P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com
LIST 290 - October 15, 2026
Dear Collectors,
Here is an offering of the larger items I had for (consignments) or brought home (bought at the show) from Denver last month. These are all one of kind items and I don’t have easy replacements for any of these (though I do have other Canyon Diablos – wire brushed and mostly smaller and I do have other pallasite frames).
CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
Actually, this is a piece I have owned for years. I only got it back right before the Denver show. I had it out in Denver but it was in something of a hidden spot (or it likely would have sold at the show). Now that I am in a convention center/ ballroom space, I don’t have walls to hang things on or lean things against. I ended up making something of my own to make a quasi-wall. Actually, I made it from 3 shelf units I bought at Hobby Lobby and modified somewhat (added a back board so things could not simply fall out the back). I anchored these to a table with C-clamps. This gave me shelves to put things on (framed pieces, rikers, slices…) as well as (the center unit) cubby-holes to put things in. this piece was in one of the bottom cubbyholes where it was somewhat hidden by the display case in front of the shelf units. This is a wonderful completely natural piece as found. It has nice thumb-printing and is not scaly or covered in caliche like many natural pieces of this meteorite are. It was the display/ education piece at the local metal detector shop for years. It was used to show people (who endlessly brought it magnetite and hematite thinking it was meteorite) that iron meteorites as found in nature are rusty orange/brown NOT shiny gray/black. The owner has decided that he is aiming for retirement and has been giving me back much of the material I had on sale and display there. For now, he has kept a small display (maybe ¼ of the space of what was being used for the meteorites) that does not have room for things that are just display (I was not trying to sell this one – I wanted to keep it there for this education purpose). So, here is a nice, natural piece that has lost it place/purpose where I had it. I have a similar piece for my own display/ education purposes and I don’t really need two, so this one is now available.
433.8 gram natural individual – 75mm x 60mm x 25mm - $800
DRONINIO, Russia: Ni-poor ataxite (ungrouped). Found July 2000.
This is a wonderful complete slice that I did get in Denver. It is not etched, just highly polished on one side (the back side still shows the saw marks. The guy that cut this told me he had close to 30 hours in cutting and polishing this as it is already and didn’t see the need to spend another 12 or 15 polishing out the back side). I knew that this meteorite had troilite blebs all through it (it is its signature feature) but I have not seen ones like the ones in this slice. I could spend a lot of time just looking at these inclusions. There are all kinds of interesting ones. Some are basically a ring – a metal center with a ring of sulfide around it. Some are horseshoe shaped. There is even one that looks like a flower. It is basically round (about 7mm diameter) but has metal blebs inside that look a lot like flower petals. A nice museum quality slice of a rare meteorite type.
981.9 gram complete slice – 245mm x 115mm x 75mm - $1700
LIBYAN DESERT GLASS:
I believed this to be just a nice large, really clear (particularly for its size) Libyan Glass specimen. Looking at it out in full sunlight (it is really nice there) I noticed something. It had a tunnel of dirt/ sand grains that looked like it went all the way through it. As in all the way through the center of it, not just a corner or edge. Yep, a little work with a copper wire and the dirt came out and showed that there is indeed a tunnel all the way through this piece. Right now, I have a wire (supposed to be red but looks more pink – a leftover from some electrical work I did around here) that goes through the hole to show it is there, complete and not tiny. This piece has another interesting feature. It is loaded with little (1 or 2mm sized) white balls. I have been told (years ago) that these are made up of the high temp/ high shock quartz mineral called cristobalite. There is a small chipped area on the bottom of this piece that acts as a window allowing you to see clearly into it (the rest of it is the usual sculpted/ textured wind eroded surfaces found on this material naturally). There are a number of these cristobalite balls right there for easy viewing.
787 gram with hole completely through it – 120mm x 90mm x 70mm - $1100
NWA (unstudied): HED achondrite (Eucrite).
