[meteorite-list] Lunar meteorites selling for peanuts

From: Bigjohn Shea <bigjohnshea_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 30 May 2015 15:41:48 +0200
Message-ID: <trinity-c7270660-4745-42c3-aace-8f226f752571-1432993307594_at_3capp-mailcom-lxa14>

It is true that rare things will always be rare and will be priced accordingly, and for that reason you may be entirely right Michael that it can be simply supply and demand. ?Personally though, I think "supply and demand" is too simple a concept for collectible items. ?What I mean is,?I wonder how much of this shift in price might be due to the recent strength of the dollar?
?
In case someone is not following:
An example of this is what is happening in the antique Japanese sword market. ?The value of the yen relative to the dollar is 120 to 1 currently. ?Which is different than it was about a year ago when the dollar was weaker, and the value was perhaps 100 to 1. ?Japanese swords in Japan that were selling for 100,000 yen last year (1000 dollars) are not currently worth 120,000 yen in Japan. ?They are still only worth 100,000 yen. ?In other words, the value of a sword does not go up simply because a foreign currency became stronger. ?However, because the dollar is stronger now, you can get a better sword out of Japan for the same price in dollars as you would have paid for a lesser sword last year. ?In other words, 1000 dollars today (120,000 yen) buys you a more valuable sword than it did last year simply because the dollar got stronger.
?
Now consider a sword that an American sword merchant/collector bought from Japan last year for 1000 dollars (100,000 yen) and is now here in America. ?It is still worth 1000 dollars here, but now that you can buy a 120,000 yen sword for 1000 dollars, (and those swords are plenty available in Japan) why would someone buy a sword valued at 100,000 yen for 1000 dollars here in America, when they can get a "better" sword (valued at 120,000 yen) from Japan for the same 1000 dollars?
?
This same type of scenario can be true in for rare books, meteorites etc. etc. ?If, for example, Mike Meteorite Merchant bought a 10,000 dollar 1000g Lunar mass from Morocco last year when the dollar was weaker, now that the dollar is stronger the same 1000g Lunar mass might only cost 8,000 dollars from a merchant in Morocco. ?That devalues Mike's meteorite. ?If he wants to sell bits and pieces of it, he has to sell it for similar value as what the newer cheaper specimens are selling for.
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Can I say for sure that the stronger dollar we currently have accounts for the lower sales price of planetary specimens? ?No. ?But it can happen. ?It is happening now in the Japanese sword market. ?Most assuredly...
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Cheers,
John
IMCA 3295
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Sent:?Friday, May 29, 2015 at 5:13 PM
From:?"Galactic Stone & Ironworks via Meteorite-list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
To:?"Shawn Alan" <shawnalan at meteoritefalls.com>
Cc:?"Meteorite Central" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Subject:?Re: [meteorite-list] Lunar meteorites selling for peanuts
Hi Shawn,

I think most of what we are seeing is supply and demand at work. As
time goes on, more and more planetaries are coming out of the hot
deserts, especially the NWA DCA. In recent months, we have seen over
a dozen new planetaries (including several lunars) that have been
approved in the Met Bulletin.

New collectors are coming in to the hobby on a regular basis, but the
supply of planetaries available to these collectors has stayed steady
or increased. Old offerings are absorbed into collections and vanish
from the open market, but they are replaced with numerous new
offerings that are being sold by an ever-increasing number of dealers.

In the past, the majority of planetaries were held by a
relatively-small group of veteran dealers. Now, there are many
middle/moderate-size dealers who are offering lunars and Martians.

In order to be competitive, dealers need to better control the
supply/market (not likely) or lower prices to attract buyers to these
new planetaries - many of which are not that remarkable in comparison
to previous offerings. For every new Nakhlite or Black Beauty, there
are a dozen "new" (sometimes unpaired) shergottites hitting the
market.

I won't mention names, but there are a couple of big collector/dealers
who are buying up multiple planetary masses in recent years and the
majority of that material does not appear to have hit the open market
yet. If that material is ever released into the market, it would
depress the asking prices even further.

Best regards,

MikeG

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On 5/29/15, Shawn Alan via Meteorite-list
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
> Hello Listers
>
> I am starting to see a trend with Lunar and Martian meteorites, but
> especial with Lunar's. Some can be had for $300 per gram or less, or
> some times on ebay you can get a steal on some of the 1g plus sizes for
> less then $400 a gram. But again at the sub gram leave the price is
> still in the high $500 to $800 per gram which is expected at that size.
>
> My question is, is there new product on the market or has planataries
> shifted in value?
>
> Shawn Alan
> IMCA 1633
> ebay store http://www.ebay.com/sch/imca1633ny/m.html[http://www.ebay.com/sch/imca1633ny/m.html]
> Website http://meteoritefalls.com[http://meteoritefalls.com]
>
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Received on Sat 30 May 2015 09:41:48 AM PDT