[meteorite-list] The future market for meteorites

From: E.P. Grondine <epgrondine_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:47:11 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <328548.20529.qm_at_web36905.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi all -

Just some musings here, nothing written in stone -

We saw a price drop when the expansion of
infrastructure made it possible to hunt both NWA and
the US SW deserts, which brought much to material to
the market. My thinking is that future desert hunting
in Mongolia, China, and South America may bring yet
more material to the meteorite market.

But what is the meteorite market composed of? One part
is scientific demand, another educational (museum)
demand, and the part that the predominates list
discussion, personal demand. Naturally, the more
multi-millionaires and wealthy people who you have
collecting meteorites, the more personal demand there
will be. But multi-millionaires and the wealthy are
still simply part of the public, so the wider public
knowledge is about meteorites, the higher personal
demand for specimens will be.

While the list discussion focuses on meteoritic
details, in terms of the overall personal market my
guess is that it is simply the basics and some
reliability in this market (the IMCA) which play a
large role in total personal demand. My guess is that
you could track the sales of Norton's "Rocks from
Space" to gain some idea of the general public
knowledge of meteorites.

Perhaps increased museum sales of inexpensive piece
may be a leader to a larger total personal market.
Perhaps educational sets prepared for young people's
teachers and schools will lead to a larger total
personal market.

While engineering constraints rule out the idea of
simply going to some asteroid and bringing back
samples, future scientific probes to asteroids and
comets may also further public awareness and
understanding of meteorites, and thus lead to higher
demand in all market sectors. Both scientific and
museum demand are dependent on governmental spending,
the general economy, and so forth...

Finally, good dealers are good dealers, and I'd like
to say "hi y'all". Yes, they always do bring something
to the recovered meteorites, and that something
usually includes preparation, packaging, and
background studies which they make public, and their
own catalogs and handbooks. Their histories of fair
dealings and hard work are the base of their
reputations.

Closing off this note, I'd like to once again ask the
dealers who are preparing martians and lunars to
please keep their cutting dust - that dust can really
bring smiles to children's faces. I don't what kind of
price you'd want to put on those smiles.

good hunting all,
E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas
 






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Received on Tue 25 Mar 2008 08:47:11 PM PDT