This is a stone that I got from Tim Stephan, Fredric’s brother, at the show. I almost sold it there too (it was in a visible spot on/in my “cubbyhole” shelf). Fredric had planned to do the research work and publish this but never got it done. We (Tim and I) have no idea where/ who he got it from, just that it is a really nice display specimen (I know it is HED because I ran the XRF on it). This has a nice large cut and polished face (80mm x 70mm) that has a very Moon-rock look to it (clasts that are black to bright white in color in a dark gray matrix). I suspect that Fredric got the specimen with this face already cut on it. There is another cut spot (on the bottom. 40mm x 30mm) that clearly was made with a smaller saw. This was likely where Fredric removed a specimen for the research work (we have not found that). This is really nice HED moon rock lookalike at a great price.
1666.6 gram individual with cut face – 120mm x 90mm x 80mm - $2500
NWA (unstudied): Achondrite (Ureilite).
This is another specimen that I got from Tim that belonged to Fredric. Like the specimen above, this one has two cut faces. Like the piece above, the larger one (70mm x 30mm) is polished and the smaller one (26mm x 15mm) on the back is not. I didn’t run this one on the XRF as it is pretty obvious that this IS a Ureilte. I see that from the “polished” face being not completely polished (there are some saw marks still visible) and the smaller cut face shows the saw that was used had considerable difficulties making even that cut. These things tell me that this is a tougher than nails stone. It is NOT one of the soft uereilites (I have only ever run into two of those). Though this stone is a great shape for cutting (it would produce lots of nice complete slices) I would recommend against doing that. Not sure if this is one of the super hard Ureilites (with diamonds) or merely one of the really hard ones (with silicon carbides). Regardless, it is clear that this would likely eat up LOTS of saw blades and sandpaper in preparing it. The other reason to not cut this is that this has a huge area of actual primary fusion crust! I have only seen actual fusion crust on a few ureilites (they rarely have it for some reason) and even then it is usually a thin almost more imagination than anything secondary crust. This is a wonderful specimen as it is and, if I were going to keep it, would leave it alone.
1100.4 gram stone with crust and cut face – 110mm x 90mm x 50mm - $3500
SEYMCHAN, Russia: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1967.
I am starting to see that I am going to have serious troubles getting pieces like this in the future. I had trouble getting it in Denver (where I usually get my Seymchan pallasite slices). Part of it is that they people I like to deal with were always closed when I was not stuck in my “new ballroom space” but also, they did not have many pieces to choose from. In addition to that, the prices on this material looks to be going up rapidly. I did get some pieces near (but not at) prices I was used to, but not much. The other sources (one was right outside the doors to the convention center sub-room I was in) had nice material BUT the prices blew me away. This particular slice I got, partly because it was the only largish (more than 50 or 60 grams) piece with nice, clear olivines I could even remotely afford. It has less olivine than many pallasites (but shows some great widmanstatten structure because of that) but those crystals are some of the clearest I have ever seen in Seymchan. Pretty much all of the olivines pass light, most amazingly so. This is a full slice that I have put in one of my custom made frames (those proved to be super popular at the show – the reason I needed to hunt down material to make more with). I did have to pay more than I am used to too get this piece BUT A) it is a really good piece and B) all the other sources with similar material were at $20/g my cost (!!!). Those people were at $25/g for pieces with more “normal” pallasite olivine amounts (clear crystals or not). I suspect that this is telling me that this might be one of the last really nice Seymchan slices I can afford to frame, unfortunately.
325.2 gram complete slice in frame – 170mm x 150mm x 2mm - $5100
TOLUCA, Mexico: Medium octahedrite (IAB). Found 1776.
