[meteorite-list] New BLM Rules

From: Anne Black <impactika_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:00:00 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <8CF664AD07543A0-1EB4-5AD2_at_webmail-d068.sysops.aol.com>

" The opening bid is $180,000, or almost $1000 per gram, for a 1815g
stone. "

$180,000 divided by 1815g = $99.17 a gram

Anne M. Black
www.IMPACTIKA.com
IMPACTIKA at aol.com
Vice-President of IMCA
www.IMCA.cc


-----Original Message-----
From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
To: Jim Wooddell <jimwooddell at gmail.com>
Cc: Meteorite List <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Fri, Sep 21, 2012 1:36 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] New BLM Rules


Hi Jim and List,

I think your estimate of 50 professional meteorite hunters in the USA
is very generous. I would wager it's even less. The majority of the
professional hunters are members of this List. Granted, not all of
them post regularly, but the major hunters are well-known. I can
count them on two hands and have a couple fingers left over.

I guess one could define "professional meteorite hunter" as someone
who files taxes and lists their profession on the forms as such. How
many people actually earn a sustainable living solely from hunting and
finding meteorites? Maybe a dozen.

Someone who goes out into the field for the purpose of finding
meteorites, and finds some, and then sells a few is not necessarily a
commercial or professional hunter. Just because somebody sells the
occasional specimen on eBay does not mean they are making a profit,
nor does it mean they are a commercial vendor in the commonly-accepted
definition of the term.

The bonafide pro meteorite hunters reading this can testify that
making a profit is hit and miss at best. Most of the time these
hunters go out into the field, spend a ton of money in expenses, and
come home empty-handed. I know a few people who flew out to Sutter's
Mill and spent weeks beating the bush and they didn't find a single
fragment. If they find a small frag on the last day of hunting and
sell it, does that make that person a professional hunter? Even if
they lost thousands of dollars in expenses on the trip and don't sell
another find for years or more?

This new regulation is not needed. This is hitting a gnat with a
sledgehammer, or shooting a rabbit with a bazooka. The government
(fed, state, or local) should always err on the side of refraining
from new legislation. Of course, as we know, governments rarely do
that. The cat is out the bag about the value of meteorites, and the
government has tunnel vision - all the bureaucrats are hearing are
things like :

"A thousand dollars per gram..."

"Million dollar meteorite..."

And that is all the government cares about. It is up to the meteorite
community to stand up and educate them about the truth of the matter -
sure, there are meteorites that are "worth" a million dollars or more.
 But how many have ever sold for any price approaching that extreme?
Take the recent offer of the NWA 5000 main mass for example. It's a
staggering specimen of unequaled girth, aesthetics, and importance.
It's a moon rock the size of a soccerball for crying out loud. Of
course it's "worth" more than a million dollars and maybe 10 million
or more. But, will it ever sell for that amount of money? Most
likely not. I'm sure Adam and Greg wouldn't mind if it did, and I
wish them the best of luck with it, but I'll get hit in the head with
a new Martian hammer fall before someone will pay $10 million for a
meteorite.

Take the recent media story about the $380,000 lunar meteorite (DaG
1058) for sale at Heritage. The opening bid is $180,000, or almost
$1000 per gram, for a 1815g stone. When is the last time someone paid
a per-gram price like that for a stone of that size? The unwritten
rule of the meteorite market is - the smaller the specimen, the bigger
the per-gram price is. Conversely, the bigger the specimen, the
smaller the per-gram price is. Has any professional dealer reading
this ever sold a lunar larger than 1000g for $1000 per gram? I doubt
it.
Received on Fri 21 Sep 2012 04:00:00 PM PDT