[meteorite-list] Blaine Reed Tucson Notes & AD

[MARK BOSTICK]

Blaine Reed is not part of the meteorite list so I am sending this along for 
him.

You can join his e-mail group by going to Yahoo.

Mark



brmeteorites_list-owner at yahoogroups.com


>Dear Collectors,

>

>	I am finally back from Tucson (comments on the show below) and

>unpacked enough to offer some of what I brought back now (my next few

>offerings are likely to be such stuff). Many of these items are

>consignments left with me at the show. As the owners of the largest

>pieces want either their money or the items returned, I likely will be

>offering these first (I would much rather sell them than have to pay

>expensive registered return postage), but I will be offering more

>smaller and affordable items later on (many of these need preparation

>work that I have not had time for anyway).

>

>Notes on the show:

>

>I have had quite a few people call and ask how things went. To be

>honest, in a word it was slow. In two words it was very slow. There

>were not many buyers wandering the show this year and many dealers

>suffered for it. I managed to do fairly well none the less (but down

>quite a bit from last year). What I am VERY concerned about is an

>increasing development the past few years in the actions of the

>meteorite collecting public.

>

>  The  show in general has been noticeably slowing the past few years.

>This is probably due to many factors such as cost (every thing gets

>more expensive in Tucson each year), increased time needed to see the

>people you need to see (as many dealers leave early and others show up

>late, almost 8 or 10 days is needed to be sure everybody you need to

>see will actually be there) and the internet (many of the large chain

>stores no longer buy at the shows, but have arranged supply contracts

>through internet connections now).

>

>  I had been quite smug for the past years of this decline as we had a

>close knit community in meteorites that seemed to defy these problems.

>  Collectors would come to the show for several days, visit dealers, go

>to parties and to auctions. Everything seemed to complement each

>other. Now I am seeing the rapid unraveling of this once neat social

>fabric.

>

>I had originally assumed that not many collectors showed up this year

>  (I had maybe 35 meteorite people come to my room this year – I even

>had trouble giving out all of my special Tucson wine glasses this

>year). I was quickly shown how wrong I was when we attempted to attend

>the "Meteorite Mayhem" party of Steve Arnold and Geoff Notkin. We

>arrived late due to circumstances (business). The security guard would

>not let us in, as the bar was "over capacity". We waited as several

>people left, but he would still not allow us in. An attempt at bribery

>(alas, poor George just doesn't have the negotiating power he once

>did) and we were told to beat – it. Before leaving I looked in the

>windows to see many dozens (possible a couple hundred) of people that

>had, at one time been my customers that I had not seen in many years.

>Clearly there is a problem on my end.

>

>What I am finding from the few I have been able to talk with is that

>most collectors have now become completely focused on the auctions

>only. Most fly in Friday night, go to Lang's auction on Saturday and

>go to Blood's Saturday night (and often don't get out until well after

>midnight) and fly home Sunday morning. I do understand that for many,

>they are unable to take the extra vacation days to visit the show.

>

>I have been trying to formulate some kind of answer as to how I can

>become relevant to the visiting collectors once more. This is a

>difficult thing to do when facing something like auctions that seem to

>work on the same powerful emotional areas as gambling in the human

>brain. I have had a few ideas such as;

>

>1) Maybe moving to Inn Suites to be a little easier for those already

>visiting the dealers there to find me (though I don't think many of

>the dealers there had huge amounts of visitors either).

>2) Starting one of my own auctions (Alan once told me this is why he

>started his – to get collectors to at least come to his room and see

>what else he has to offer ), though I have no idea when I could hold

>such an event that wouldn't interfere with the already existing ones

>(which would end up being a detriment to all of us). 3)  Setting aside most 

>of my really special or unique items (commonly

>available stuff generally does poorly at auction) during the year and

>consign them to one of the existing auctions (not a bad idea actually,

>but then I would not have these neat items available during the year).

>The plus of this one is that it could eventually save me huge amounts

>of money (if I do end up shutting down my Tucson show room that is,

>then I would only have to be in town for a few days to do some buying

>and let the auctions do the selling).

>4) I am trying to convince Steve and Geoff to allow us dealers to each

>set up a small display table (no need to haul in a bunch of

>Sikhote-Alins, NWA 869's and other common stuff – just the true

>collector oriented special items) at their party. This would actually

>be quite fun and allow us to show the visiting collectors our special

>new stuff (and might be of benefit to them as well. I heard that

>Weston sold for $1600/g at the auctions. I had some in my room for

>around $100/g – don't ask, it is long gone).