Along with the US, this is having its 250th anniversary. This is a really nice piece for Toluca. It is likely an earlier surface find. It has nice solid hard surfaces, not the usually rather ratty/ scaly surfaces I have seen on so many Tolucas. This was sent home with me to figure out what it was. It came to a mineral dealer from someone selling a mineral collection. No one knew what this thing was (other than it was a meteorite). My initial thought was Canyon Diablo, but it didn’t look quite right for that. Looking at it a bit more, Toluca came to mind. These used to be commonly available but it has been so long (like 30or 40 years) that Toluca did not pop up as a possibility at first. I did come to that conclusion after a bit though. However, people were not happy with just a guess. This was sent home with me to polish a spot on an end and etch it. Yep, did that, and the etch worked (surprising for me – I generally suck at etching for some reason). So, here is a really nice piece of a famous meteorite that is not so commonly seen anymore.
4783.5 gram individual – 185mm x 115mm x 75mm - $3600
OVERSEAS/ Out of US Orders:
This year has brought about a number of changes (in addition to large price increases) for things leaving the US. One thing I have run into is that I am being forced to pay Duties and Taxes on some/ many orders I am sending out. So far, I have NOT been able to find anywhere where I can learn which orders I will have to pre-pay taxes on and which ones I will not. To be honest, I have not had to send very many out of US orders lately so I have a very limited understanding of this new problem. I did have to pre-pay these things on two orders going to Germany (losing any and all profits on those sales as a result). I just sent out a large, fairly valuable package to Switzerland and did NOT have to pre-pay (thankfully, I suspect it would have been close over $600 if I did). I also did not have to pre-pay on a small order I sent to Canada. Right now, I have no way of knowing IF I am going to have to do this and/ or how much it will cost. Despite the system demanding the value, the type items and more when I do a “calculate a price” on the PO website ahead of time I got no information on this. When I go to actually make the shipping label, I get NO info on the Duties and taxes until AFTER I have entered my credit card info to pay for what I thought would be JUST the shipping. The last package to Germany, the shipping part was $21.80. No big deal. However, after “agreeing” to the cost and entering my credit card info to pay for it, I got a notice of pre-payment of Duties and Taxes was required. That cost me $85. No way around it. Pay those or loose the $21.80shipping cost (it looks like the system has already charged me that before I find out about the duties and taxes thing) as well as the entire sale (who wants to pay for an order that cannot be shipped?). Of course, once I got tagged for those fees, I have not been able to recover them from the customers (they are somewhat correct in saying it was I who misquoted the actual shipping costs so it is my problem if I lose money on it).
Anyway, I cannot go on and keep losing money sending things overseas like this. I will try to see if I can find some way to get those tax numbers ahead of time (before I have made the shipping label, given my CC info and “agreed to pay all expenses”) so I can give an actual accurate quote ahead of time. IF I am not able to do that, then I will likely have to say that those extra expenses may be roughly 25% of the overall package value (this seems to be about the amount that I have seen on the few overseas things I have sent this year). As such, a $200 may end up having around $50 of duties and taxes on it. I think what I will need to do is NOT run a charge on a customer’s card until after I have created the shipping label and found out exactly what those taxes will be (IF there are any on their package that is). Then I can put that amount on the actual receipt in the package with the specimens (clearly labeled as duties and taxes already paid). This will likely be helpful for the customer as well as it will help show that those things have already been paid. Disturbingly, nowhere on the shipping papers that are produced for these orders can I find ANYWHERE that clearly says this and how much those expenses were and that they have been already paid! My “receipt” for the shipping shows ONLY the actual package shipping costs. On the two going to Germany (where I was charged these fees) nowhere in/ on the post office system could I get something that clearly stated the duties/ taxes paid – ONLY the raw shipping costs (I could only find a small note that $106.80 had been charged to my card by the system for that last package). Having it on the receipt AND a matching credit card charge receipt would certainly help in showing that the package has already been paid and should go to the customer without any further charges.
NO, I WILL NOT LIE ABOUT THE VALUE OF THE PACKAGE TO GET AROUND THIS!!
