[meteorite-list] Lloydminster woman cashing in on meteorite sales

From: Meteorites USA <eric_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 20:18:07 -0700
Message-ID: <4A20A56F.2010905_at_meteoritesusa.com>

Meteorites sell, they really do...

"They were like, 'Oh my gosh, you could sell these.'"

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Lloydminster woman cashing in on meteorite sales
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Months after a fireball soared through western Canadian skies and
crashed to the ground, fragments from the meteor are red-hot sellers on
the internet.

Tara Patmore, who lives in Lloydminster, a city on the
Alberta-Saskatchewan border, was among dozens of people out looking for
space rocks after the meteor scattered fragments around Buzzard Coulee,
Sask., on Nov. 20.

Her father phoned her to say rocks had fallen where he lived, about 30
kilometres southeast of Lloydminster, and soon she and her family were
on a meteorite-hunting expedition.

It turned out a record number of meteor pieces had fallen on the area.

"Just me, my husband and my kids, we found 21 pieces," she said.

"It kind of almost looks like black coal. Some of them also have, like
chips broken off from falling to the earth, and on the inside they
almost look like concrete."

Patmore put pictures of her meteorites on a Facebook page, to the
amazement of her friends. "They were like, 'Oh my gosh, you could sell
these.'"

So, she did, selling them online. Before long, the offers started coming.

"One of the rocks was a little smaller than a toonie and we sold it for
800 bucks," she said. "I couldn't believe that people would pay that
much for a rock... [but] If they're going to pay it, I'm going to take it."

Patmore's mother and father donated dozens of the space rocks to the
University of Calgary. More rocks will be donated to a university that's
still to be determined. Other rocks, the family will keep.

Patmore said that after the money is spent, she'll still have a lot of
memories of her adventures in the meteorite fields.

SOURCE:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2009/05/29/space-rocks-sales.html

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-- 
Regards,
Eric Wichman
Meteorites USA
http://www.meteoritesusa.com
904-236-5394

Received on Fri 29 May 2009 11:18:07 PM PDT