[meteorite-list] Data in auctions

From: Walter Branch <branchw_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:37 2004
Message-ID: <000001c39f33$1722a200$dbc59f44_at_wbranch>

Hi Jamie and Everyone,

The problem many times is that ebay item titles only allow a certain number
of characters, then you run out of room.

While a laudable effort, most meteorite dealers are highly individualistic
and like to do things their own way, and I doubt any standardization would
come about. I can do a search on the word "meteorite" and, aside from the
women's cosmetic items (meteorite makeup - bizarre) and Rolex watches
(equally bizarre) I can tell whose auction the item belongs to about 90% of
the time and either take a look or pass it by.

Best wishes,

-Walter

------------------------------------------
www.branchmeteorites.com
Walter Branch, Ph.D.
Branch Meteorites
PO Box 60492
Savannah, GA 31420



----- Original Message -----
From: "Jamie Stephens" <j.stephens_at_morphism.com>
To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 9:56 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Data in auctions


> Listees,
>
> Many folks have asked me for finer-grained pricing data.
> Examples:
>
> 1. What's the $/g range of Howardites in some time period?
> 2. $/g for unclassified NWA's?
> 3. $/g for NWA 482?
>
> It's easy to imagine nice graphs with time as the X axis and
> the stats of your choice plotted over time. "In trading this
> week, Howardites were down sharply -- after rising over the
> last month. Matt Fammer, the prominent hunter/dealer,
> attributes the sell-off to rumors of a new large find."
>
> Though I can't find the postings, I think somebody recently
> suggested a standard format for auction titles. The goal
> was to help buyers find what they are looking for. A side
> benefit would be the ability to help gather the data above.
>
> Possible title format:
>
> Meteorite NAME CLASSIFICATION SPECIMENMASS CUT COMMENTS
>
> For example:
>
> Meteorite DaG 609 EUC(S3)(W2) 2.3g Partslice Pretty
>
> It'd be easier for a program to parse if the fields were
> delimited unambigously -- say with a '|'. But delimiters
> in a title could be too ugly:
>
> Meteorite|DaG 609|EUC(S3)(W2)|2.3g|Partslice Pretty
>
> Works for me, but novice collectors might run away screaming.
>
> To get the data, it'd suffice to have a standard data format
> somewhere inside the item description. The format could even
> be invisible to people (say via HTML comments, which programs
> can still see). For example, the data below could be structured
> as a little HTML table. (I could provide the actual HTML
> boilerplate.)
>
> Name: DaG 609
> Classification: EUC(S3)(W2)
> Specimen mass: 2.3g
> Cut: Partslice or Fullslice or Individual or
> Frag or End cut or Specks or Dust or Vapor
> Misc: IMB or whatever
>
> With this data in the item description, the titles wouldn't have
> to change if they didn't want to.
>
> If any seller is interested in using this structure in an item
> description -- even invisibly to people -- please let me know.
> I'll publish boilerplate HTML. Then some enterprising person
> could gather fine-grained pricing data -- and not publish any
> names.
>
> Comments please.
>
> --Jamie
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Thu 30 Oct 2003 10:34:02 AM PST