Yes, at one time that kind of thing would work (but was still highly illegal and could land someone in jail for a considerable amount of time. I am not interested in going to jail for years so someone can save a few dollars on taxes). Not anymore. Customs now regularly uses AI. They can simply take a picture of an item and know what it is and what it is worth. I had someone overseas wanting me to claim a $2500 pallasite slice in a custom frame was worth less than $500. No dice I told them, AI will expose that lie in a heartbeat. To prove my point, I showed them (told them anyway) how I had simply taken a picture of the slice in Google Lens and the associated AI not only figured out that it was a pallasite but WHICH ONE and how much it really sells for! What has been happening lately is customs simply enters my name, enters the things listed on the customs declaration and BOOM, they have my actual offering - showing what I really charged for the item(s) - in front of them in seconds. They see a declared value of $15on on item that is on that offering priced at $350 – game over. Those things WILL be confiscated and someone (me) is going to have a heap of legal troubles.
Shipping:
US Shipping:
Rates continue to change. When shipping things from my last offering, I have seen rates increase yet again. I’ll hold to $8 for my usual jewelry box in a padded envelope (even though it now looks like it is closer to $8.50 minimum for those now). Small Priority flat-rate boxes are now $13 (IF I take the time to do the label on line- somewhat of a lesson in frustration and many times does not work at all, otherwise it is $15). Medium flat-rate boxes are $22 ($26 if I can’t get the label made online). One thing I have noticed though is that does NOT seem to be the huge penalty there once was for using your own box. Lately, I have been able to send my own boxes quite a bit cheaper than if I used an appropriate sized flat-rate box. Of course, this is when sending “Ground Advantage”. I can use my own boxes for Priority shipping (and do when I have something to big for a small flat-rate but using a medium would require a stupid amount of packing material). Those costs don’t seem out of line anymore like they once were.
Overseas/ out of US:
The packages I have sent (and almost sent before duties and tax issues – see not at top of this offering – killed the sale) seem to indicate that my usual couple ounce jewelry box in a padded envelope is around $25. Priority small flat-rate is $56 and a medium is $93. However, you need to keep in mind that duties and taxes are likely to be around 25% of the package value if you are in one of the places that requires these to be repaid. This is added to the shipping when I go to make the label and, so far, I have NOT found a work-around. I have not even found where I can find what those will be until AFTER I have created (and paid for?) the actual shipping label. Regardless, I will NOT charge anyone more than the actual amount after I know what it will be.
This year has brought about a number of changes (in addition to large price increases) for things leaving the US. One thing I have run into is that I am being forced to pay Duties and Taxes on some/ many orders I am sending out. So far, I have NOT been able to find anywhere where I can learn which orders I will have to pre-pay taxes on and which ones I will not. To be honest, I have not had to send very many out of US orders lately so I have a very limited understanding of this new problem. I did have to pre-pay these things on two orders going to Germany (losing any and all profits on those sales as a result). I just sent out a large, fairly valuable package to Switzerland and did NOT have to pre-pay (thankfully, I suspect it would have been close over $600 if I did). I also did not have to pre-pay on a small order I sent to Canada. Right now, I have no way of knowing IF I am going to have to do this and/ or how much it will cost. Despite the system demanding the value, the type items and more when I do a “calculate a price” on the PO website ahead of time I got no information on this. When I go to actually make the shipping label, I get NO info on the Duties and taxes until AFTER I have entered my credit card info to pay for what I thought would be JUST the shipping. The last package to Germany, the shipping part was $21.80. No big deal. However, after “agreeing” to the cost and entering my credit card info to pay for it, I got a notice of pre-payment of Duties and Taxes was required. That cost me $85. No way around it. Pay those or loose the $21.80shipping cost (it looks like the system has already charged me that before I find out about the duties and taxes thing) as well as the entire sale (who wants to pay for an order that cannot be shipped?). Of course, once I got tagged for those fees, I have not been able to recover them from the customers (they are somewhat correct in saying it was I who misquoted the actual shipping costs so it is my problem if I lose money on it).
