P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com
LIST 254 - November 9, 2022
Dear Collectors
Here is a selection of a few very expensive (overall price, not on a per gram level) items. These are things that I had planned on putting in an auction. However, the person I work with on such things completely skipped going to the Denver show this year. I was told that part of it was that he already had waaay more meteorites than he needed to fill the next couple auctions. IF he had come and I had given these pieces to him, it would have been mid to late next year before any of them would have a chance to be offered. I decided to go ahead and offer them now incase anyone out there wants to pick up a really nice pre-Christmas present for themselves (I am sure any collector wouldn’t mind if someone bought them one of these things for them for Christmas either). I really don’t expect to sell much (any) of these as these are some of the very highest priced items (again, in overall price, not per gram level) I have ever offered on any list (e-mail or otherwise). I just thought it would be interesting to see what happens offering these now (at roughly what would have been the auction reserve prices) and not wait 6 months, 9 months (or more??) holding them back only for auction.
AQUILE, Bloivia: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Fell November 20, 2016. Tkw = about 50 kilograms.
This is a nice big individual. Not many big pieces like this got out before the locals changed laws to make having these leave the country illegal. This fall was Bolivia’s second meteorite absolutely known to have come from Bolivia (there are a couple old irons listed as “may be from Bolivia” but their find locations are not known and their chemistry is very similar (to similar) to Campo). I personally found their first (a really, really weathered little H5 fragment called Sevaruyo). I kind of thought about keeping this big stone (and just might yet) but it kind of overpowers the little 1g Sevaruyo piece in my “Bolivia” collection. Right now, I am offering this at waaaay below what most people ask for pieces of this particular meteorite. When I first looked into pricing of this stuff a few months ago, I typically found it offered at well over $10/g (with $15 to $30/g most common). I was offered a smaller piece of this fall (a nice 700g size range fragment) by the original seller of this material in Tucson this year. He wanted around $7/g on the piece. This piece is closer to $4/g. This is a nice 3087g individual as found. It has about 75% or so primary fusion crust coverage. The broken/ chipped areas do show the brecciated interior structure nicely. I real museum piece from a fall that was not widely distributed into the collecting world before the “powers that be” in the fall area changed the rules on meteorite ownership/ exporting.
3087g individual as found – 210mm x 90mm x 70mm - $12,500
GIBEON,Namibia: Iron. Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found before 1836.
Here is a big end piece that a customer/ friend of mine bought many years ago. He heard about how high some Gibeon pieces were going for and decided to offer this piece. This is a nice piece BUT it does have a “problem”. It is one of the pieces that has suffered heating somehow. That was either by people trying to melt it down (though this shows no scorching or signs of that) or (more likely?) by being a piece near the surface of the original body in space when it got a bit to close to the sun at some point. As such, there are signs of the etch structure on the polished face but this piece will not etch nicely (at least on the end that has been cut. IF this is a “an-made” heating effect it is possible the other end of this piece might etch up better if that heating was concentrated on the now cut end of this specimen). I know that many people value Gibeon for the ability to cut it all apart and turn it into small etched jewelry pieces. Nope, this is probably not going to ever happen to this piece (though it would make nice mirror POLISHED jewelry pieces). This is probably best left as the visually nice, grunt to move it, specimen it is. The first dimensions listed below are the width and height of the polished face. The second is the depth of the end piece (IF this had shown a good etch, this thing would have produced plenty of nice slices).
21.66 kilogram end piece – 260mm x 110mm x 170mm - $24,500
ORIENTED NWA (unstudied):
Now this is a stone I A) really thought about keeping (and might still if it does not sell here) or B) putting into auction (which also may yet happen). This is, by far, the largest very clearly oriented meteorite of any type I have ever had. Oriented things like this also (sometimes) sell for incredibly stupid high amounts of money in auctions. This is a 10.3kg individual that, for the most part, managed to escape the wind-polishing that wiped away most NWA stone meteorite crust (this does have a corner on one side of the bottom where you can see this wind-polishing. From this it is easy to tell that this thing hit the ground still oriented with the nose down and buried deep enough to protect most of the fusion crust so it still shows proper fusion crust textures and flow lines. I am going to offer this here quite a bit cheaper than I had planned originally (I have somewhere the $ could benefit me more in the longer run right now) and see what happens. Part of me hopes to sell it but a large part of me also hopes I don’t (I doubt I’d ever come across a big oriented stone like this again. At least not at any price I could consider buying it).
10.305kg complete oriented stone – 230mm x 190mm x 120mm - $15,500
NWA (15200): Martian meteorite (Nakhlite). Found 2022. Tkw = 196 grams.
It was reported that “many” pieces of this were found. I suspect most of them were quite small (and I do have an assortment of smaller pieces, fragments and crumbs I plan to offer on a future mailed catalog once I get around to weighting and cataloging the stuff). This piece is the biggest that was available to me (by far). It is a really nice piece in that it has a lot of nice fresh shiny black fusion crust (covering around 2/3 of it). This does have “broken”, missing crust areas that show the granular interior. Again, this is another “really would like to keep it” (it is the biggest Nakhlite piece of any (but then, this like only the third Nakhlite I have ever had) specimen. I do kind of need/ want to run the XRF on this (I have so few data sets on Nakhlites) but (as are most) this is relatively fragile (friable – can be crumbled into small fragments easily) and I don’t want to risk accidentally breaking such a nice piece.. This is in a membrane box (not in the photos) and will sent to any new owner in this.
14.09g crusted individual – 27mm x 22mm x 15mm - $6500
Shipping:
For small US orders $5 is needed now. Rates have gone up yet more this year and now the cheapest I can send anything is right at $5. Add $ for the padded envelope or box, jewelry boxes, etc and, in most cases, I am still loosing a little even at $5. Larger orders are now $9 to $16 (insurance is extra if desired – I’ll look it up if you want it).
Overseas prices have gone up A LOT the past couple years. Now small overseas orders are around $16 (Canada seems to be right around $14). I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders (both local and overseas). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $16.
I do have a fax machine that seems to work (but I have to answer it and manually turn it on), so overseas people can contact me that way if they must. However, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail when possible.
It was reported that “many” pieces of this were found. I suspect most of them were quite small (and I do have an assortment of smaller pieces, fragments and crumbs I plan to offer on a future mailed catalog once I get around to weighting and cataloging the stuff). This piece is the biggest that was available to me (by far). It is a really nice piece in that it has a lot of nice fresh shiny black fusion crust (covering around 2/3 of it). This does have “broken”, missing crust areas that show the granular interior. Again, this is another “really would like to keep it” (it is the biggest Nakhlite piece of any (but then, this like only the third Nakhlite I have ever had) specimen. I do kind of need/ want to run the XRF on this (I have so few data sets on Nakhlites) but (as are most) this is relatively fragile (friable – can be crumbled into small fragments easily) and I don’t want to risk accidentally breaking such a nice piece.. This is in a membrane box (not in the photos) and will sent to any new owner in this.
14.09g crusted individual – 27mm x 22mm x 15mm - $6500
For small US orders $5 is needed now. Rates have gone up yet more this year and now the cheapest I can send anything is right at $5. Add $ for the padded envelope or box, jewelry boxes, etc and, in most cases, I am still loosing a little even at $5. Larger orders are now $9 to $16 (insurance is extra if desired – I’ll look it up if you want it).
Overseas prices have gone up A LOT the past couple years. Now small overseas orders are around $16 (Canada seems to be right around $14). I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders (both local and overseas). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $16.
I do have a fax machine that seems to work (but I have to answer it and manually turn it on), so overseas people can contact me that way if they must. However, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail when possible.
