[meteorite-list] Meteorite smugglers anger scientists

From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:27:32 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <516420.99054.qm_at_web33101.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

The Moroccans are smarter now than most collectors.
You will not get a lunar or Martian meteorite cheap
there now. 90% of them can recognize one in a second.
Don't feel too sorry for most of the Moroccans, they
make much more money than most of us dealers who pay
nearly retail for the material IN MOROCCO, and they
live quite well off of the meteorites. It has greatly
impacted the financial well-being of most of them
involved in the meteorite trade. I mean come on, now
they get tens of thousands of $$$ for a black rock
they picked up in the sand. How often does that happen
to someone in Germany or the UK?
Michael Farmer
--- Darren Garrison <cynapse at charter.net> wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:06:52 -0400, you wrote:
>
> >Hello Moni and List,
> >If the article is referring to unclassified
> material,which would make sense,
> >thereby allowing material never to reach the
> scientific community, the point
> >is well taken.
>
> The problem with that argument is that from the
> stories that the people who go
> to Morocco tell, those nomads aren't nearly as
> clueless as the article writer
> claims that they are. They may have been at first,
> but they learned to notice
> the difference between a common meteorite and a
> valuable one. Which is why
> people like MF and the Hupes have to make big
> negotiations to get their lunars,
> Martians, and other rare achondrites instead of
> getting them for 10 cents a gram
> in heaps of OCs. The rare stuff is going to be
> recognized by the original
> dealers and sold at rare stuff prices to rare stuff
> dealers/collectors.
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Received on Mon 16 Apr 2007 04:27:32 PM PDT