Anyway, I cannot go on and keep losing money sending things overseas like this. I will try to see if I can find some way to get those tax numbers ahead of time (before I have made the shipping label, given my CC info and “agreed to pay all expenses”) so I can give an actual accurate quote ahead of time. IF I am not able to do that, then I will likely have to say that those extra expenses may be roughly 25% of the overall package value (this seems to be about the amount that I have seen on the few overseas things I have sent this year). As such, a $200 may end up having around $50 of duties and taxes on it. I think what I will need to do is NOT run a charge on a customer’s card until after I have created the shipping label and found out exactly what those taxes will be (IF there are any on their package that is). Then I can put that amount on the actual receipt in the package with the specimens (clearly labeled as duties and taxes already paid). This will likely be helpful for the customer as well as it will help show that those things have already been paid. Disturbingly, nowhere on the shipping papers that are produced for these orders can I find ANYWHERE that clearly says this and how much those expenses were and that they have been already paid! My “receipt” for the shipping shows ONLY the actual package shipping costs. On the two going to Germany (where I was charged these fees) nowhere in/ on the post office system could I get something that clearly stated the duties/ taxes paid – ONLY the raw shipping costs (I could only find a small note that $106.80 had been charged to my card by the system for that last package). Having it on the receipt AND a matching credit card charge receipt would certainly help in showing that the package has already been paid and should go to the customer without any further charges.
NO, I WILL NOT LIE ABOUT THE VALUE OF THE PACKAGE TO GET AROUND THIS!!
Yes, at one time that kind of thing would work (but was still highly illegal and could land someone in jail for a considerable amount of time. I am not interested in going to jail for years so someone can save a few dollars on taxes). Not anymore. Customs now regularly uses AI. They can simply take a picture of an item and know what it is and what it is worth. I had someone overseas wanting me to claim a $2500 pallasite slice in a custom frame was worth less than $500. No dice I told them, AI will expose that lie in a heartbeat. To prove my point, I showed them (told them anyway) how I had simply taken a picture of the slice in Google Lens and the associated AI not only figured out that it was a pallasite but WHICH ONE and how much it really sells for! What has been happening lately is customs simply enters my name, enters the things listed on the customs declaration and BOOM, they have my actual offering - showing what I really charged for the item(s) - in front of them in seconds. They see a declared value of $15on on item that is on that offering priced at $350 – game over. Those things WILL be confiscated and someone (me) is going to have a heap of legal troubles.
Shipping:
US Shipping:
Rates continue to change. When shipping things from my last offering, I have seen rates increase yet again. I’ll hold to $8 for my usual jewelry box in a padded envelope (even though it now looks like it is closer to $8.50 minimum for those now). Small Priority flat-rate boxes are now $13 (IF I take the time to do the label on line- somewhat of a lesson in frustration and many times does not work at all, otherwise it is $15). Medium flat-rate boxes are $22 ($26 if I can’t get the label made online). One thing I have noticed though is that does NOT seem to be the huge penalty there once was for using your own box. Lately, I have been able to send my own boxes quite a bit cheaper than if I used an appropriate sized flat-rate box. Of course, this is when sending “Ground Advantage”. I can use my own boxes for Priority shipping (and do when I have something to big for a small flat-rate but using a medium would require a stupid amount of packing material). Those costs don’t seem out of line anymore like they once were.
Overseas/ out of US:
The packages I have sent (and almost sent before duties and tax issues – see not at top of this offering – killed the sale) seem to indicate that my usual couple ounce jewelry box in a padded envelope is around $25. Priority small flat-rate is $56 and a medium is $93. However, you need to keep in mind that duties and taxes are likely to be around 25% of the package value if you are in one of the places that requires these to be repaid. This is added to the shipping when I go to make the label and, so far, I have NOT found a work-around. I have not even found where I can find what those will be until AFTER I have created (and paid for?) the actual shipping label. Regardless, I will NOT charge anyone more than the actual amount after I know what it will be.
