[meteorite-list] Retail & Auction Price Guides

From: mail at mhmeteorites.com <mail_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:45:39 +0000
Message-ID: <2025715631-1298666739-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-627680975-_at_bda686.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

Hi Richard
I believe that price guides, at least with collectibles, give a false sense of market value. Believe me I would love to get 20/g out of my 350g Homestead, but because there are so many factors that determine a meteorites value (maybe many more factors than any collectible), I know that 20/g will not be paid for such a piece by the small collector pool that exists. Yet 20/g for Homestead, in small slices, is attainable. Any guide would need to distinguish pricing based on a number of factors that you already pointed out. This would be nearly impossible for a beginning collector to comprehend.

Kevin's book on collecting meteorites is a great intro for the beginning collector. A price guide would muddy the waters IMO. Rely on your own searches to figure out pricing, and as you know, the knowledge will come from that search.

500/g lunar? I have some. :)

Best wishes,
Matt
------------------------
Matt Morgan
Mile High Meteorites
http://www.mhmeteorites.com
P.O. Box 151293
Lakewood, CO 80215

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Kowalski <damoclid at yahoo.com>
Sender: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 12:22:14
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Retail & Auction Price Guides

--- On Fri, 2/25/11, mail at mhmeteorites.com <mail at mhmeteorites.com> wrote:

> Hi Richard
> Seems we just completely disagree.? I won't reiterate
> my points again, but we have survived in this hobby for
> several decades since the first large dealers began without
> a price guide and survived quite well. If there is a place
> for a guide then why hasn't one stuck over that time period?
> There have been several attempts before Kevin, with no
> success.? Again the collecting market can determine the
> need for a guide.

Matt
Something I can't answer. I could guess that part of the reason could be that so few dealers and more importantly so few COLLECTORS existed during those times. Things are changing a bit. We all know about the popular TV show and love or hate the hosts, there is no doubt they are bringing fresh faces and cash into the collector market. Many of these newbies will be looking for something to guide them on what to pay. A historic volume, say every lot and price realized would be of historical interest as are the posts here of what long time collectors paid for material before I was a teenager, so lists of Nininger prices or Ward's. I guess I don't see anywhere near as much downside as you do but that's fine.


>
> Why not do your own pricing? Kevin admits he doesn't use
> auctions ad doesn't know what the dealers SOLD items
> for.? To me a guide like that is not useful. REALIZED
> prices may be ok, but good luck getting those data from
> dealers.
>
>
> Matt


I'm in agreement with you here. Anyone can surf websites to get general prices. In coin terms and maybe elsewhere that is the "Buy" price. What the material typically is purchase by a dealer from a collector is the "Bid" price. Since this market is so thin, I tend to agree with you that dealers may not be willing to share too much information, but that shouldn't be a reason not to try (again).

As for your suggestion about doing my own pricing, for appropriate material I certainly do do this. For instance, when I was buying Lunars for my collection, I plotted weight vs price per gram realized. Did you know a certain lunar can be had retail at ~$500 per gram in a certain size range all day long? At least it could be had for that when I was buying. I'm keeping that information to myself, so don't ask, but I know there are more like this out there.

Like that esoteric coin segment I mentioned in my first post, there are amazing deals to be had for the collector. I think a guide might be a big help to the community, and especially for the newest members who have just gotten that spark.

Cheers

--
Richard Kowalski
Full Moon Photography
IMCA #1081
      
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Received on Fri 25 Feb 2011 03:45:39 PM PST