[meteorite-list] Bonhams Auction Results

From: Jason Utas <meteoritekid_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 16:17:18 -0800
Message-ID: <93aaac890812071617n7c59b075v9873f350772a5868_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hello All,
I read through the legal print in the front of the catalog, and it
looks like it's ok to post the results publicly.

1086 - 315g Gibeon Sphere - $475
1087 - 140g Gibeon Egg - $190
1088 - 490g Gibeon Slice - $375
1089 - 321g Gibeon Slice - Pass
1090 - 2 Gibeon Slices (281 + 262g) - $325
1091 - Gibeon Part-Slice $475
1092 - 552g Gibeon Slice - $400
1093 - 2.6kg Gibeon Cut Block - $1,700
1094 - 7,150g Gibeon Slice - $3.250 - Pass
1095 - 1,361g Muonionalusta End - $500
1096 - 136g Chinga Slice - $120
1097 - 494g Seymchan Slice - $425
1098 - 121g Udei Station End - $200 (!)
1099 - 276g New NWA Iron (silicated) slice - $600
1100 - "7lb" Sikhote Shrapnel - listed as "oriented" - $1,500
1101 - 1,304g Sikhote Individual - $2,900 (!)
1102 - 8kg Corroded Sikhote (*no* remaining fusion crust) - $6,500 - Pass
1103 - 334g Fukang Part-Slice (shattered crystals) - $3,750
1104 - 520g Esquel Part-Slice - $12,000
1105 - Pair of Campo Ends (206g and 430g, one silicated) - ~$400 -
Pass (Passed at $400 for 600g of Campo....right)\
1106 - 1,886g Campo Indiv (nice) - $300
1107 - 3,146g Canyon Diablo (fairly nondescript) - $1,300
1108 - 42.5lb Campo (good shape, no glypts - corroded) - missed price
1109 - 1,220 lb butt-ugly Campo - $19,000
1110 - 127 lb Canyon Diablo - Special Note
This iron looks great in the auction photo. It's not. The back of it
was...ruined somehow. It looks like the owner sandblasted the back
down to a quasi-3D widmanstatten surface, and then coated it in some
sort of plastic/sealant that tinged it all (only the backside, but the
entire backside) a nasty light-green hue, and gave it a smooth, shiny,
plastic-ey look and feel. I don't know what the hell s/he did to it,
but we decided ahead of time that we didn't want it, no matter the
cost.
That said - $18,000
1111 - 385g Slice of NWA 1941 L6 (the "blue" one Michael Farmer's been
selling) - $950 (!)
1112 - 34mm diameter NWA XXX Sphere (no weight given, listed as NWA
869, but not NWA 869) - $350
1113 - 1,994g NWA XXX Sphere (4in diameter, again listed as NWA 869,
but a different meteorite) - $1,800
1114 - 2.0g Murchison frag, no crust - $400 (!)
1115 - Arroyo Malo 75.1g - $500 (slightly less than $50/g)
1116 - Arroyo Malo 202.5g - $850 (again, somewhat less than $50/g)
1117 - Libyan Glass Pair (183g light + 77g dark) - missed the number,
at least $400
1118 - 1,451g Libyan Glass (numerous large chips) - $1,400
1119 - Collection of Six Lunar and Martian Meteorites - 0.05g to
0.054g in weight - $1,800 (...I estimate its value, based on the
specimens, their weights, and current market prices, at no more than
$300)
1120 - Set of Five Medals w/ Meteorites (Campo/869/482/2995/2986) - $275
1121 - 1.85g DaG 476 Slice - $950
1122 - 2.718g NWA 4880 Sherg. Indiv. (broken) - $4,500 (!)
1123 - 5.85g of LA002 - $9,000 (!)
1124 - 90.5g Shergottite Indiv - Special Note
This stone had a chip not pictured - just above and to the left of
what would be visible in the photographs posted in the auction.It was
a fresh chip - looked as though a curious nomad had knocked the corner
(unfortunately the leading edge) off of it. Go figure. My only
question regarding the stone was that the edge of the chip was painted
black. It was definitely some sort of paint; not only was it less
glossy and darker in colour than the rest of the stone, but...it
rubbed off. The only possible explanation we could come up with was
that it had been put on the stone so as to hide the edge of the chip
in the auction photograph. It is visible in the photograph just to
the left of the top of the stone as a thin edge of grey of a different
hue (slightly) than the rest of the stone, running about half-way down
that top-left side. It looks like a result of the lighting in the
photo, but it's definitely not that...
Very odd. - $30,000 - Pass
1125 - 1.3308g Dhofar 1428 Slice (Feldspathic IMB) - $1,600
1126 - 1.0064g DaG 400 Part-Slice (Anorthositic Breccia) - $1,400

So...nothing -too- surprising. The low end was the Udei, at $1.67/g,
and the high-end, well - a good few things. The bidders who went over
market tended not to be meteorite enthusiasts; I heard a phone-bidder
assuring her client that the $950 purchase of the $385g slice of NWA
1941 (L6) was a "very good deal." Granted, it was a nice slice, but
if you take the 20% commission and 8% tax into account for it (and all
other items), well...that Sikhote was nothing special, and it cost the
buyer close to $4/g...

It looked like the buyers generally went with what looked flashier or
more interesting. The Murchison was listed as a piece of a comet, and
the NWA 1941 was listed as the "Blue Galaxy Meteorite" - something
like that. The better the listing made things sound, the more they
fetched. Something like Udei, which looked particularly bad in their
case, which, in all fairness, didn't have adequate lighting for such a
specimen, attracted little-to-no attention from...anyone.

Regards,
Jason
Received on Sun 07 Dec 2008 07:17:18 PM PST