[meteorite-list] high-end collectors high-end meteorites andrareness

From: Michael Farmer <mike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2015 08:12:44 -0700
Message-ID: <5149699C-3E03-4E74-96DF-55A6C6E22F06_at_meteoriteguy.com>

Stefan, I'm not sure I would be writing that if I were you, usually the most expensive dealer on the planet.
The discussion was about the fate of the market, mostly in response to Adam Hupe trying to tell everyone about crappy eBay and sales and collapse of meteorite market. I am merely disputing his suggestion and affirming the fact that the meteorite market has not collapsed or anything like it. The market changed. When the world economy nosedived in 2008, the small buyers (80% of my monthly sales for more than a decade at that time), were financially stressed as most people in the world were. Sales dropped because meteorites were certainly not a necessity. However I quickly noticed that large pieces began to sell at a rapid clip. I noticed that my 1 cent eBay sales began to tank, most things started selling very cheap, mostly well below cost. I immediately pulled back from eBay as a majority sales market and began to start marketing larger vastly more expensive pieces. They were selling as fast as I offered them. Wealthy people lost trust in the stock market, real-estate market etc. shelter was found in high-end
 collectibles and art. Every news articles showed record prices being realized in art, wine, coins, antiques etc. I simply catered to that market full time, gathered some really big buyers who could drop hundreds of thousands of $$$ on a single purchase, and I prospered in that method. China emerged at that same time as a meteorite market was suddenly built there, with very high end buyers who dropped millions on meteorites in single purchases. They were not interested in micros.

I am not putting down small collectors at all, I love them, I was one for most of my meteorite car rear, but I followed the changing market to my benefit as opposed to others who have stubbornly refused to accept the economic changes that gripped the entire world. A smart person changes to adapt to a moving market. If you keep trying what has failed (eBay) then you will drop by the wayside. So please don't twist my post about high-end collectors into some sort of small collector bashing. It isn't. It is a fact that if you read Michael Blood's idiotic meteorite market articles you would think that the world has ended and meteorites are worthless. He is another long-gone dealer living in a fantasy world where his stuff doesn't sell. Is it because the market has collapsed or because he has the same things head had for a decade and still trying to market to a small collector base? If you don't add new things to your offers, pretty soon you run out of buyers.

Michael Farmer


Sent from my iPad

> On Jun 2, 2015, at 7:52 AM, Stefan Ralew via Meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
>
> I agree. If someone falls into the category "high end collector", then it should be David Weir. And this has nothing to do with a bank account. I know him as a real enthusiast, and his website is endless inspiration for many other collectors!
>
> On the other side, I don?t like the term "high end collector" at all. Michael F. explained us already what it means, a collector with deep pockets who buy expensive pieces. And what are the other 95+% of meteorite collectors? Low end collectors who buy the "crap" (btw, another word which I don?t like to hear in conjunction with meteorites) on Ebay??
>
> Please don?t misunderstand me, it?s totally fine with me if wealthy people buy expensive meteorites. I?m happy for them and I?m happy when I can serve them with my service. I know that some of them donate material to institutions, or make their impressive collections accessible to the public, which I find very noble. What I don?t like is to sort people into categories depending on their wealth. Btw, my clients are mostly the same after 15 years, I still sell to meteorite collectors and institutions, small and big collectors alike. And it still works!
>
> Cheers,
> Stefan
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephan Kambach via Meteorite-list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2015 10:16 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] high-end collectors high-end meteorites andrareness
>
>
>> Hello, All
>>
>> If I combined Michael Farmers and Greg Hupes writing up about high-end collectors and high-end meteorites,
>> so I should come to the conclusion that dealers aiming know a days to collectors with big wallets.
>> Regardless to the amount of money you can effort for collecting meteorites, for myself,
>> the high-end collector is the one, who understand in deeper details what he is collecting.
>> Means, before he can real enjoy it, he must crack his head by studying in a private or profesional way
>> mineralogy, physics, (bio)chemistry and etc. . Otherwise, confrontated with the foolishness,
>> he can only marveling with an open mouth, but the real enjoy comes be looking at a meteorite
>> with the specialed (knowlege) view about what you are looking at.
>> Collectors like David Weir for example buying the small samples, but they are the high-end collectors.
>> Some companies or also some single rich peoples (or even the most) often have rudiment?r interest in meteorites
>> but supporting the interest of the nature of an dealer ? that's a own class of high-ends.
>>
>> Last at least, something about lunar and martian meteorites. Meanwhile the amount of it rised up
>> to huge amounts compare to some real rare space samples, for ex. the ungrouped cc's like NWA 5958 from Greg Hupe.
>> A sample like this, unique by it's O-isotopes compared to the rest of all meteorites, provide an absolutely
>> less amount of material compared for ex. to a NWA 5000, but comes in price much more efordable.
>> Martians and Lunaites describe more a less a single parent body history/evolution but a CM2 like a Murchison,
>> a Tagish Lake or CI spans with it's information through the rise of the solarsystem and
>> in some way also beyond. Some of such CC's you find in between the 393 CC's of the MetBull 101 to 103.
>>
>> My regards, Stephan Kambach
>>
>>
>> PS. my special thanks to David Weir supporting all the real collectores for his well done work and
>> also to the scientists, who let us, they one who is opend enough for it, to understand the value of the meteorites
>> ______________________________________________
>>
>> Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com
>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>> https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>
> ______________________________________________
>
> Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Tue 02 Jun 2015 11:12:44 AM PDT