[meteorite-list] Anyone know this Moroccan Meteorite Dealer?

From: Walter L. Newton <newtonw2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Sep 1 21:00:50 2006
Message-ID: <003401c6ce2b$38145510$ed760818_at_walter>

Hi

I have dealt with him once. He sent me a group of pictures of different
parcels of meteorites. They looked rather nice and fresh. I did a little
back and forth on the price per gram and we both settled on a price. I wired
him the money Western Union. It appears that he had me wire the money
directly to someone who may have been the REAL owner of the rocks. I did not
wire the money to him.

He shipped the package on July 14th, 2006.

On Aug. 4th, 2006 the package cleared US customs.

After these rocks took 4.6 billion years to get here, the US Post Office has
managed to lose the package in 4 weeks.

They claim there is nothing they can do about it, even though I had a
tracking number (that's how I got the info on the package clearing customs).

I have heard of a few other people dealing with him and they have received
what they ordered.

Also, the ex-editor of the Australian meteorite magazine (I forgot his name
right now) confirmed to me, though an email, that this person is reliable.

My only advice would be to have this person send the package DHL or
something like that. It may cost you a bit more money, but it could be worth
it instead of losing over 200 dollars to the US Post Office like I did.

Mr. Farmer makes a good point, but it seems in this case that your risk is
small. At least from this seller.

And I see nothing wrong with being able to deal direct with these Moroccan
dealers if they are on the up and up. That's just good capitalism as far as
I can see. If the NWA stuff is drying up, and some one has access to these
rocks, all the better for the collectors.

If anyone has an idea of how I can get the Post Office to do their job, let
me know. Both my local postmaster and the 800 customer service people just
about told me "to bad, so sad."

Walter L. Newton
Golden, Co
Received on Fri 01 Sep 2006 09:00:44 PM PDT