P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com
LIST 273 - September 2024
Dear Collectors
I am back from the shortened (for me) Denver show. It was, not surprisingly, fairly slow as far as people visiting was concerned. It was also relatively slow as far as sales went, but not horribly so (certainly not as bad as I feared it might be). The folks that did show up seemed willing to spend money once they had made the, difficult at times, trek down I-25 through the heart of Denver to see us. Sales down, yes BUT I was only set up for 5 days (half the normal length of the show). Would I have sold as much as a “normal” show if we were able to stay set up - ? no idea. Just know that I am happy to have sold as well as I did (but I still was better at spending than selling – as usual). I did get a number of calls from people that did not get the message that we had moved. A number of people called me from the now weed-filled parking lot of the Crowne Plaza wondering where I was. Unfortunately, I got those calls after I had already packed up and left town (one guy wanted to “come see me”. He wanted to simply hop in his car and come visit me at home. Once I let him know that I was a 6 hour drive away (12 hours for someone coming from Denver and then going back to catch a flight) he decided to see me in Tucson).
I already have info on next year’s show timing and location. We will be at the Delta Hotel by Marriott Denver Northglenn (10 E. 120th Ave). We will be able to have our normal length show (though having a 5 day show this year was kind of nice. Some of these events are getting waaaay to long). We are scheduled to be open from September 5th through the 13th. I was NOT able to get a semi-private meeting room like I had at the Crowne Plaza (and at this year’s show) as one really didn’t exist in the layout of the new venue. I was able to get a ground floor room though. I plan to have the furniture emptied out, hoping to recreate the open feel (that seems to invite people to hang around more) that those meeting rooms had the best I can.
I do have a couple large trips I need to do this fall. These are not set in stone at this point. I am thinking the bigger of the two will be towards the later part of October (certainly after sales and responses to the offering have died down). So, if possible, let me know if there is something you are interested in on this list (even if you just need it “set aside” to buy from me later) before the middle of October.
A note concerning the photos in this offering:
I want everyone receiving this post with imbedded group photos of the items on this list to know that the item pictured MAY NOT be the identical item you receive (except for cases where I have clearly labeled an item as “the only one this size” or similar). I usually have (and sell) multiple pieces of each size of the items listed (sometimes MANY of them – far to many to put all in a photograph for people to pick from). What I normally do is send the first person that asks for a particular item the largest piece available in whatever size range it is that the specimen they are buying belongs to (when I send a piece that is not in the photo, you generally get a very similar but slightly larger piece). This came about as MOST of my sales from these periodic larger catalogs come from the paper mailed version of this offering where no photos exist so customers don’t know exactly what the piece they ordered looks like (and are usually quite happy to receive a slightly larger specimen instead). So, you can certainly request the exact item in the group photo and I am happy to send it if someone else hasn’t already requested it. Please let me know if you would likely ONLY be happy with receiving that actual pictured piece(s) and I will NOT do any substitution(s) in your order.
TOLUCA, Mexico: Iron. Coarse octahedrite (IA). Found 1776.
This is one of the classic “historic” meteorites. It was first recognized in 1776. Prior to that though, people had been finding and forging pieces of this meteorite into agricultural equipment for many, many years. This stuff used to be readily available. I haven’t seen much of it at all in recent years and even less as cut and etched pieces. Though this is a “coarse” octahedrite it has a much more “medium” octahedrite etch look to it. Nice uniform bands in a nice uniform texture (many “coarse” octahedrites have kind of a mess going for their etch structure). I got these in Tucson this year. I don’t have much of it and have no idea when/ where I might be able to get more.
1) Etched part slices:
a) 10.4 grams - 9mm x 18mm x 4mm - $35
b) 18.7 grams - 35mm x 23mm x 3mm - $62
c) 35.1 grams - 40mm x 31mm x 3mm - $110
d) 55.9 grams - 59mm x 48mm x 3mm - $170
COFFEYVILLE, Kansas: Ordinary chondrite. (H5). Found2006. Tkw = 35.9kg.
A single stone was found by a racecar driver driving (presumably racing) on his property. He and his wife were nearly tossed off/out of the vehicle they were riding when they hit an odd looking large rock. They realized it was very different from the usual light colored weathered limestones of the area. It did not take them long to realize they might have found a meteorite. However, it did take 3 years before they finally had it looked at, confirmed and classified. There is, to be honest, nothing really exciting about this stone (it is just a typical fairly weathered H5 that shows plenty of light colored chondrules in a medium brown matrix) other than it is a really affordable example of a named (and US no less) meteorite. I don’t get many named meteorites (and few US ones) these days and few are remotely affordable.
1) Slices:
a) 10.2 grams - 35mm x 22mm x 5mm - $25
b) 20.5 grams - 40mm x 40mm x 5mm - $50
c) 33.1 grams - 58mm x 45mm x 5mm - $75
d) 72.7 grams - 70mm x 60mm x 6mm - $150
e) 144.0 grams - 110mm x 85mm x 5mm - $275
NWA (7181): Ordinary chondrite. (L3.5). Found 2011. Tkw = 543 grams.
