Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale List 271 - important Denver show info, a few "new" items

Blaine Reed Meteorites
P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Phone: (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com

LIST 271 - April 21, 2024

Dear Collectors,
Once again, I had kind of thought about skipping this “Spring offering” this year. I have had a LOT of travel and yet quite a bit more to go. Also, I have been busy with all kinds of general things, enough so that I am quite behind on my cutting and polishing work. However, something quite big has come up that pretty much determined that I need to send out an offering to give me a chance to let as many people as I can, know about some “news” concerning the Denver fall show this year.

That “news” is that this year’s Denver Fall show will NOT be as things have been. It seems that the city of Aurora is buying the Crowne Plaza hotel and convention center and turning it into a “Homeless shelter”. We had contracts to have our show there supposedly through the September 2026 show. Unfortunately, when a city is involved, the city can simply tear-up any and all contracts and simply toss them in the trash (Denver did this to the Clarion folks a mere month before they were to have their September show last year – the reason those folks ended up in our parking lot. Lots of neat new things to look at/ buy but did crimp parking for us quite a bit).

I have gotten a little more information on this while I visited the Denver Spring show a couple days ago. That show WILL be the last mineral show to happen at the Crowne Plaza. The new venue appears to be at a Marriott way down south in the Denver Tec Center. Nicer area, but certainly NOT convenient for reaching the other shows. The address of this new show venue is: 4900 S. Syracuse St, Denver, CO.

As I alluded to in the mailed version of this list (which was produced, stuffed and mailed before I had this new information) the show will be shorter than it has in the past. Basically, because this new venue has already been rented for what would be the last weekend of our originally scheduled show we will arrive early and close up early. Our new scheduled open days will be Sept. 5th-9th.

I have been able to get a little info on where I’ll be in this new setup. It seems that I should end up with a smallish (but bigger than what I had at Crowne Plaza) meeting room that is pretty much right in the middle of the “main” ballrooms/ show floor area. I suspect that, as such, I likely WILL NOT be able to stay open much after official closing time here (as there will be many, many tables and displays set up on the open floor areas surrounding this meeting room. Pretty sure “security” issues are not going to let me have people hanging around my room while all those displays around me are unattended and protected only by table covers). We shall see.

Regardless of all the stresses and difficulties that this change will bring about for all of us, this particular situation will be ONLY for this year. It seems that while our show promoter was negotiating, preparing to sign contracts for multiple years for this new place, someone else came in and “offered more money” for the venue for the times we needed for all future years past this year. SO, we will be playing this “find a new, functional venue” game again next year (for the spring show, that venue will now be the Western show complex (think the fall “Coliseum” show here).



SEYMCHAN, Russia. Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1967.
Well, these are actually all etched iron portion of this meteorite. I got these in Tucson. I got them from someone who had just gotten them in a trade. They didn’t really fit my usual “specimen” style but they were bright and pretty (and sold well while I did have them on display at the show). The best part is that I got these in such a way that I can sell them cheaper than the sources for this stuff would charge (and cheaper than what I now need to get on my usual “specimen” slices of Seymchan). These are mostly kind of slices but some are also of a bit odd shape ( kind of end pieces and some are like triangles or pyramids). Regardless, all of these are really eye-catching bright silvery metallic. These have a really interesting deep etch but have somehow been processed to leave them with a super shiny bright look to them (usually, longer dips in etching acid makes the etch kind of dark and dingy). Not really “specimens” as far as a collector might generally think but really pretty and eye catching.
1) Cut end etched (all sides) pieces of various shapes:
a) 16.8 gram slice - 35mm x 10mm x 6mm - $50
b) 33.7 gram slice - 34mm x 22mm x 8mm - $100
c) 49.5 gram slice - 38mm x 18mm x 11mm - $140
d) 79.4 gram end piece - 32mm x 32mm x 16mm - $220




