[meteorite-list] The Trials and Tribulations in Dealing with Landowners

From: Michael Gilmer <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:18:55 -0500
Message-ID: <AANLkTin1fyio4TW13DGTkHENHAzC0k23LKHVYeOOiVMx_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Folks,

Some very good points were raised here. And as silly as it sounds,
Phil is right on the money (no pun intended). Send a few of those
mounted "palladots" to the Kardashians and some other high-profile
socialites and you might create a market for them.

Celestial origin or not, they are peridot. The vast majority of
laypeople are not aware of the difference in origins and many just
don't care. The difference is in marketing and with the economy being
terrible right now, it's not a good time to start marketing a
high-end, niche collectible. So it's definitely an uphill climb to
market something in the 1-2ct range for thousands of dollars.

Peridot is found in all pallasites, and the quality varies greatly.
I've had a large 1g peridot crystal that came out of a piece of
Pallasovka. It was stunning. It had very few fractures or
inclusions. The clarity was outstanding. I sold it for $20. This
was about 3 years ago and now I kick myself, because if marketed in a
manner similar to palladot, it would be worth $5000-$25000 dollars.
My buyer got a huge bargain. In hindsight, if I had priced it at
$1k/ct, I'd still have it because the majority of my customer base is
not in the market for multi-thousand dollar gemstones.

If I am a landowner, and someone approaches me with an offer like the
one being discussed here, my first request as a potential investor
would be to see a prospectus with past market performance of such
materials. Without any previous market presence, one can arbitrarily
slap any value on a given item. So I do place some blame on the
landowners for their predicament, because they readily let greed get
the best of them and signed away their ownership of these specimens to
someone who came knocking on their door with a good sales pitch. If
someone knocks on my front door and offers to sell me a $20,000 vacuum
cleaner, and I buy it - who is to blame?

On the other hand, Mike Antonelli nailed it - when in doubt, the
landowner is right. This is where a lesson from retail salesmanship
should be applied - the customer is always right. In this case, the
customer is the landowner (in a sense), and you want to keep those
people happy at almost all costs. So don't make promises you will
have difficulty keeping.

All meteorite hunters are ambassadors for our field/hobby, and they
must be very careful with how they are perceived. Sometimes the finer
details are not as important as perceptions, and in this case, there
are some strongly negative perceptions in place. Filing a lawsuit and
following through with it is a big PITA and is not undertaken lightly.
 There is bad blood in the Brenham area and the next crop of meteorite
hunters who go knocking on doors in Kansas are likely to be turned
away empty-handed - unless the perceptions change.

Well, at any rate, it makes me glad that my hunting is done from the
confines of an arm-chair. ;)

Best regards,

MikeG

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Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites

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On 2/21/11, MIke Antonelli <mfrancis66 at verizon.net> wrote:
> Please folks, isnt the REAL issue here simply the way some deal with
> landowners? I really don't blame these landowners at all for feeling
> slighted. I mean, we have to be reasonable, cautious, and even conservative,
> when it comes to discussing what the landowners will receive if something
> good is found on their property. Planting visions of big money certainly is
> a questionable tactic, and only paves the way for circumstances such as this
> to arise. Its a slippery slope we find ourselves on these days, dealing with
> landowners, and we, as meteorite hunters, need to recognize the fact that if
> not for cooperating landowners, we would likely be doing something else all
> together. The landowner's satisfaction should come first and foremost, after
> all, they own the property, and are at a certain risk just allowing us onto
> their land. A classic case of a dog biting the hand that feeds him. I do
> understand the (unforeseen?) problems that can unfold, such as lack of
> a market, and so forth, this, moreover lends to the idea of approaching
> with conservative caution, not promises of big money and vacation homes. We
> also need to realize that what we do out there in the field, as well as at
> the market place, reflects on ALL meteorite hunters, and WE NEED TO ACT
> ACCORDINGLY!!!!!!!! This situation needs to be FIXED!!!!!! --Mike A.
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Received on Mon 21 Feb 2011 10:18:55 AM PST