[meteorite-list] Blaine Reed Tucson Notes & AD

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:29:32 -0600
Message-ID: <BAY111-F37F2049BFA25CB0B019681B3880_at_phx.gbl>

Blaine Reed is not part of the meteorite list so I am sending this along for
him.

You can join his e-mail group by going to Yahoo.

Mark



brmeteorites_list-owner at yahoogroups.com

>Dear Collectors,
>
> I am finally back from Tucson (comments on the show below) and
>unpacked enough to offer some of what I brought back now (my next few
>offerings are likely to be such stuff). Many of these items are
>consignments left with me at the show. As the owners of the largest
>pieces want either their money or the items returned, I likely will be
>offering these first (I would much rather sell them than have to pay
>expensive registered return postage), but I will be offering more
>smaller and affordable items later on (many of these need preparation
>work that I have not had time for anyway).
>
>Notes on the show:
>
>I have had quite a few people call and ask how things went. To be
>honest, in a word it was slow. In two words it was very slow. There
>were not many buyers wandering the show this year and many dealers
>suffered for it. I managed to do fairly well none the less (but down
>quite a bit from last year). What I am VERY concerned about is an
>increasing development the past few years in the actions of the
>meteorite collecting public.
>
> The show in general has been noticeably slowing the past few years.
>This is probably due to many factors such as cost (every thing gets
>more expensive in Tucson each year), increased time needed to see the
>people you need to see (as many dealers leave early and others show up
>late, almost 8 or 10 days is needed to be sure everybody you need to
>see will actually be there) and the internet (many of the large chain
>stores no longer buy at the shows, but have arranged supply contracts
>through internet connections now).
>
> I had been quite smug for the past years of this decline as we had a
>close knit community in meteorites that seemed to defy these problems.
> Collectors would come to the show for several days, visit dealers, go
>to parties and to auctions. Everything seemed to complement each
>other. Now I am seeing the rapid unraveling of this once neat social
>fabric.
>
>I had originally assumed that not many collectors showed up this year
> (I had maybe 35 meteorite people come to my room this year &#150; I even
>had trouble giving out all of my special Tucson wine glasses this
>year). I was quickly shown how wrong I was when we attempted to attend
>the "Meteorite Mayhem" party of Steve Arnold and Geoff Notkin. We
>arrived late due to circumstances (business). The security guard would
>not let us in, as the bar was "over capacity". We waited as several
>people left, but he would still not allow us in. An attempt at bribery
>(alas, poor George just doesn't have the negotiating power he once
>did) and we were told to beat &#150; it. Before leaving I looked in the
>windows to see many dozens (possible a couple hundred) of people that
>had, at one time been my customers that I had not seen in many years.
>Clearly there is a problem on my end.
>
>What I am finding from the few I have been able to talk with is that
>most collectors have now become completely focused on the auctions
>only. Most fly in Friday night, go to Lang's auction on Saturday and
>go to Blood's Saturday night (and often don't get out until well after
>midnight) and fly home Sunday morning. I do understand that for many,
>they are unable to take the extra vacation days to visit the show.
>
>I have been trying to formulate some kind of answer as to how I can
>become relevant to the visiting collectors once more. This is a
>difficult thing to do when facing something like auctions that seem to
>work on the same powerful emotional areas as gambling in the human
>brain. I have had a few ideas such as;
>
>1) Maybe moving to Inn Suites to be a little easier for those already
>visiting the dealers there to find me (though I don't think many of
>the dealers there had huge amounts of visitors either).
>2) Starting one of my own auctions (Alan once told me this is why he
>started his &#150; to get collectors to at least come to his room and see
>what else he has to offer ), though I have no idea when I could hold
>such an event that wouldn't interfere with the already existing ones
>(which would end up being a detriment to all of us). 3) Setting aside most
>of my really special or unique items (commonly
>available stuff generally does poorly at auction) during the year and
>consign them to one of the existing auctions (not a bad idea actually,
>but then I would not have these neat items available during the year).
>The plus of this one is that it could eventually save me huge amounts
>of money (if I do end up shutting down my Tucson show room that is,
>then I would only have to be in town for a few days to do some buying
>and let the auctions do the selling).
>4) I am trying to convince Steve and Geoff to allow us dealers to each
