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Re: Misleading statements and the responsibility of Meteorite dealers.

I wrote:
>>	Some months ago, I've also seen a dealer selling Allende and 	claiming
>>Phobos was its parent body.  When I asked him the 	source of thid
>>information, he told me someone had told him 	that, though he wouldn't
>>say who. I've asked him to provide me additional details, which he said
>>he would, but to date, he has not done so.  It turns out this same
>>dealer also was making very questionable claims on another meteorite,
>>most of them obviously erroneous.  Again I questioned him on the source
>>of his information, such as a research paper or a name of someone doing
>>the study of the meteorite, and again he came back with 	the vague
>>answer that someone had told him, and wouldn't say 	who.  In other
>>words, he was making claims that he could not 	backup, and cranking up
>>the prices of his meteorites based on 	these claims.  This is apparently
>>the mode of operation of this particular meteorite dealer.  Fortunately,
>>this is an isolated case, and I've encountered no other meteorite dealer
>>who sells meteorites in this fashion.
>>	In my experience, I have encountered only one meteorite dealer whom I
>>would consider dishonest, and I obviously don't deal with him anymore.

Michael Blood replies:
>		Well, Ron, there you go again. 
>		First: You are "responding" to something Frank put out WEEKS ago?

There is no crime in that.  But since I've been doing the
Comet Hale-Bopp, my email have accumulated into a huge backlog, and I'm
only getting to some of the email I've received weeks ago.

>		Second: I responded to all this, in some depth AT THAT TIME. Did you
>miss your email?

I haven't gotten to your reply yet in my email backlog, but I'll be sure
to look it up.

Michael, the dealer I had in mind was not you.  I know a dealer
who was claiming
the parent body of Allende was definitely Phobos.  Also, if you will recall, I
have purchased some Allende from you.

>		Third: I do NOT claim Allende is from Phobos; I make reference to
>research that pointed out it had the same surface reflection spectrogram
>and I say "likely" from Phobos. That is VERY different from "claiming it
>is from Phobos." You are clearly misquoting me. My web site is there for
>every one to see - look again, if you misread the first time.
>(www.meteorite.com/Michael_Blood)

Michael. I never said you claimed Allende is from Phobos, it was another
dealer I was referring to.

>     	Fourth: How dare you call me dishonest? You further state I     
>was "making claims about another meteorite" - an obvious  reference to
>Ibitira. Once again, I said only that several 
>researchers stated suspicions about possible lunar or Martian origins. I
>never CLAIMED anything beyond that. Each & every one  of them requested
>anonymity - which I respected.

I did not call you dishonest, and the reference here was not to Ibitira.
You've made an incorrect assumption about whom and what I was referring to here.

>	The last time you made cynical and derogatory commentary directed
>toward me, under the thinnest of veiled references, 
>several people on the list emailed me personally to
>express support. I mentioned to one or two that it might have 
>been nice had they done so in the newsletter, since that is
>where you had chosen to attack me.

Actually, I was just correcting you on some obvious false statements you have
made about  Ibitira, such as claiming it was not a eucrite.  I pointed this out to
you in private email, which you've ignored, and only followed it up on
the list after you've posted it there and did not bother to correct it.
If you think that is
cynical and derogatory, then so be it.  To quote Frank Stroik:
"Dealers should keep abreast of the meteorites they deal, and make an
effort to portray only true, and accurate information."

>	   	Why you have a bur in your saddle is beyond me. 

Sorry, there was no personal attack on you at all.  Your name was not 
even mentioned once in my last post. I was merely responding to Frank Stroik's 
comments.

>The 	fact that you
>bring this up again, weeks after Frank's comments, (which, as I stated
>earlier, were addressed by me at the time) is a clear indication that
>SOMETHING is going on.	

Yes, and that something is Comet Hale-Bopp.  I'll also probably be replying to
other older email messages as I get to them - just so you are forewarned.

>         	Originally, I communicated with you by privet email, asking
>how it was that someone to whom I had never been anything but kind &
>generous would choose to trash me publicly. You responded that I was
>publicly trying to "Flim-flam" the public & you weren't about to sit by
>idly & let that happen. I chose to simply ignore your wild carrying ons,
>on the basis that, "The more you stir s---, the
>more it stinks." 

I was merely pointing out to you in my private email to you that you had
some obvious errors about the Ibitira meteorite in your post to the list.
I gave you the opportunity to correct it first yourself on the list, but
when you did nothing about it, I then followed up on the list with the
corrections.  I don't know 
what you mean by "Flim-flam", those are your words, not mine - I don't even 
have that word in my vocabulary.

>But enough is enough. The true DISTORTION 	here, Ron,
>is that you have MISQUOTED me AND accused me of 	DISHONESTY. 

There were no misquotes since I didn't quote you on anything, 
and I never accused you of dishonesy.  There was no attack on you -
go back and read my post again with that in mind and that will become
rather clear.

I can tell you the only reference I to you in my last post was the price
of the Ibitira, which you was selling initially at $2500/gram and later
dropped to $200/gram.  There were no other references to you.

Ron Baalke
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