Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale - List 220

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

                            LIST 220

October 30, 2018

Dear collectors,

It has been awhile since I posted a list. I seem to have been living in a full speed run since the Denver show. That run yet continues. I would normally send out this offering on November 6th – the first Tuesday of the month (I may end up switching to the first and third Mondays of the month for these offerings sometime soon as the schedule conflict that had me tied up Mondays has long since gone away) but then I realized that I’ll be leaving the next day for my Socorro trip.

Notes on Socorro, Mew Mexico Mineral Symposium:

As mentioned above, I leave November 7th and should be back home November 14th (This assumes good weather. As I have to go over some of the toughest passes – Red Mountain, etc. I could end up leaving a day earlier or getting back home a day later if bad weather sets in). Assuming no disasters (I have had a lot of problems with motels simply loosing my reservations this year) I will, as usual, be set up at the Comfort Inn on the north end of town (on the frontage road on the west side of the interstate). I am supposed to be on the bottom floor, last room on the left at the west end of the hallway. We have had problems with some government agency in the area wanting all of the ground floor rooms at the same time for themselves and occasionally some of us dealers get routed to other floors. I’ll try to hang a couple signs in the lobby and such if this ends up happening to me. I should be set up and open by mid day Friday the 9th. I will be gone from around 5pm to around 6pm or so that evening for a “Friends of the Museum” event at the mineral museum about a mile away. I’ll likely be open until around 11pm or midnight after getting back. On Saturday, I should be open around 5pm until 11pm or so again. If you do want to visit the show and need to see me some other time you can try calling ( cell (970) 417-8783 – this ONLY works while I am traveling at shows so DON’T put this number in any files as a regular contact number) and I’ll see if we can schedule something that will work for you.

ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3). Fell February 8, 1969.
I got this piece as part of a collection and kind of misplaced it for a bit (this would have certainly sold in Denver had I brought it). This was a later recovery specimen as it had some dirt adhering to it. I soda-blasted it and most of this has now been removed. This piece now looks quite nice. Lots of nice black crust – much fuller coverage, less and smaller chipping than most Allende specimens.

    36.3 grams complete individual – 40mm x 25mm x 20mm - $400

BRENHAM, Kansas: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1881.
Here is a bag of specimens that I got with Linton Rohr’s collection. It contains crystals, fragments and slices. This stuff is rusty but still shows lots of metal on most pieces. I think Linton had planned on cleaning these up, coating them and then selling them. I kind of thought of that myself (I don’t think it would take too much effort to make the bulk of this material look nice for resale), but just haven’t had the time. Most of the slices are in the 2 to 3cm size range, so they’d make nice specimens when fixed up.

    82.2 grams crystals, fragments, slices in bag - $40

CAMEL DONGA, Australia. HED achondrite (eucrite). Found 1984.
Not sure where I got this piece, just found it hiding with my “new” stuff for offerings material recently. I remember when this meteorite first came out. The pieces were all pitch black covered in super shiny crust. It is not known when this fell, but it could not have been too long before its discovery. This eucrite is strange in that it has a fairly high content of fresh iron (some iron nodules being large enough to, sometimes, make it difficult to split some of these in half). This iron also seems to have made pieces of this meteorite weather fairly rapidly out in nature. Pieces that came out only a few years later had already lost much of the glassy luster of the crust and had substantial amounts of adhering dirt and rust. I can tell that this piece is not one of the earliest pieces recovered but it likely not recovered terribly long after. This does have some (very minor) adhering dirt (mostly down in the contraction cracks In the fusion crust) and there are a few small areas that have lost a bit of the original luster but, overall, it is quite fresh compared to most pieces I have seen available of this meteorite in recent years.

    13.5 gram complete individual – 32mm x 22mm x 10mm - $250

CHINGA, Russia: Iron. Ni-rich ataxite, ungrouped. Found 1913.
This is a piece I sold to a collector out east many years ago. When I go it back I kind of had to say “wow”! This thing looks really, really nice for this meteorite. It has the flattish disk/ lensoidal shape typical for pieces of this meteorite but this has a wonderful solid patina to it. This does not show any of the scaling, flaking that is typical for pieces of this meteorite. This has a really nice chocolate brown, hard somewhat shiny patina covering its surface. No evidence of rust scaling at all. I also know that this has not been cleaned recently to hide any earlier scaling as it still has my original name and weight sticker on it. So, this one is a nice, apparently very stable piece of a rare type meteorite.

