[meteorite-list] New "NEVADA METEORITE"
From: dean bessey <deanbessey_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jul 30 16:32:52 2004 Message-ID: <20040730203250.65581.qmail_at_web12308.mail.yahoo.com> Here in Canada we have our own version of "Tucson". It is the Bancroft mineral show which is canadas largest mineral show and its a 4 day show this weekend. (But before you come remember that I havent gone in about five years and while it is only a 2 1/2 hour drive from me I likely wont go again for another 5 years). The show was mostly small mineral specimens and a bit of jewellery and things - and pretty much everything at prices at least 10 times tucson prices. One dealer had about 35 meteorite specimens - grossly overpriced allende ($50 or so a gram), Sikhote alin and Gibeon ($7 or $8 or more a gram). But another dealer had a meteorite that was a "new northern nevada fall". So four hours ago I got to see this new "Meteorite" in person for the first time. And this is so obviously not a meteorite. It is a typical wind blown desert rock similar to what you see tons of if hunting the atacama desert. Anybody with the tiniest amount of meteorite knowledge wouldent think that this is a meteorite. You might pick it up if it was in the desert if your magnet attracted to it (Because anything that attracts a magnet when you are meteorite hunting requires a second look). But you would quickly discount it. It just plain dont look like any known meteorite even to the naked eye. I told the dealer (Whom I never met before) that this is not a meteorite and he was adament that it was a meteorite and when I asked "Why do you think it is a meteorite" he said because thats what meteorites are like, it was tested at some lab in the United States and a well known respected meteorite dealer delivered it to him personally at the show (Although he wouldent tell me who it was). Everything else on his table was things like quartz crystals, labradorite specimens, a couple fossil fish ect. Nothing of any great value and nothing else remotely meteorite related. The guy obviously had no idea what a meteorite looked like but was very irritated that somebody would tell him that it was not a meteorite. 25 pounds for $750 (About US$600). It will be sad if some unknowing new collector gets ripped of because some show dealer dont care to learn about the stuff that he is selling. It would have to be a new collector because if he wasnt extremily new he would quickly realize that this was not a meteorite. So now that I have seen this in person I can confirm that there is no chance that this is a meteorite (Not that you couldent confirm that from a picture anyway). This should be a lesson to a lot of list members who think that ebay is the only place where fake meteorites are sold. Ebay is probably the safest place to buy meteorites (And thats partly because of the IMCA and this list getting out information to buyers) but shows are a serious problem also. I am obviously playing with statistics here but it is correct to say that at canadas largest mineral show this weekend a full 50% of dealers selling meteorites are selling fake meteorites. Cheers DEAN __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail Received on Fri 30 Jul 2004 04:32:49 PM PDT |
StumbleUpon del.icio.us Yahoo MyWeb |