[meteorite-list] Sutters Mill - mass and stone count

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 2 May 2012 13:46:54 +0200
Message-ID: <001201cd2859$4602a030$d207e090$_at_de>

Yep Count, Sodom & Gomorrah.

No.
Old men say, benchmark won't be that fall, benchmark was already Tagish
Lake.
Had arrived then at a before totally unseen and strange price.
It happened after Tagish, that more and more observed falls were priced in a
way, which nobody believed to be possible. From Neuschwanstein to Soltmany.
Don't forget that it's - still - a regional phenomenon. Hold a Mifflin
against a Buzzard. Mainly afflicting US- and European falls. (O.k. we all
had bad luck, that that hammers-hysteria became a fashion, additionally
driving prices).
Alas, still you get the North African falls at prices, you never got any
observed stone fall throughout the 200 years lasting history of meteoritics
(with perhaps the exceptions of Alfianello, Allende, Gao-Guenie in the years
after their fall).
And old men say,
that the very most meteorites, rarest, rare and common types, - the desert
finds - are still remarkably cheaper than equivalent meteorites were in the
1990s. (Not to mention the 19th an most of the 20th century).

Kommercialization Kitty jumps every 10 years out of the bag.
(Huh, some weeks ago I read the catalogue of Partsch, giving the origins of
the specimens of the early Vienna collection. Quite all was either directly
or indirectly (swaps,donations) purchased from field, finders, dealers).
So does the popularization poodle. When did meteorites get a broader
attention? Started already in the 1980s.
And then to a huge extend in the 1990s with the new media.
Nevertheless what happened....

The revolting development happened in the 1st decade of the 2000s.
Large amounts of new meteorites. Remarkable numbers of new rare finds.
Complete price crash.
Now we rather observe (of course with a few excesses) the return to
normality.

Hence no end of collecting.
Il diavolo non ? brutto quanto lo si dipinge ;-)

The finds will get sparser, the collection specimens will get smaller.

Nevertheless, believe me, it prepossesses myself with zero grain of
satisfaction,
that the prediction I and others years ago were ridiculed, came so fast
true.

Well, maybe another upside...
Perhaps now meteorites in general won't be taken so much anymore for common
commodities, for home decoration or something like Swiss cheese,
but more appreciated as the rarest matter on Earth and samples of celestial
bodies, inaccessible to mankind.

Ciao,
Martin

PS: As always I could go wrong too...

 

-----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht-----
Von: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] Im Auftrag von Count
Deiro
Gesendet: Dienstag, 1. Mai 2012 18:36
An: Randy Korotev; meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] Sutters Mill - mass and stone count

Hi Listees,

Well. Now one can see the effect of the popularization of meteorites,
through their exposure in the mass media, on the general public. $4,000 a
gram for an unclassified carbonaceous chondrite! I was asked yesterday to
pay, what computed to be $3,000 a gram, for some Cali driveway crumbs. I
wouldn't legitimize them by calling them "frags". And I have news for
you....one of our best known "johnny on the spot" hunter/collectors forked
over $22,000 for a, less than 20 gram, broken piece!

Yes, friends. You have just seen the end of an era in the collection and
valuation of meteorites. This fall will go down, as Ruben said so
presciently on national TV, as the most important fall in the history of the
United States. Why? Because never again will we be allowed, almost
unfettered access to public and private lands, nor will we be able to
purchase, even fragments, for any sane amount of money. The proverbial cat
is out of the bag. The "publik" will never let it be put back in again.

But, there is an upside to this "revoltin development" (William Bendix - The
Life of Riley- 1952). Just think of how much our collections just increased
in value. :0)

Best to all,

Count Deiro
IMCA 3536
Received on Wed 02 May 2012 07:46:54 AM PDT