[meteorite-list] Re: Blood Auction Results

From: stan . <laser_maniac_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Feb 18 01:27:21 2005
Message-ID: <BAY101-F22EF59E12ACDABD03A08BBF06E0_at_phx.gbl>

>Dear Michael;
>If the auction is such a bad deal for all the dealers, why do the dealers
>so eagerly attend the auction? I think that is the issue, buy low sell
>high. Isn't that related to your non disclosure issue?
>I should think that some information on what was paid by
>happy-to-disclose-select-individuals would seem to bolster attendance at
>next years auction for all the great deals....


i would be very surprised if alot of dealers attend the auction with the
hopes of buying cheap material for resale - there may be a few occasiaonl
excpetions to this - ie both this year and last year there were a few
'dealer lots' of tatahouine - alot of weight and many peices, not something
that is likely to go into a collection...

While Michael has some fair points with regards to the value of a specimin,
I think it's also worth pointing out that meteorites have no inherent value
- they arent gold or diamonds that can easily be converted into cash
anywhere in the world - they are worth what people pay for them. a perfect
example of that is any nutcase can offer 'alleged' lunar dust for sale for
ridiculously high prices - say 150k$ a gram - is the material REALLY worth
this much money? well if said dealer never sells a speck of material at that
price I'd say the answer is no.

The audience at the Blood auctions consists of a large number of serious
meteorite people that have collectivly spent many millions of $ on their
collections - I would say an IDEAL place to sell a specimin would be at the
blood auction. You may argue that the auction price isnt indicitive of the
'value' of any particular lot, but what is the value of something anyway -
is it the price you wish to put on an item and MAYBE sell it now, or maybe
still ahve it for sale 4 years from now? or is it the price that you can
reasonably expect to get for the item in a reasonable amount of time?

i too hereby add my 'vote to publish the prices' to the list :) (just incase
Michael was doing a survey and was curious what the meteorite community
thought of the subject)
Received on Fri 18 Feb 2005 01:25:19 AM PST