[meteorite-list] "I found a meteorite and..."

From: Steve Schoner <steve_schoner_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:16:29 2004
Message-ID: <20030806201434.55135.qmail_at_web12703.mail.yahoo.com>

--- John Gwilliam <jkg_at_theriver.com> wrote:
> Hello List,
> I just returned from a meeting with a young lady who
> claimed she had found
> a meteorite and wanted to know how to go about
> selling it. Any of you that
> have had contacts similar to this know that the
> prudent thing to do is ask
> a bunch of questions before committing to any
> investment in travel
> time. She answered all of my questions and since
> she was local, I decided
> to go ahead and meet with her.
>

John, and all,

It is simply amazing, no matter how clear one can be
at a meteorite identification site, how many people
think that after reading the information that their
sample meets "all of the criteria."

I have had thousands, upon thousands of submissions
since first putting up a site for meteorite
identification, and only a very few out of that have
turned out to be meteorites.

Lamont was one of my first, and this was purchased by
UCLA and two very well known meteorite dealers.

Then there was Fredericksburg, TX. I dealt long and
hard with the owner, trying to make a deal with her
and UCLA, but UCLA after contacting her, stalled, and
the finder went to another dealer and that dealer
bought it. (No hard feelings Mike. I take it the deal
as just the way the meteorite crumbles, and who has
the cash to make the deal.)

Then there was some samples from Henbury, and some
from a new very weathered Australian find. Then there
is a piece of Allende, found by a person that saw it
fall.

But even with a very clearly written site, it is still
amazing to me how people interpret their rocks, and
all of the people that send samples to me seem to
think that their finds are meteorites.

I am currently stuck here at home recovering from my
illness, and think that I will shoot some new pictures
to better show what meteorites are and what they are
not. I will use a few of the thousands of samples of
meteorwrongs that I have received, but I usually
discard these after six months. However I have quite
a few right now.

Steve Schoner/ams
http://www.geocities.com/meteorite_identificaton



 
> Arriving at our agreed meeting place, I was greeted
> by an attractive young
> woman who thanked me for taking the time to meet
> with her. She reached into
> her purse and pulled our her "meteorite."
>
> John Gwilliam - 0
> Prospective Meteorite Finders - 52
>
> My heart did it's usual sinking technique that it's
> so familiar with by
> now. This was the 52nd person I've met with only to
> find that their
> "meteorite" was furnace slag, basalt or an old iron
> milling ball. But,
> having read Michael Blood's "New Blood" idea earlier
> in the morning, I
> decided to spend some time with this young gal and
> plant a few "meteorite
> seeds" with hope that they might grow into
> something.
>
> I showed here some real meteorites, gave her the
> URLs of some good websites
> to visit, and convinced her she ought to visit the
> Tucson Show next
> February. After talking for a few minutes more, I
> saw that the initial
> disappointment in her eyes was replaced with new
> found curiosity and
> excitement. I'm quite sure she will show up at the
> Inn Suites come next
> February.
>
> best,
>
> John Gwilliam
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
>
http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
Received on Wed 06 Aug 2003 04:14:34 PM PDT