[meteorite-list] IMCA member offering questionable meteorite

From: Charlie Devine <moonrock25_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:03 2004
Message-ID: <1001-3F107350-7658_at_storefull-2358.public.lawson.webtv.net>

Dear list,

I agree with John that this is not a case of an IMCA member trying to
sell a meteorwrong as a meteorite. He calls it an "iron rock" and
"meteorite-looking", and if I were a bidder I would not believe I was
bidding on a meteorite,
To protect those who might believe they were bidding on a meteorite,
however, it would have been better if he stated clearly "this is not a
meteorite."

But, if one wishes to question the practices of an IMCA member, consider
the following auctions. Here is an auction for a 1.12g slice of
Shirokovsky which ended in April, before it was official that
Shirokovsky was not a meteorite.
In this auction the seller identifies himself by IMCA number:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2171620619
Sometime later, the seller ran an auction for a 0.64g slice of
Shirokovsky. Although official word had not yet come down on this
material, I wrote to the seller and told him it was not looking good for
this material being meteoritic
He replied that he would look into it and he cancelled the auction.
I was therefore surprised when he ran the auction again, this time to a
conclusion:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2176968147
Note that in this auction, he does not mention the IMCA at all, even
though he is still listed as a member, and he states the material is a
pallasite. Further, he states that he is selling "as is", which tells me
this IMCA member knew exactly what he was doing: selling a meteorwrong
as a meteorite. The winner of the auction also left feedback indicating
that he loved his meteorite specimen!
If this sounds familiar, I did point out this questionable auction to
the list a few weeks back. The reason I am bringing it up now is that
this IMCA member seems clearly to have pulled a fast one with the buyer
being none the wiser, whereas the IMCA member selling the "iron rock"
from Maryland does not seem to be, in my mind at least, anywhere near as
deceptive in what he's doing.
Regards,
Charlie
Received on Sat 12 Jul 2003 04:45:04 PM PDT