>set up a small display table (no need to haul in a bunch of
>Sikhote-Alins, NWA 869's and other common stuff &#150; just the true
>collector oriented special items) at their party. This would actually
>be quite fun and allow us to show the visiting collectors our special
>new stuff (and might be of benefit to them as well. I heard that
>Weston sold for $1600/g at the auctions. I had some in my room for
>around $100/g &#150; don't ask, it is long gone).
>
>Any comments from all of you would be helpful in my decisions. I have
>re-signed for my same room next year, so no major changes will happen
>next year. Though I suspect that, with Darryl bringing his auction
>back next Tucson, I will be forced into some pretty hard choices the
>year after.
>
>Any way, enough of all of that, here are some really nice items to
>consider:
>
>ALLENDE, Mexico: (CV3.2). Fell Feb 8, 1969.
>Here are a couple fantastic complete slices. These are some of the
>freshest and nicest slices I have ever seen. Some parts of Allende
>lack a lot of chondrule distinction. These are not from that part.
>These have loads of chondrules (looking close to Axtell) and lots of
>large CAIs. These also come with a David New label (he was one of the
>true greats in meteorites, but has been retired for quite some time now).
>a) 48.0 gram complete slice&#133;&#133;92mm x 67mm x 3.5mm&#133;&#133;$480
>b) 53.0 gram complete slice&#133;...100mm x 77mm x 3mm&#133;&#133;..$530
>c) 91.0 gram complete slice&#133;...110mm x 90mm x 4mm&#133;&#133;..$900
>&#150; over 5
>huge (cm long) CAIs!
>
>CHINGA, Russia: Ni-rich ataxite (IVB). Found 1913.
>Here is a wild- shaped polished complete slice. It has not been
>etched- just polished to a mirror shine (though there are a couple
>small darker patches).
> 100.8gram complete slice&#133;..95mm x 45mm x 5mm&#133;..$150
>
>DEPORT, Texas: Coarse octahedrite (IAB).
>This is a highly cleaned little individual with a small (about 1cm x
>1cm) cut and etched window. It looks like it has been sandblasted to
>remove the original oxide (a good thing &#150; or these tend to rust
>scale). This neatly brought out the crystal structure in a 3-D way.
>McCartney Taylor found this and says it has the name MOE. He found
>three pieces together (the three stooges) and that this one was named
>Moe at it's finding. A nice little display piece.
> 99.1 gram individual with etched window&#133;..45mm x 28mm x
>22mm&#133;.$300
>
>GAO, Burkina Faso, (H5). Fell March 5, 1960.
>Now this is a great display piece. It has a nice sculpted shape and
>really nice black crust showing flow lines and contraction cracks.
>There are about 8 or so small natural chipped areas, showing the
>lighter interior. I had another stone like this one at the show and it
>sold within mere hours of being put on display.
> 1006.4 gram individual&#133;.120mm x 70mm x 65mm&#133;&#133;$1800
>
>GIBEON, Namibia: Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
>This is a nice individual that has been highly brushed. It is not an
>exceptional piece as far as wild shape or anything , but it does have
>plenty of nice ridges and thumb-printing. Just a good honest display
>piece.
> 4037.8 gram brushed individual&#133;.140mm x 100mm x 75mm&#133;.$1400
>
>MUONIONALUSTA, Sweden: Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1906.
>A lot of metal-detecting field work has turned up quite a bit of this
>lately. I got these pieces from a friend who actually found the
>himself. I have one of each type; individual (fragment really), end
>piece and slice. The end piece and slice show a beautiful etch.
>a) 87.7 gram fragment (natural as found)&#133;&#133;60mm x 25mm x
>22mm&#133;&#133;..$130
>b) 198.4 gram end piece&#133;&#133;.85mm x 52mm x 10mm&#133;&#133;.$275
>c) 196.5 gram complete slice&#133;&#133;.95mm x 70mm x 4mm&#133;&#133;$290
>
> TENHAM, Australia: (L6), veined. Fell spring 1879.
>Here is a nice absolutely complete individual that has some claims to
>being oriented! This has complete coverage of the usual slate- gray
>crust that Tenham typically shows (with some neat dark and somewhat
>shiny ablated condrles clearly showing scattered about). It, as all
>Tenhams I have seen, does not show much in the way of distinct flow
>lines. It does have at one end a rim of slightly bubbled crust that
>indicates that this spent some time in an oriented flight. This is
>quite interesting in that it is a fairly long bar &#150; shaped piece and
>it oriented with the small pointed end down. A very nice, and quite
>rare specimen.
> 415.3 gram oriented individual&#133;&#133;..100mm x 40mm x
>37mm&#133;&#133;..$1500
>
>PHILIPPINITE
>Here is a great LARGE Rizal province (rizalite) tektite I picked up
>the last day I was at the show (interestingly, an antiquities dealer
>had it hiding on a shelf). It is completely intact, shiny black and
>has quite a bit of its surface showing grooves (only a few millimeters
>deep unfortunately). A very nice display piece.
> 334.1 gram grooved individual&#133;.60mm x 60mm x 55mm&#133;..$335
>
>
>
>
Received on Wed 21 Feb 2007 04:29:32 PM PST


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