[meteorite-list] Canadian Material for Americans has to wait

From: MeteorHntr at aol.com <MeteorHntr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 13:02:57 EST
Message-ID: <d3f.38b754d9.366c1851_at_aol.com>

Ryan,

I'm not sure I understand your logic here.

If you wished American Institutions would care enough to pay a fair retail
price to the legal owners of new meteorites, then I think we would all agree
with you.

But America has the principles of freedom and property rights that go
strongly against confiscation laws. I think the ACLU would even consider stepping
in if such a law would be proposed.

When I find anything that I think a museum or a research collection would
like, either to purchase or to trade for, I eagerly approach them at the start.
 But most take so long to reply, or don't reply at all. Some do, but
express that they are not interested. And then occasionally some do reply wanting
to make a trade. But unlike in Canada, here in the States a very tiny
percentage of institutions will pay cash for anything.

And due to some of the red tape that is involved with some places, I would
LOVE it if the transaction could happen in less than 6 months time. I think
hoping for any bureaucracy to do anything in as little as 3 months is a bit
overoptimistic.

And I am not sure how if US institutions would have had first dibs on buying
any and all of the Park Forest specimens found would have helped YOU get a
Park Forest specimen for your collection?

In fact, during your 2-3 days in Park Forest IF you had found something, and
the government confiscated it from you, and paid you $1/g or $5/g or $20/g
or whatever they determined was fair, my guess is that you probably would not
like the idea so much.

Steve Arnold #1
www.SteveArnoldMeteorites.com


In a message dated 12/6/2008 11:34:33 A.M. Central Standard Time,
yellowengine at earthlink.net writes:
I think the next time the U.S. has another significant fall (..like Park
Forest), American collectors and instituntions should have first dibs on the
material. You know, a good 3-6 month head start over non-Americans. I still
don't have a nice piece for my collection, and I was in Park Forest for 2-3 days!

I'll bet there are plently of other collectors who will agree with me on
this one.

Ryan

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Received on Sat 06 Dec 2008 01:02:57 PM PST