[meteorite-list] For the record - I do not buy unsolicitedmeteorites from...

From: Impactika at aol.com <Impactika_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:55:21 EDT
Message-ID: <11eac1.766b6839.3998b119_at_aol.com>

Hello,
 
You are certainly right Al.
I do remember all the discussions about Zulu Queen and Andover, two
extremely rare meteorites that are now questionable because an unethical person
sold some and then refused to tell his source, then lied about it. So we don't
know if they were the real stuff or similar NWAs, it is very difficult to
tell when you are looking at tiny fragments. And they were several other very
rare, very expensive meteorites involved. And Yes, he is still around.
 
All newcomers really should check the archives.
Or ask the old-timers.
 
Anne M. Black
_http://www.impactika.com/_ (http://www.impactika.com/)
_IMPACTIKA at aol.com_ (mailto:IMPACTIKA at aol.com)
Vice-President, I.M.C.A. Inc.
_http://www.imca.cc/_ (http://www.imca.cc/)
 
 
 
In a message dated 8/14/2010 2:49:32 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
almitt at kconline.com writes:
Hi Mike and all,

The problem we have today in collecting is the few dishonest
collectors/dealers who purposely sell items they know aren't the real
McCoy.
It gets sold to Tom, or Steve and they sell it or trade it and it ends up
in
another collection and then maybe a few years later, they trade for a
larger
specimen and so the fraud piece then ends up in someone else's collection,
maybe a nice person who would never do anything wrong but not knowing they
have a NWA and not some historical piece they thought they bought.

I too buy from reliable sources (always have and always will) or have got
my
material from museum trades and so forth. I think with the unreasonable
perception of meteorite value, we're going to have a lot of bad items
floating around with people trying to sell them.

There are some less than experienced new collectors out there that buy in
good faith. Most deals are solid but if they don't know who the bad guys
are
then they may buy material that is misrepresented. Buy from dealers who
have
been around for a while or an IMCA dealer.

Do some research on the meteorite list in the search archives spot. Type in
misrepresented meteorite, fraud, arrrest, judgement or something like
Caveat
Emptor. You'll find out some useful information.

--AL Mitterling
Received on Sat 14 Aug 2010 10:55:21 PM PDT