[meteorite-list] Editorial

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:43:29 2004
Message-ID: <20010705182944.22969.qmail_at_web10402.mail.yahoo.com>

... but seriously folks...

It looks like the marketing of meteorites from NWA has
received another black eye, this time in print, on the
"Editorial" page of the most recent issue of "MAPS" -
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (Volume 36), Issue 6,
2001 June.
The editorial is by W. A. Cassidy: "Meteorites on the
Greenland icesheet?" - you'll have to look it up,
because I don't have permission to reprint it.

But the gist of the statement, which was in the last
paragraph, was that, if the supply of meteorites for
sale [in the bazaars of North Africa] becomes too
slim, [the Moroccan] dealers order specimens of other
meteorites from elsewhere i n t h e w o r l d and
resell them at generous markups as "North African"
meteorites.

Now here are my questions:

Correct me on this, but aren't NWAs the cheapest
selling meteorites "in the world"?

If not, where "in the world" are the Moroccans going
in order to get these cheaper meteorites?

Is it possible that the Moroccan importers are better
at their job than their counterparts in North America
and Europe?

Okay, I guess comments like the one in the editorial
about NWA meteorite markets are to be expected, since
the purpose of the article was to extoll the value of
Antarctic meteorites to science over those from hot
deserts.

The editorial ended with this sentence, "Hopefully,
whoever may visit the suggested sites in Greenland
will arrive prepared to collect and document any
recoveries in the same way it is done in Antarctica,
and thereby insure that any Greenland collection will
have the same value to science as does the Antarctic
collection."


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
Received on Thu 05 Jul 2001 02:29:44 PM PDT