[meteorite-list] Meteorites, Value and the Media

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 23:40:05 +0100
Message-ID: <005901caa5ea$ffd50000$07b22959_at_name86d88d87e2>

Well, Richard,

Today I was in the streets of Munich.
Guess what I saw. Cars!

IMAGINE such a car can be worth THOUSANDS of $$$$ !!

Cars can cost a fortune!!


Don't be frustrated, indeed a reporter wants to have his story as
interesting as possible and as he has no knowledge about meteorites, he will
always choose the safe option: Money.

And for that purpose it simply doesn't work, if you tell him, that
meteorites are the same rare like quality diamonds, but that with a kg of
those meteorites, which are found by most, you can pay 1 steak & 1 drink at
a restaurant.

Hehe, my last interview was with the Financial Times Germany.
Was after the Danish fireball, before it was recovered.
I told theem, that it won't have any monetary value, because according the
Danish laws, it has to be given to the museum and can't be sold.
And that most probably nothing will be recovered, cause because of that,
quite nobody will search for the fall.
Told him a hundred times the usual price level for meteorites...

...and the result I could read in the end, was,
that I would have said,
if one could manage to bring that meteorite out of the country, it will have
a value of 20,000$ a gram !!!

I disagree, meteorite men don't have anything to do with that perception.
75% of all people writing and calling us, believing to have found a
meteorite, do have only one interest: How can I make money with it.

And these are normal people. Not like us here on the list.
"Normal" people don't have to do anything with meteorites all their life
long.
All they know about, is fantasy or stuff from movies.
So most of them are from the beginning on believing, that a meteorite must
be the most valuable thing on Earth and that with their find, they can buy a
villa with pool, a yacht and won't have to work anymore for the rest of
their life.
There I see no change during the last 10 years
and here in Europe we can't watch the meteorite men series.

And anyway. Meteorites are ways more cheap today then 10 years ago 30 years
ago, 70 years ago, 100 years ago.
How could we blame a Steve Arnold?
With their Brenham finds, what do we have to pay for Brenham today?
Ward, Nininger, Huss, Zeitschel - they asked a multiple for Brenham than one
has to pay today.

More truculent it is, when scientists are telling in media, that meteorites
would be worth a fortune - like it happened unfortunately so often in past.
Eeeeeeeek the treasure hunters will come, aaaaaargh sience can't compete
with private collecting nowadays, cause they made meteorites soooo
expensive, uuuuuuuuuuuh there is a black market for meteorite, where people
get billionaires....
You know, all that silly stuff, from those, who never look into web, how
cheap meteorites are or from those, who don't know the meteorite prices of
the last 200 years, neither the sums science had to spend in past or has to
spend for own projects to recover meteorites.

That is the major problem.
But I think, at least those scientists present on the list here
do know it better and won't tell such a rubbish in media.

Skol!
Martin






-----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht-----
Von: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] Im Auftrag von Richard
Kowalski
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 4. Februar 2010 22:21
An: meteorite list
Betreff: [meteorite-list] Meteorites, Value and the Media

Micheal,

I can understand your frustration with the media emphasizing the value of
meteorites and making that the focus of many articles and features about
meteorites. I've been a little disappointed myself with the focus of, I'll
mention it by name, Meteorite Men, in that the production company continues
to mention throughout the episodes how much meteorites are worth. I don't
blame Geoff or Steve for this. I'm sure they have emphasized more than just
their value to the crew...

Let's really be honest though. Meteorites ARE valuable and have been for a
much longer time than Geoff and Steve have been involved in TV... Much
longer than the time since Bob Haag sold his first stone and much, much
longer than since Nininger was a child. Man has always placed a high value
on these stones falling from the sky; Gifts from the gods...

As someone who has dealt with the media for over a decade myself, trying to
convey scientific information, I long ago realized they have there own
agenda. They already have the story and the slant they want to write about
in place long before they contact you for the details to flesh out the
article or TV segment. You are not going to change that, ever...

I've spent untold hours explaining facts and details, only to have the same
reporter contact me again and again asking about the same things for a
second or third time. Guess what? They still get it wrong. I've got a few
reporters I will no longer give the time of day to due to the amount of my
time they've wasted and others whom I expect to get the facts close, but
rarely the whole cigar...

While I agree with you that it would be great if these stories would focus
more on the science, the beauty, the mystery of meteorites,
highly-weathered, ordinary chondrites that are only worth a few cents per
gram that almost anyone can afford to buy and collect are not what the
reporter has in mind when he or she thinks of meteorites and neither do
their readers, listeners or watchers... Its a meteorite, a gift from the
gods... It MUST be hugely valuable or They wouldn't have given it to us...

Nothing you say or do is going to change that attitude any time soon.

--
Richard Kowalski
Full Moon Photography
IMCA #1081
      
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Received on Thu 04 Feb 2010 05:40:05 PM PST