[meteorite-list] Re: Blood Auction Results

From: Meteoriteshow <meteoriteshow_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Feb 18 04:32:24 2005
Message-ID: <008901c5159c$b17bcfd0$6396e052_at_bebees>

Hi,

I do not know if selling prices should be 'published' or not, that decision
definitly stands 'in the hands' of the seller and should be respected as
such.
However I agree that the price of a meteorite is definitely what someone is
ready to pay for it at a certain time. When we found our first meteorites in
the Sahara desert, we had the luck to come back with 4 carbonaceous
chondrites out of 9 finds, and some rare & nice ones! When we saw the prices
for CM2s for instance and thought about our 750g , we first believed that we
were sitting on a kind of gold batch! Some years later we know that we have
this CM2 for many years and will never sell it all at the 'usual market
price', if such a price exists. It is definitely not like gold or diamonds.
What I want to say is that prices are really subject to a feeling that a
collector can have in front of a meteorite, and her / his decision to buy at
a given price is not necessarily related to a market price but rather to an
impulsive attraction. This is also related to the amount of money available
to the buyer at that moment as well!
To my opinion, there are so many parameters that interfere with the price of
meteorites, that it is almost impossible to find a 'market price' for them.
They can be rare, witnessed falls or not, good looking or not, complete a
collection of a certain type or provenance, etc... And when one is proposed
for sale at an auction, we should not forget that it is a kind of 'game'. As
far as I am concerned, I have already bought some items on eBay at higher
prices than what can be seen on some dealers' websites, just because I had
been outbid and I wanted it! Something like this impulsive attraction I was
talking about earlier. And sometimes this 'magic' does not occur and the
price does not take off!
Well, this is a game, and the rules are not always very easy to find out!

Best wishes,

Frederic Beroud


----- Original Message -----
From: "stan ." <laser_maniac_at_hotmail.com>
To: <dfreeman_at_fascination.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 7:25 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Re: Blood Auction Results


>
> >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)
>
>
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Received on Fri 18 Feb 2005 04:31:57 AM PST