GOLD BASIN, Arizona: Ordinary chondrite (L4). Found November 1995. Tkw = about 127kg.
I got a call from a “retired” metal-detector guy literally the night before I was to leave for Tucson. He had lived in Arizona some 20/25 years earlier and had spent a LOT of time metal-detecting for gold (he and his wife, actually). It turns out, they were working the Gold Basin gold site before anyone really understood that many of the “hot rocks” they were digging up were
meteorites. Obviously, once he found out he and his wife made it a point to keep all of these “hot rocks” they found after that. Boy did they find “hot rocks” (and, apparently a fair amount of gold nuggets). They worked the area until about 20 years ago and left to live in Wyoming, taking their substantial bucket of Gold Basin “hot rocks” with them. Well, about 10 years ago, his wife fell into ill health (I am sorry to say) making it important to move out of Wyoming (I love Wyoming but it is a pretty harsh place at times. Hard on even fully healthy people). His wife is still alive (thankfully) but in poor enough health that he felt the need to sell off his Gold Basin “hot rocks” to help fund her care (he had already parted with the gold they’d found. Yep, I did ask). What I am offering here are whole pieces as found (well, I cleaned the dirt off of them). Most are basically complete individuals, though many have chipped edges and secondary crust areas. This material has been on the ground for nearly 25,000 years so don’t expect super fresh looking stones here. I do plan to cut some of these things open (part of the “lapidary work” I am behind on) and offer end pieces of this meteorite in the future (even though it is a really old fall, it still looks very nice inside).
1) Individuals as found:
a) 11.2 grams - 22mm x 20mm x 13mm - $12
b) 20.5 grams - 30mm x 20mm x 12mm - $21
c) 42.0 grams - 34mm x 25mm x 20mm - $40
d) 86.8 grams - 45mm x 40mm x 20mm - $80
e) 180.8 grams - 50mm x 40mm x 30mm - $160
f) 385.6 grams - 75mm x 62mm x 40mm - $325




DARWIN GLASS, Impact glass from 700ky old Mt Darwin, Tasmania crater.
Here are some really interesting pieces of this crater glass that usually only comes in clunky dark angular chunks. I traded for a pretty good bag of this material in Tucson. Yep, most of it was the usual blocky chunks. However, I found some really interesting obviously stretched, ropy pieces. You can almost see the action of this stuff forming while flying and twisting through the air in these pieces. ALL of these have that obvious stretching, taffy pull look to them and, better yet, each and every one of these has a natural hole or bridge (often several in a single piece). I didn’t find much of this type material in my lot so I don’t have a lot of these pieces (why I am putting them on this list – these spring offerings tend to be a bit less responded to and I would most likely run out of these things quickly on a Fall or January offering).
1) Natural, taffy-pull look pieces as found:
a) 1.7 grams - 20mm x 11mm x 8mm - $8
b) 3.5 grams - 17mm x 15mm x 13mm - $15
c) 6.8 grams - 35mm x 18mm x 12mm - $25
d) 9.7 grams - 33mm x 20mm x 15mm - $33 - not piece in group photo.



MOON / MARS NECKLACES:
Steve Arnold (of ‘Meteorite Men” not Chicago) left some of these with me in Tucson right before he left town for home. I immediately sold one but I still have enough to offer them here. Each of these is a metal disk (coin, basically) that is actually a “Map” (front and back) of each respective body (are textured and toned to match, somewhat, the actual textures and tones of the real parent body. Each piece has a couple mm or so slice of the actual parent body material epoxied to it. The Moon coins are 25mm diameter and are struck in .999 fine silver. The Mars ones are just over 30mm in diameter and are struck in copper (so their natural color matches the natural color of Mars quite nicely). Each of these comes with an 18” silver plate chain and are in a plastic gemstone display container. Each, of course, comes with a signed Steve Arnold C.O.A.
1) Moon rock slice on 25mm .999 silver coin - $90
2) Mars rock slice on 30mm copper coin - $90
3) One of each - $160

Shipping: Shipping rates, right now, have gone up yet again. They seem to have added a "holiday time surcharge". Now it seems that the cheapest I can send a small padded envelope order for is close to $6 at the moment. Regardless, I'll keep the shipping on these (they are small and light weight) at a simple $5 for now for US shipping.

Small overseas orders are around $16 (Canada seems to be right around $15).

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 270 - January 8, 2024

Blaine Reed Meteorites
P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com

LIST 270 - January 8, 2024

Dear Collectors
  Happy New Year!

As usual, I’ll be in Tucson this year and at my usual spot (assuming no further plagues, disasters or such). I’ll be leaving home around January 22nd or 23rd . Timing of this is weather dependent (bad weather may force me to leave early). I likely won’t be back home until February 13th or 14th (again, weather dependent).

