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Re: Contraversy

Hello Michael, list members:
Just to add a little to Mike's post, I too received the e-mail from the guy who
sid thanks to God for the meteorites (and money).  I called him yesterday and
asked him how much his meteorites were. He said that a dealer told him not to
sell for UNDER 15/g.  This was for pieces upto 1500g, may be OK for a 25-50g
piece, but a kilo? Also, we seem to be beating this issue to death (as I am
doing so now), only time will tell about the current market.

To comment on the eucrite I offered at 85-100/g.  It was only a single,
super-fresh stone of  1400g, with the Amer. Museum holding about 600g, plus a
couple hundered more in other institutions. This leaves AT MOST 600g for
collectors. Now compare that to Portales with an estimated TKW of 70kg (that is
modest), and a preliminary H5 or 6 being sold to collectors for 25-30/g. I sold
the eucrite at 3 times that price but with 50 times LESS material!! Do your
math.

Yes, I offered 2-3/g for Portales to the farmers, at Blaine Reed's discretion
(he had most the cash), and we both felt it wasn't worth the 10/g that was
being paid. Do I have any? No. But time will tell.

Best regards,
Matt Morgan
Mile High Meteorites

Michael Farmer wrote:

> Hello list. This is getting good. It is too bad that some of our
> outspoken members are not on the list to add their colorful replies. One
> correction. Me and Bob Haag were not told to get off of the woman's
> porch. Just rapidly told that we could not see her meteorite and that we
> should go. Not quite as violent as many people think but close to the
> point.
>      Prices are indeed out of hand but not any more so than anywhere
> else. As I am one of the main holders of Portales, I am not offended but
> a little agitated by the implications and hoopla going on here. Monahans
> is absolutely nothing but a fiasco, I doubt anyone questions that. AHHH
> the auction has been delayed yet again, no doubt to allow the
> unfortunate hoopla surrounding the Portales fall to blow over. No one,
> not even myself could have ever guessed that another very interesting
> meteorite would fall so soon  in America.  What are the odds that it
> would fall only 100 miles from Monahans??  Portales has stolen the show
> from Monahans and we must let it cool off so that we can get back to the
> incredible Monahans auction.
>
>     Lets get down to the real issue here. Prices and such. Portales is
> expensive first because of the press of the Monahans. As I said before
> and say again, people came to my hotel room with the newspaper article
> about Monahans and the inflated value and demanded to know why I was
> offering so little for Portales but Monahans is worth so much. They
> inflated the price and I paid like the others because Portales is
> definitely a very odd beautiful meteorite.  Does anyone who has seen it
> disagree? Please do not bother responding if you have not seen some
> because I know the rumors about the stone portion being and H6 but I was
> at the lab yesterday and nothing has been yet confirmed. Also the iron
> mix and mostly iron pieces are not even yet being studied so the jury is
> out for a while on this one.  We were forced to pay more and we did it.
> Ill bet you anything that Steve Shoner and the others would not have
> driven 10 hours and simply made an offer and then left empty handed
> because the finders would not play nice and sell cheap. I too would have
> preferred to pay much less believe me!  This is not an attack of any
> kind, merely a reply.
>     I do believe that these people are making a big mistake at this
> point (the People in Portales). They have posted hundreds of No
> trespassing signs, revoked all permission to hunt, and are now marketing
> their finds at over $15.00 per gram for rusted plow damaged specimens.
> The woman with the 37 pounder has turned down over $100,000 for hers. It
> is funny that in a post I just got from one of the Farmers, he said that
> " We prayed for rain and God sent us rocks from the sky"  He did indeed
> send pure money from the sky but look what the finders are now doing.
> The are greedy and demanding and have suddenly turned from nice to rude.
> I spoke to this man last week and he was great, now he is very rude and
> suddenly an expert on meteorites. Go figure. God or whatever did indeed
> send them cash from the sky but they now feel that the paltry sums of
> many thousands of dollars that I offer  are an insult to the treasure
> they hold. Oh well, they can put it in their coffins when they go I
> guess.
>     As far as the question of prices are concerned, yes I am selling and
> the price is high. Those who have bought their specimens are all very
> pleased so far! Let us examine some other asking prices here. Shoner
> works very hard and finds lots of Glorietta. That which he sells is at
> full retail price and very expensive. why should it be? He found it thus
> paying nothing for it so he could give it to us very cheap correct?
> WRONG! He charges a fair full price for it because it is valuable and
> nice and he can. Nothing at all wrong with that. It is also over $20.00
> per gram. Very expensive but I guess that is normal. Portales is also
> over $20.00 per gram and yet I hear many people (mostly dealers who have
> none) complaining that it is too much. HMMMMMM any reasoning here? I had
> to also work very hard and invest more than my yearly salary for
> Portales. So I MUST charge a high price for it. Matt Morgan charged
> $100.00 per gram for the new Eucrite. Over 10 times the price of
> Millbillilli. I heard not one complaint and saw no reason for the
> terrible price. WE all know that the new eucrite is only 6 kilos and
> will be hard to get so that justifies the high price. Maybe. There are
> only 70 kilos of Portales right now and every museum and collector seems
> to want some. Most of them cant be chopped up and the finders still hold
> over 50% and are demanding over $100,000 for several of the pieces. That
> tells me that very little will be available. But I am hearing from these
> other people that I should sell to them for $2 gram or something like
> that. YEAH RIGHT!
> Look at reality people, those complaining have been trying to get
> Portales dirt cheap and could not so they are now slamming it.
> As I said, this is not an attack on anyone but a simple reply to some
> things that are building up right now.
> Thanks and have a great day or night.
> Mike Farmer
> http://www.concentric.net/~farmerm
> By the way, I do have 2 slices and an endcut of Portales available at
> this time.
>
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--
Matt Morgan
Mile High Meteorites
http://www.mhmeteorites.com
P.O.Box 151293
Lakewood, CO 80215-9293
"For a geologist, life is a field trip"


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