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Re: dealers/eBay/collecting (RNH)

A few personal ramblings for whoever may be interested:

Many, many, years ago (1960's) I had a meteorite business, and I suppose we
could say that I and my partner were dealers as we had a valid seller's
license and resale number. We found there was a tremendous interest from
collectors.  We cut and etched meteorites, but specialized in tektites,
hundreds of pounds per year; at that time one could buy virtually perfect
teardrops and dumbbells, at very good prices direct from Asia.  Not the junk
you see available today. Noone else seemed to be doing it.  The problem was
a) there was not enough of an awareness on the public to bring forth new
meteorite finds, (b) noone was offering big bucks for such finds (c)
advertising was a slow and expensive process.  The only others I remember
having much material were Nininger's American Meteorite Laboratory , David
New and a couple of mineral dealers (Wards, etc).  Because of the lack of
new finds, and high cost of doing business, I eventually moved into more
cost-effective means of earning a living, altho I am again doing a little
bit of buying and selling to fund and build our college teaching collection,
thanks to ebay, (you will hear more about this shortly) but all those
profits go right back into buying new and more costly specimens, so the
dealers always profit in the end, as they should.

It was Bob Haag who was responsible for developing the awareness (in large
part from the national media), and who, for the first time, offered big
bucks for new finds, and we all see where it went from there.  More dealers,
more meteorites, more turn-around, and I think everyone is coming out the
better for it.

Ron Hartman
Professor of Astronomy
Dept. of Earth Science & Astronomy
Mt. San Antonio College
-----Original Message-----
From: dean bessey <deanbessey@hotmail.com>
To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
<meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Monday, November 15, 1999 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: Odd meteorite on Ebay-Earlier post


>Whats bad, and >this doesn't apply to all dealers on this list, is that
most
>of the time you\>hear complaints about items on ebay, its from dealers.  I
>believe the\>dealers want to keep the dealing market as small as possible.
>Not too long >ago there was a big fiasco about a dealer overseas in the UK
>selling some >Mars material and Peekskill material.   He was trashed beyond
>belief on this >list <snip>
>>>
>This is so false and wrong that this comment does just as much damage to
the
>meteorite community as selling an obvious piece of weathered lava rock as a
>meteorite. Wither some list members like it or not eBay has become a major
>meteorite selling source. There are many new collectors (Myself included)
>that are only meteorite collectors because of eBay. The fact that
meteorites
>was sold on eBay even made it to CNN a couple months ago with the ZAG
>meteorite and water. One buyer of one of the Zags that I have auctioned off
>on eBay told me that he saw the water/ZAG story on CNN and CNN in their
>story told of different ways that ZAG was for sale - one of which was eBay.
>It was the first that my customer ever herd of eBay and some asking around
>to find out what eBay was finally led him to my auction where he is now a
>meteorite collector. As for the UK guy, I understand that he was breaking
>eBay selling rules and that is why he was blacklisted - not for his
>meteorites.
>The reason that eBay dealers are the first to try and keep eBay clean is
>because eBay is such an important part of the meteorite business (Like it
or
>not). Myself and several other eBay dealers have an interest in keeping the
>meteorites on eBay clean. After all if we are getting advertising on CNN we
>better. You can bet that if a meteorite forgery scandall hit eBay CNN would
>not mention it in their next meteorite story. To say that meteorite dealers
>want to keep others out by trying to keep scammers out of the business is
>totally wrong. More dealers is better for everybody. No one eBay seller
>keeps the hundreds of collectors coming back every day to see what
>meteorites are for sale on eBay. If there was only one dealer left there
>would be fewer buyers. We dont want the next CNN story about meteorites to
>be negative about false meteorites being auctioned off.
>The people who complain about false meteorites are doing the hobby and
>collectors a great service (albiet looking after there own interest of
>maintaining a safe and secure meteorite selling medium also).
>DEAN BESSEY
>
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