I’ll be in my usual room: Days Inn (665 N. Freeway, room 134). This is basically St. Mary’s and the interstate. I used to say “next door to Denney’s”. However, it seems that that restaurant burned to the ground this past summer so this “landmark”, is just a burnt hole in the ground. I may have my door open sometime late Thursday afternoon (Jan 25th) if things go smoothly. I certainly want to be open by Friday afternoon the 26th at the latest. I plan to stay to the end (February 10th is the last scheduled show day) though last year got so slow the last few days that I began to question my sanity for staying (for some reason, I didn’t have the coming to Tucson for the “Main Show” people I have had in other years).



SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Iron. Coarsest octahedrite (IIB). Fell February 12, 1947.
Here (like many of the other things on this list) are some pieces I put aside decades ago. When this material first came out, it was all “natural” as found (and it was $10/gram!). Not long later, they all started getting wire-brushed. I have not seen a natural piece of this in a long time. I got these at some point not all that long after Sikhote first came available. I remember that I got these from Alan Lang but cannot remember exactly what the deal was (a trade of some sort I believe) that landed these in my hands. I kind of thought about holding these for yet more time as no more of this material is being found and sources are running low on material they had set back (price has been going up on these). Well, I like having some sort of iron on these offerings and I simply did not have anything else (nor could I scrounge up anything affordable from my various sources) I could put on this New Year offering. Again, these are in the as found, uncleaned (mostly light to medium brown color) condition. I do have some highly wire-brushed pieces available (around 50g to 130g) if that is what you prefer (and they are a little bit cheaper, actually).
1) Shrapnel fragments. Natural as found:
a) 36.1 grams - 40mm x 21mm x 13mm - $55
b) 72.6 grams - 38mm x 30mm x 17mm - $110
c) 132.0 grams - 60mm x 40mm x 25mm - $200
d) 271.1 grams - 70mm x 57mm x 25mm - $400
e) 373.8 grams - 98mm x 48mm x 23mm - $550 – only one this big.

DALGETY DOWNS, Australia: Ordinary chondrite (L4). Found 1941. Tkw = 473kg.
Here is a meteorite I have had for decades. This was on my 6 page “catalog” I’d mail out to people that would request one from a magazine ad (or two) I used to run. I have dropped those ads as they were somewhat expensive, brought me very few new “customers” (anyone who ended up buying a meteorite), fewer longer term collectors (very few) and LOTS of hand-holding (people that were really not at all certain that they really wanted a meteorite, trusted that what they got WAS really a meteorite and such). So, I decided to stick more with “advertising” methods that keep me (for the most part) dealing with people that already know and understand meteorites (I dropped the “catalog” thing) The info card for this meteorite is one I made pre word processor days (hand done on a typewriter). For the most part, this is a pretty meteorite. It has a good amount of fresh metal in a mottled light tan, brown to almost bluish in spots matrix. I don’t really see much in the way of Australian stone meteorites these days.
1) Slices:
a) 8.0 grams - 25mm x 23mm x 5mm - $28
b) 14.6 grams - 30mm x 28mm x 5mm - $50
c) 24.4 grams - 40mm x 32mm x 5mm - $80
d) 37.7 grams - 58mm x 42mm x 5mm - $120
2) End pieces/ cut fragments:
a) 25.7 grams - 38mm x 24mm x 16mm - $80
b) 47.2 grams - 55mm x 40mm x 11mm - $140
c) 87.8 grams - 40mm x 32mm x 32mm - $250