    881.9 gram complete, solid individual – 115mm x 70mm x 30mm - $450

MONTURAQUI, Chile, Impact Glass.
Here are a few more pieces of the Monturaqui impact glass that I offered (and quickly sold out of) on a list around a year or so ago. I managed to trade a few more pieces out of the guy that recovered this himself on a trip to the crater back in September of 2014. This is NOT the usual, commonly available “impactities” from this crater (I have some of those for $1/g if anybody wants some). This is actually a light pinkish gray glass that was likely formed from the melting of rhyolite lavas in the area of the crater during impact. It does have some vesicles and rock fragments but far, far less than the black glass cemented fragments of the impactites. I was told that only a few tens of grams of this material was found after intensive searching, so it is likely quite rare. Note: The last piece (on the right) in the group photo of this offering is NOT the 9.5g piece (this one measures 35mm x 25mm x 10mm) but a 2.0 gram piece that was originally supposed to be offered. The 9.5 gram piece now on the list was on hold for a customer who called a few minutes ago (well after the photo had been taken and uploaded) to pass on it (too much $ for them at the moment they decided) and took the 2.0g (the next largest piece I had) instead.

    Fragments as found - $15/g. Sizes available: .73g, .90g, 1.0g, 1.7g, 9.5g

NUEVO MERCURIO, Mexico: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Fell December 15, 1978. Tkw = 200kg.
Here is a specimen that I thought was really two separate partly crusted stones. Well, they are indeed that BUT they also fit together to form one larger stone. Even put together, this still looks like a partly crusted stone as there is one large face that looks to be a fresh break (in addition to chipping of the crust on the back side – quite common on pieces of this meteorite for some reason – probably a tight fall group resulting in lots of collisions between falling pieces or smashing into and rolling around on a hard, rocky surface maybe). However, close inspection of this large fracture surface reveals the presence of very light secondary crust (only a few tiny dots of black crust perched on high points on some areas) so this is actually a very late atmospheric break (however, the break that made this into two pieces is clearly a ground impact break). This comes with an Aerolite (Geoff Notkin) label that notes that this specimen was from the King collection.

    127.6 gram broken individual – 65mm x 25mm x 25mm - $1250

TATAHOUINE, Tunisia: HED achondrite (Diogenite). Fell June 27, 1931. Tkw = 13.5kg +
I have always considered this to be one of the weirdest looking meteorites. It is composed of large, blocky green crystals that have dark shock bands going through it. Years ago, I think this was the ONLY known unbrecciated diogenite. I am not sure if this is still the case, but I would not be surprised if it is as I certainly have not seen anything new similar come out. Anyway, most of this material was in the form of small gravel-sized pieces from sub-gram to a few grams in size maybe (I have a pretty good stash of those things myself). However, I recall when some “large” pieces of this came out and all the excitement that brought about. Usually, meteorites (unlike gold nuggets) get cheaper per gram as their size goes up. Nope, not this time. These large pieces were commanding huge premiums – I think around $100/g (when the small pieces were lucky to bring $15 or $20/g) was pretty common. Well, the person I got this piece from did indeed pay around $100/g for it. He got it from Robert Haag. No invoice or card came with it but it does have the original bag it came in with Robert’s very recognizable (to me anyway) hand writing saying “Tatahouine Diogenite 12g” on it (I have added the correct weight of 11.9g). Neat piece, neat meteorite and quite rare in this size.
    11.9 gram large fragment as found – 25mm x 19mm x 10mm - $500

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 219

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 219

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

                            LIST 219

October 10, 2018

Dear collectors,

Here is the e-mail version of my recently mailed list. This (and the mailed paper version) went out quite a bit later than I normally like to send my “after Denver” lists. I had forgotten that I had made plans (waaaaay back in February or March) to go with friends for a long weekend goof-off trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota (got back from that on the first and then had to turn right around and head back to Denver for a watch and clock convention (where I get many parts, tools and watches to fix). This is normally held in mid July but, for some reason, was cancelled and rescheduled to October 5th and 6th. Anyway, here (finally) is my most recent list.

NWA (6903): Iron. Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 2008. Tkw = 50kg.
This is material I have had set aside for quite some years now. I got these (very) few slices with the expectation that I’d get more when it was prepared (cut, etched, etc.) Well, all of the prep happened, but I never got the chance to get more material (it seems that it all sold to others before I even knew it was ready). I hesitate to even offer this little amount of material on one of these catalogs but I don’t want to simply leave it sitting in a box forever either. All of these are “one of a kind” so act fast if you want a particular specimen. All are “complete” slices (no cut edges) and are etched on both sides.
1) Etched complete slices:

a) 11.0 grams - 20mm x 17mm x 4mm - sold
b) 47.8 grams - 45mm x 37mm x 5mm - sold
c) 90.7 grams - 90mm x 40mm x 4mm - $300
d) 220.3 grams - 85mm x 80mm x 4mm - $650