>

>Any comments from all of you would be helpful in my decisions. I have

>re-signed for my same room next year, so no major changes will happen

>next year. Though I suspect that, with Darryl bringing his auction

>back next Tucson, I will be forced into some pretty hard choices the

>year after.

>

>Any way, enough of all of that, here are some really nice items to

>consider:

>

>ALLENDE, Mexico: (CV3.2). Fell Feb 8, 1969.

>Here are a couple fantastic complete slices. These are some of the

>freshest and nicest slices I have ever seen. Some parts of Allende

>lack a lot of chondrule distinction. These are not from that part.

>These have loads of chondrules (looking close to Axtell) and lots of

>large CAIs. These also come with a David New label (he was one of the

>true greats in meteorites, but has been retired for quite some time now).

>a) 48.0 gram complete slice……92mm x 67mm x 3.5mm……$480

>b) 53.0 gram complete slice…...100mm x 77mm x 3mm……..$530

>c) 91.0 gram complete slice…...110mm x 90mm x 4mm……..$900 

>– over 5

>huge (cm long) CAIs!

>

>CHINGA, Russia: Ni-rich ataxite (IVB). Found 1913.

>Here is a wild- shaped polished complete slice. It has not been

>etched- just polished to a mirror shine (though there are a couple

>small darker patches).

>	100.8gram complete slice…..95mm x 45mm x 5mm…..$150

>

>DEPORT, Texas: Coarse octahedrite (IAB).

>This is a highly cleaned little individual with a small (about 1cm x

>1cm) cut and etched window. It looks like it has been sandblasted to

>remove the original oxide (a good thing – or these tend to rust

>scale). This neatly brought out the crystal structure in a 3-D way.

>McCartney Taylor found this and says it has the name MOE. He found

>three pieces together (the three stooges) and that this one was named

>Moe at it's finding. A nice little display piece.

>	99.1 gram individual with etched window…..45mm x 28mm x 

>22mm….$300

>

>GAO, Burkina Faso, (H5). Fell March 5, 1960.

>Now this is a great display piece. It has a nice sculpted shape and

>really nice black crust showing flow lines and contraction cracks.

>There are about 8 or so small natural chipped areas, showing the

>lighter interior. I had another stone like this one at the show and it

>sold within mere hours of being put on display.

>	1006.4 gram individual….120mm x 70mm x 65mm……$1800

>

>GIBEON, Namibia: Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.

>This is a nice individual that has been highly brushed. It is not an

>exceptional piece as far as wild shape or anything , but it does have

>plenty of nice ridges and thumb-printing. Just a good honest display

>piece.

>	4037.8 gram brushed individual….140mm x 100mm x 75mm….$1400

>

>MUONIONALUSTA, Sweden: Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1906.

>A lot of metal-detecting field work has turned up quite a bit of this

>lately. I got these pieces from a friend who actually found the

>himself. I have one of each type; individual (fragment really), end

>piece and slice. The end piece and slice show a beautiful etch.

>a) 87.7 gram fragment (natural as found)……60mm x 25mm x 

>22mm……..$130

>b) 198.4 gram end piece…….85mm x 52mm x 10mm…….$275

>c) 196.5 gram complete slice…….95mm x 70mm x 4mm……$290

>

>  TENHAM, Australia: (L6), veined. Fell spring 1879.

>Here is a nice absolutely complete individual that has some claims to

>being oriented! This has complete coverage of the usual slate- gray

>crust that Tenham typically shows (with some neat dark and somewhat

>shiny ablated condrles clearly showing scattered about). It, as all

>Tenhams I have seen, does not show much in the way of distinct flow

>lines. It does have at one end a rim of slightly bubbled crust that

>indicates that this spent some time in an oriented flight. This is

>quite interesting in that it is a fairly long bar – shaped piece and

>it oriented with the small pointed end down. A very nice, and quite

>rare specimen.

>	415.3 gram oriented individual……..100mm x 40mm x 

>37mm……..$1500

>

>PHILIPPINITE

>Here is a great LARGE Rizal province (rizalite) tektite I picked up

>the last day I was at the show (interestingly, an antiquities dealer

>had it hiding on a shelf). It is completely intact, shiny black and

>has quite a bit of its surface showing grooves (only a few millimeters

>deep unfortunately). A very nice display piece.

>	334.1 gram grooved individual….60mm x 60mm x 55mm…..$335

>

>

>

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