[meteorite-list] Fwd: What a sleezy character you are.

From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 08:39:07 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <753102.81243.qm_at_web33112.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi eveyone, I have just emerged from a near 3 week
meteorite hunting expedition, and checking my email,
recieved this from our "highly edumacated" friend in
Peru. Just by reading this, you can all see the
civility and manners which ooze from this man.
Michael Farmer

--- Randall Gregory <randall_gregory at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:26:26 -0800 (PST)
> From: Randall Gregory <randall_gregory at yahoo.com>
> Subject: What a sleezy character you are.
> To: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com>
>
> Farmer,
>
> Out of curiousity I did a little checking. Dropped
> out of college to pursue meteorite hunting? Greed
> won out over education. How pathetic. I see you
> found your little niche, being the first one to
> pounce on a new find. Your greed just pours out of
> these articles. How much of the park forest did you
> keep for yourself after telling the police you
> needed to cut it. Well... Fatboy, I guess my post
> was directed straight to you. My little net caught a
> big fat fish. I'm making copies of your little
> pig-face picture and will send them to my friends in
> Aplao along with a increase in reward. And in the
> future, you just might find me one step ahead at new
> falls, especially in South America.
>
> Randall
>
>
> It's a cutthroat business, Farmer says, where
> there is a huge demand for a very small amount of
> material
>
> Breaking into the business was difficult, Farmer
> recalls, but he earned the respect of established
> dealers by being first on the scene of three
> high-profile meteorite falls
>
> The first two trips didn't pay off immediately,
> but they earned him the reputation of being a
> go-getter. A football-size meteorite fell on
> Monahans, Texas in March 1998. Within 30 hours,
> Farmer was on the scene, but it was already too
> late. There was already a fight between the finders
> and the city over who rightfully owned the rock, a
> meteorite broker was already involved and NASA was
> trying to get the rock. Shortly after Farmer got to
> Monahans, a NASA researcher arrived to bargain with
> the town to take the rock for study at the Johnson
> Space Center in Houston. Farmer left with nothing.
>
> Three months later a mess of meteorites from a
> rock that exploded in the air fell near Portales
> Valley, New Mexico, not far from the Texas
> panhandle. Farmer again went straight to the desert
> region where people had seen the fall, and he was
> just in time to see an amateur collector find an
> 11-pound (5-kilogram) chunk of the rock. Farmer
> tried to buy it, but the finder wouldn't sell.
> Farmer found a few small pieces, but nothing major.
> In April 1999, Farmer heard about a new fall in
> Ourique, Portugal. Without a second thought, he
> bought a ticket to Lisbon and jumped on a plane with
> $10,000 cash.
> "I heard about it in a little note on the
> Internet. And I took the risk and just flew over
> there," Farmer explained. He rented a car and drove
> to the small village in southwest Portugal, and
> within hours he had cornered the world market on the
> prized new meteorite
> "It had just never made the news, " Farmer said,
> "until this little thing came on the Internet about
> it being classified." Scientists at the university
> had classified the meteorite -- determined its
> composition, its type and given it a name. They
> posted and announcement on the Internet, where
> Farmer saw it. He was in Portugal the day after
> reading the very first public mention of the
> meteorite.
>
> Farmer went into the town tavern, set up his
> scales on the bar, and spread the word that he would
> pay for pieces of meteorite
> The investment paid off, though. Having the entire
> world market of a brand new fall, Farmer had no
> trouble unloading the material. It became a rock
> that everybody had to have. From museums to private
> collectors, everyone wanted a piece.
> He traded some pieces with museums for other rare
> meteorite types, and sold the rest through his
> website at $10 a gram.
>
> He called me up a couple days before Christmas and
> needed money," Farmer said, "I told him I'd be there
> the next day with cash. I got it -- for a much lower
> price than I offered originally."
>
> He was in Uruguay in January arranging a big
> purchase. He sped to Canada in March when he heard
> that pieces of a meteorite that exploded in the sky
> above the Yukon Territory had been found on the
> ground. He had no luck because the finder was
> determined to keep the location a secret, but others
> in the meteorite community applaud his efforts.
> ) I hunt for meteorites all over the world. My
> meteorite hunting trips include Australia, Chile,
> Bolivia, Canada, all over the USA, Oman, Burkina
> Faso, Lesotho, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Western
> Sahara, India and Mexico. I have found several
> hundred Oman meteorites, including a LUNAR! I have
> also found pieces of these famous meteorites,
> Portales Valley, Mundrabilla, Canyon Diablo,
> Holbrook, Gold basin, al Mahbas, Imilac, Monturaqui,
> Park Forest, and many others
>
> I really want a large multi-kilo Allende, I have
> had a couple, but sold them. Otherwise, I want any
> historic fall I can get.
>
> The 116-gram meteorite, carved from one that
> weighed 180 grams, is being relinquished by Michael
> Farmer of Tucson, a globe-trotting meteorite dealer,
> who says he resented the implication of police that
> the rock was stolen Farmer, who has made a living
> buying and selling meteorites for the last seven
> years, was on an airplane to Chicago the next day,
> and spent the next two weeks buying pieces of the
> meteorite from residents who found them outside and
> inside their homes.
>
> Farmer said he spent about $40,000, paying premium
> prices in some cases because that's what finders
> demanded and because his customers will pay more for
> a meteorite with a documented story behind it.
>
>
> DioGuardi said Tuesday that no threats of legal
> action were made or implied and no accusations of
> trafficking in stolen goods were made against Farmer
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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Received on Thu 08 Mar 2007 11:39:07 AM PST