[meteorite-list] Rob Matson's Chelyabinsk Market Data

From: Kevin Kichinka <marsrox_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 19:55:56 -0600
Message-ID: <CANDn_7EobA5e27Ow_apLY4CRTgz=bNWePoVwaWX-cX3or4mDtQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Team Meteorite:


This excellent work contributed by Rob confirms an historic trend
regarding meteorite pricing that is indicative of the overall
financial nature of collecting new falls.


Some will always pay the most to get the first available specimens of a fall.


Others will wait until the market is sated and grab pieces at the
lowest price. This could even be a dealer's own special specimen that
he'll sell to recover capital for the next 'big thing'.


Those of us that worried that little would be recovered from this fall
paid US$60-80/gm for the first marketed specimens. Moreover, the
price/gm was bumped by an unusual long lag time before the first
fragments surfaced on the market.


Additionally, due to the source country, others eager to purchase may
have been dubious of the authenticity of these first offerings adding
to the allure.


Factors in these buyers purchase decisions were valid at that moment.


Certainly, these first offered pieces would be the freshest (W=0).
Some dreamed that they would be the only ones ever found of an
incredibly publicized and therefore historic fall. Maybe they would be
a C1 or Mars or Lunar or fragments from Pluto or Mercury or Earth
itself.


But patient collectors have been rewarded by an ever lower 'ask
price'. It's 'just' an LL5. We all roll the dice and hope for
'sevens'. That's the nature of falls.


But now we learn that Chely has special sauces such that a careful
collector will not only want 100% crusted indis, a nice slice, a thin
section, but will seek out an alternate lithology.


Wow. Somewhere on an 'importance scale' between Allende and Campo lies
this little babushka.


And it's Russian. With no apologies to Lenin or Stalin or Putin, it's
"The People's Meteorite". It's locally for sale for cash. That's so
stellar sweet in a 'shock stage S4' capitalistic way.


Related to my next edition (2015) of "The Global Meteorite Price
Report" I have an active contest ending December, 2014 with
contestants guessing the 'average dealer price' of this met at that
time. I have a long list of contestants. There are prizes :>)


But I must admit- already begging your future indulgence- that
determining the 'average dealer price' for a gram of Chely will
probably be more subjective than I ever imagined...


Kevin Kichinka
MARSROX at gmail.com
www.theartofcollectingmeteorites.com
The Global Meteorite Price Report - 2013
Rio de Oro, Santa Ana, Costa Rica
Received on Thu 29 Aug 2013 09:55:56 PM PDT