[meteorite-list] Meteorites Money Morocco

From: Gary Fujihara <fujmon_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:01:45 -1000
Message-ID: <C9AB0F84-B8C0-437A-A543-150FCE8F64F2_at_mac.com>

Well stated Martin, and I am in complete agreement. All my dealings
with Moroccans have been mutually favorable, and I am appreciative of
the service they provide to meteoritics - both collectors and research
scientists.

Mistakes can be made - we are human, but when misidentification
happens, the Moroccans have been most accommodating to either take
back material, or credit the difference. I have not done business
with anyone who has deliberately misrepresented material to me in
Morocco, and that?s more than can be said of at least one dealer in
the US.

gary

On Nov 13, 2009, at 11:54 AM, Martin Altmann wrote:

> Good Evening,
>
> maybe I should tell our experiences with our Moroccan colleagues,
> as NWA is our main field of our occupation and Stefan was in Morocco
> from
> beginning on of the NWA-period.
> Because some of the assertions made here are in our eyes not
> acceptable.
>
> First of all we all have to bring to our minds to whome all this
> wealth of
> new meteorites that we have today is due to.
> I'm old enough to remember the days before the NWA-rush, where
> dealers,
> collectors and scientists traded forth and back always the same few
> stones.
> Nowadays we got in roughly 10 years more new meteorites than 40
> years of
> Antarctic hunts will yield, we have all the rare types, where we
> could only
> dream of the hundred years before. And we have them at prices, that
> finally
> each and every collector can take part in that fascinating world.
> We got from Morocco stones, of which no scientist could divine, that
> something like that could exist at all.
> NWA was the historical boost for science, for the collectors and
> partially
> also for the meteorite trade.
>
> And who made this all possible?
>
> The Moroccan people and the people of Maghreb. Full stop.
>
>
> We hear here on the list so often rants and words of haughtiness
> about the
> Moroccan dealers, hunters, colleagues, experts.
> What I never will understand, how people could speak so bad about
> them;
> people, who built up their wealth and their reputation, they pride
> themselves today, with the stones the Moroccans delivered to them.
>
> Why they then weren't going searching for meteorites by their own in
> the
> deserts, if their business partners were so lousy as they tell?
> Ask the US-hunters, ask the Oman-hunters, how many stones you have
> to pick
> up, until you have a mediocre eucrite or a CV3, those stones, we all
> take
> for granted.
>
> The people in Sahara are doing an incredible job.
>
> Yes of course, there are also black sheeps in Morocco - but those we
> do have
> also among the Western dealers.
> And of course down there is simply not the infrastructure, that one
> would
> get each stone perfectly and readily classified and that the weights
> and the
> find data would be known.
> But that is a hundred times balanced, by the often lower prices
> there and by
> the circumstance that one gets there such great stones at all!
> Of course it can be here and there risky for a private collector,
> because
> they often can't know the dealer yet, but why shall professional
> dealers
> complain about the Moroccans? It is plain & simply part of their
> job, to
> recognize the stones there, to recognize pairings, to buy them in
> Morocco
> and to bring them to classification. If they don't want to do that,
> then
> they shall sell classic and historic meteorites.
>
> And some of the recent posts here on the list ignore the positive
> developments, the Moroccans made. First of all you find a lot of true
> experts there, who know their stones very well. Partially they
> started to
> send samples to classification. Note also, that we started to
> integrate the
> Moroccans into IMCA.
>
> And that sweeping blow, condemning all Moroccans - we can't confirm
> that
> perspective in no way.
> Our experience is rather, that our partners, if a stone turns out to
> be a
> pratfall, often are exerted to limit the damage, in taking back
> stones or in
> balancing it with the next deal.
>
> And why?
>
> Because there exist a very simple rule. Not only for Morocco, but
> for life:
>
> Treat your partner with respect and fairness
> and he will treat you the same way too.
>
>
> Our opinion.
> Good night!
> Martin
>
>
>
>
>
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Gary Fujihara
AstroDay Institute
105 Puhili Place, Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 640-9161, fujmon at mac.com
http://astroday.net
Received on Fri 13 Nov 2009 07:01:45 PM PST