SHISR (033), Oman: Carbonaceous chondrite (CR). Found October 2002. Tkw = 1097.7 grams.
This is another item I had planned on holding for longer (and another item that I have had for around 20 years now). This has a couple interesting things going for it. First, it is one of only 14 meteorites worldwide classified as “CR” (not CR2, CR3….). All of those add up to only about 2244 grams. So, there is only a little more than 2.2kg of this meteorite type in the entire world! The other thing really special about this is that it has small clasts of C1 material scattered all through it. I was kind of thinking
that maybe I should hold onto it until research work is done on the Astreoid Bennau samples that returned a few months ago. IF some of that material matches up to these kind of inclusions, I suspect that there will be a substantial increase in people wanting that kind of material. Well, I guess I have Orguiel crumbs to satisfy that demand IF it comes to be. This material has the classic chondrule-rich texture and the yellow brown coloration of most of the CR2 meteorites I have been able to offer. It does have some fresh metal grains in it (but not a lot) and lacks the metal surrounding many chondrules in the CR2 type. Interesting and really rare material.
1) Slices:
a) .67 grams - 15mm x 7mm x 3mm - $35
b) 1.5 grams - 17mm x 13mm x 3mm - $75
c) 3.2 grams - 28mm x 14mm x 3mm - $160
d) 6.6 grams - 30mm x 27mm x 3mm - $325
e) 13.8 grams - 60mm x 40mm x 2mm - $650
f) 23.8 grams - 75mm x 48mm x 3mm - $1000




NWA (14188): Lunar meteorite. Baslatic breccia. Found 2021. Tkw = 260 grams.
Well, a good portion of the side of the moon that faces us is basalt rocks (the MARE, dark gray areas) but very few of those rocks seem to make it into our collections. I have had only a couple basaltic type lunar meteorites over the years: the really special (and expensive) NWA (032) and some gabbro (sub-surface crystalized basalt) that was a lot cheaper but pretty unimpressive visually (I think I still have a piece or two of that material around here somewhere). I did something of an internet search on this and found that A) there ain’t much of it available and B) what is available is quite pricey – like around $1800/g pricy! (and these were multi-gram sized pieces like 5g to 9g). In all fairness though, some of these past light through some of their areas (not a common thing for any meteorites except pallasites). Anyway, here is a chance for you to get a piece of actual lunar basalt. I don’t argue that this is expensive in comparison to some lunars (anorthositic) these days but still less than ½ the price of the pieces of this material I found in my search a few days ago. These will all be in a labeled plastic display box (not in the photo) when they are sent to you.
1) Slices:
a) .152 grams - 7mm x 6mm x 2mm - $135
b) .305 grams - 9mm x 6mm x 2mm - $265
c) .543 grams - 14mm x 10mm x 2mm - $465
d) .852 grams - 17mm x 9mm x 2mm - $700
e) 1.50 grams - 23mm x 16mm x 2mm - $1200



DARWIN GLASS: Tazmania, Australia.
These are another item that I have had set aside for a long time. Like the Sikhote-Alin above, I also got these pieces from Alan Lang. I was going to hold onto these for longer but, also like the Sikhote above, I simply did not have something Tektite or other different but meteorite related item to offer. These are the usual odd shaped, generally foggy light to dark green glass fragments available from this site over the years (though not so often seen these days). It is believed that this glass was formed when the nearby 1km diameter Mt. Darwin crater was formed around 700,000 years ago. Initially, it was believed to be a tektite and was listed as such at one time. I don’t have a whole lot of this material remaining, unfortunately. A year or so ago, I had someone tell me they would sell me a “bunch” of this at a “great price” Turned out, they didn’t really have much (couple hundred grams maybe) and their “great price” was only great for them (they wanted something like $3/g from me for it).
1) Natural fragments as found:
a) 1.8 grams - 13mm x 11mm x 10mm - $7
b) 3.5 grams - 25mm x 14mm x 8mm - $12
c) 6.2 grams - 37mm x 13mm x 9mm - $20
d) 8.8 grams - 25mm x 20mm x 18mm - $28
e) 11.2 grams - 30mm x 18mm x 15mm - $35

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Shipping:
US Shipping: It does seem that I can, generally, send small orders (jewelry box in a padded envelope kind) for around $5 still. This is by what they are now calling “Ground Advantage”. Though it is claimed to be going by trucks (and supposedly a couple days longer) I have found that things are getting to where they need to be pretty much the same time as the old “first class” used to. For things people prefer to send “Priority”, the costs are $10 for fairly small things (whatever can fit in a small flat-rate box) and around $17 for large things (things that need a medium flat-rate box).

For overseas shipping, it does look like the “First Class” option still exists (thankfully, because most overseas small flat-rate costs are bumping up against $50 these days). Though I have not sent much this way, what research I have done seems to indicate that those small orders (jewelry box in padded envelope) are still around $15 or $16 to send. Obviously, I’ll have to custom quote shipping on larger items (as usual).