[meteorite-list] Unclassified Franconia Area Meteorites

From: Ruben Garcia <meteoritemall_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue May 11 19:11:20 2004
Message-ID: <20040511231118.21801.qmail_at_web20811.mail.yahoo.com>

 
Hi List,

The name of the gentleman selling the unclassified
Northwest Arizona meteorites on Ebay is Dennis. He is
an acquaintance of ours (Mike Miller's and myself) and
on at least one occasion we have hunted with him. He
is a very nice guy and a novice meteorite hunter/
collector that doesn’t know too much about this crazy
hobby/business. We have seen several of his finds and
were impressed enough with one 1000 + gram individual
in particular that we acquired it from him. This one
piece is considerably different than most everything
else he had and a representative sample is currently
undergoing classification at Arizona State University.
I must say that Mike and I were (at least in the
beginning) under the impression that he wouldn’t sell
any on the open market until the classifications were
complete. However, one can not dictate what another
does with his finds, ultimately the finder bears that
responsibility alone.

To the best of our knowledge there will be “many” new
meteorites classified from this area. Mike and I
continue to receive weekly updates from ASU regarding
classifications of the first batch of 8 meteorites we
originally submitted and we are happy with what we are
being told. Hopefully within a few weeks will be able
to post this information and it may shed some light on
this amazing Franconia Area we call the “Meteorite
Graveyard”.

That said, won’t the winners of these auctions have a
surprise! How will anyone know what they’ve won? Yes
it will be a meteorite, and it will be from Northwest
Arizona but beyond that who knows? One winner could
end up with a relatively rare specimen, meaning
something with a small TKW of 200 grams or less while
another could purchase a more common meteorite with a
TKW of 50-100 pounds. Some enthusiasts may not like
buying an unclassified meteorite, while other
meteorite collectors will like the possibility of a
“rare” Franconia Area space rock, after all his
specimens don’t seem to be over priced.

In a perfect world it would be nice if classifications
always came before the sale, but in the real world the
lure of quick money (I hesitate to say "easy money"
because meteorite hunting is anything but easy!)can be
a strong temptation. In this case at least, I have
witnessed some of his finds and I can only say that
the ones he showed me were meteorites. I’m pretty sure
that his lack of description on Ebay is so that he
doesn’t mischaracterize them as anything other than
what he knows them to be…Northwest Arizona Meteorites.


Ruben Garcia



 



        
                
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover
Received on Tue 11 May 2004 07:11:18 PM PDT