cn/business/2015/01-05/149241.shtml
Received on Wed 07 Jan 2015 12:23:03 PM PST