This was a single stone that Matt Morgan picked up 10 years ago at the Denver show. He got it studied and then it sat in a drawer for nearly 10 years until I picked it up from him during the 2021 Denver Spring show. This has lots of gray chondrules hiding in a darker gray matrix. There are some lighter, more brown colored breccia fragments visible in some of the larger pieces. Not super exciting to look at BUT in preparing this meteorite for sale, I found L3.5s are surprisingly rare. As of July 2021, only 12 are known from outside of Antarctica! There is only ONE named stone (Ioka, Utah being the largest ever recorded at 31.5kg). Two from Oman (totaling 3656 grams) and 9 NWA finds (totaling 3509 grams INCLUDING this stone!). So, a surprisingly rarer item than I would have ever thought or expected.Slices: a) 2.5 grams - 25mm x 10mm x 3mm - $15
b) 5.4 grams - 30mm x 18mm x 4mm - $30
c) 9.4 grams - 40mm x 28mm x 3mm - $50
d) 20.2 grams - 47mm x 35mm x 4mm - $100
e) 44.6 grams - 70mm x 54mm x 4mm - $210 – complete slice.
2) 84.9 gram end piece/ Main Mass – 70mm x 45mm x 12mm - $380.00 - possible sale pending
NWA (16087): HED achondrite. (Howardite). Found 2023. Tkw 7450 grams.
Here is a howardite that could pass (or get mistaken for) Kapoeta if one were not careful. This is super fresh internally. It has lots of nice clasts of various colors and sizes in a really light gray matrix. These clasts are Diogenite (14%), Cumulate eucrite (28%) and Basaltic eucrite (57%) along with minor amounts of chromite, ilmenite and magnetite. A really “classic” howardite example and at a reasonable price.
1) Slices:
a) 2.0 grams - 15mm x 14mm x 4mm - $22
b) 3.9 grams - 34mm x 15mm x 4mm - $40
c) 7.8 grams - 45mm x 17mm x 4mm - $80
d) 16.3 grams - 55mm x 45mm x 3mm - $160
e) 30.9 grams - 75mm x 60mm x 3mm - $295
f) 55.4 grams - 110mm x 75mm x 3mm - $500 – possible sale pending
NWA (4576): Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Found Jan. 2005. Tkw = 30kg.
Here are some slices of a really nice mesosiderite I picked up while in Tucson this year. These were all largish square/ rectangular pieces. I cut a number of these down (hated to – they were really nice as larger pieces) to pieces affordable for most collectors. There really isn’t any info on this meteorite out there, so I don’t really have any “interesting info” on this. Regardless, this is a really wonderful, classic mesosiderite example. It has LOTS of metal, nice rounded (cm or so sized) lithic clasts and the occasional round metal-rich nodule. I can say that mesosiderites (particularly nice ones) are quite a bit harder to come by then pallasites in the collecting world.
1) Part slices:
a) 4.0 grams - 20mm x 13mm x 3mm - $50
b) 8.0 grams - 23mm x 22mm x 3mm - $90
c) 14.8 grams - 32mm x 27mm x 4mm - $150
d) 25.7 grams - 42mm x 26mm x 5mm - $250
e) 53.2 grams - 54mm x 47mm x 5mm - $500
f) 108.2 grams - 88mm x 58mm x 5mm - $1000
BHUTAN: 3-D space themed stamps.
I hesitated to offer these as I have so few of them. But then, never offering them means, they will simply sit here getting older. I got them when it turned out that there was a stamp convention next door to the watch convention I was attending. I stumbled onto these by pure accident. I thought they were kind of neat. They have that ridged plastic coating that gives them a 3-D effect (quite well, actually). As a kid I liked the football and baseball cards that were this form (those, for me anyway, were quite scarce). These, actually, are every bit as old, or older, than those cards I desired back then (early 1970s). This quite surprised me. When I got these (7 or 8 years ago maybe). I thought that these were basically really modern. What little research I have done on them shows that they are actually from around 1967 to around 1970. These are an assortment of “types” (some space craft, some astronauts in space, on the moon and some clearly Apollo) but all are space themed (and, I believe, were part of a “Man’s Conquest of Space” series). Not particularly rare or valuable, but interesting and fun (wish I could have gotten more).
a) Astronauts in space: 4 piece set - $20.00 (I have only 3 sets available).
b) Apollo on way to Moon (command module/ Lander connected). 2 piece set - $10.00 (I have only 3 sets).
c) Astronauts on the Moon. 3 piece set - $15.00(I have only 2 of these).
d) 1970 assortment of 4 space scenes (galaxy, “earth rise” from moon, etc.) - $20.00 (only 1 available)\
e) 1970 5 older space craft (V2, Mercury capsule, Verne’s, etc) - $25.00 (only 1 set available)
f) Apollo launch (2) and capsule recovery after splashdown (1) - $15.00 (only 1 set available).
Shipping: For small US orders (things that fit in a jewelry box in a padded envelope) - $5 is still OK (for now).
Larger things will be around $10 (small priority flat rate box, smallish "private" type box) to around $18 (medium flat-rate box). Insurance is extra if desired (I’ll look it up for you if think you want this cost ahead of shipping the item(s)).
Overseas prices have gone up A LOT the past couple years. Now small overseas orders are around $18 (Canada seems to be right around $15) for a small jewelry box in a padded envelope. Most overseas small flat-rare prices are in the $45 range (!!!!). I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders. These rates change rapidly (I think we have already had two increases this year) so I'll have to custom quote things that are larger/heavier. Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $18 more with insurance being extra (though there are fairly low limits of insurance allowed to many destinations).