NWA (7254): Ordinary chondrite, (L3.4), W2. Found before Sept.. 2004. Tkw = 1447 grams.
This is one that I had to submit multiple times before it finally got classified, taking years to finally get finished. I had a fair amount of this but now have only a couple hundred grams. I sold a bunch while it was waiting to get published. This is a nice looking meteorite – lots of lighter-colored chondrules in a light to medium brown matrix - and is one that tends to sell itself whenever I have shown someone a piece of it. Helping it sell fast is also the fact that this is actually a REALLY rare meteorite type, far rarer than I realized until now. There are only 5 total L3.4s (including this one) known from outside of Antarctica. Of those, only the 433g NWA (2960) MIGHT be available to collectors! Even more interesting is that a slice of this meteorite (now at UNM) had a large (2cm) rectangular ‘exotic” inclusion that studies showed to be very similar (in texture and mineralogy) to the rare Brachinite type achondrite. Sorry, I don’t have any pieces remaining that show this, unfortunately.
1) Slices:

a) 1.2 grams - 13mm x 11mm x 3mm - $24
b) 2.7 grams - 23mm x 16mm x 2mm - $54
c) 6.5 grams - 40mm x 25mm x 2mm - $130
d) 17.8 grams - 47mm x 35mm x 4mm - sold
e) 46.8 grams - 65mm x 47mm x 4mm - $750 – complete slice.

2) 82.9 gram end piece with cut edge – 62mm x 55mm x 10mm - $1200.00 – Main Mass.

QUITOVAC, Mexico: Ordinary chondrite (L6). Found October 12, 2017. Tkw =  about 17kg.
Originally, 5 pieces totaling 9.11kg of this meteorite were found by a group of people looking for gold using metal detectors near the village of Quitovac in Sonora, Mexico. A further 8kg of fragments and individuals were brought to light in early 2018. Despite the Meteoritcal Bulletin report indicating that this is fairly weathered material (indicating that the research work was done on a more weathered subsurface find), the pieces I have here are quite bright and fresh. Though some pieces do have some attached caliche, most of the natural exterior surfaces show fairly fresh fusion crust and fracture surfaces. The interior is really quite fresh, showing nearly white chondrules, bright metal (often surrounded by an orange halo) in a light tan, nearly white matrix. I do have a few (mostly larger) end pieces and individuals available.
1) Slices:

a) 5.0 grams - 22mm x 17mm x 5mm - $13
b) 10.1 grams - 30mm x 18mm x 6mm - $25
c) 20.1 grams - 40mm x 38mm x 5mm - $50
d) 45.1 grams - 57mm x 45mm x 5mm - $110
e) 91.0 grams - 78mm x 63mm x 5mm - $215
f) 189.0 grams - 140mm x 95mm x 5mm - $425
g) 466.3 grams - 215mm x 170mm x 5mm - $1000 – nice complete slice.

NWA (11516): HED achondrite (Eucrite, polymict). Found before Sept. 2016. Tkw = 1234.6g
I wanted to put an HED on this list as I finally got to see their origin (Vesta) back in June and July. I don’t know my way around the sky but did manage to nail it down and see its progress across the sky over several weeks (before wildfire smoke moved in and wiped out pretty much all sky viewing). Anyway, this is a brecciated meteorite that has clasts (white, gray, brown, etc.) of various sizes and some metal grains in a medium gray matrix. This closely resembles a Howardite, which it would have been if it had a bit more diogenite in it (this fell just short of the required 10% to qualify). This stuff is neat as parts of it (some clasts and some thin veins) fluoresce a light yellow green (and phosphoresce some as well) under my Convoy UV light. I think most of this is from terrestrial carbonate contamination but cool none the less.
1) Slices:

a) 1.5 grams - 15mm x 12mm x 3mm - $15
b) 3.0 grams - 24mm x 15mm x 3mm - $30
c) 6.2 grams - 40mm x 18mm x 3mm - $60
d) 10.2 grams - 42mm x 26mm x 3mm - $95 – complete slice.
e) 20.6 grams - 47mm x 42mm x 3mm - $190 – complete slice.

2) End pieces:

a) 38.3 grams - 60mm x 40mm x 10mm - $300
b) 57.1 grams - 47mm x 45mm x 15mm - $440

SERICHO, Kenya: Stony-iron (pallasite). Recognized 2016. Tkw = tons.
I know, I offered pieces this stuff on this same “after Denver” list last year. However, when I put out that list I did not have any small end pieces or individuals to offer. I do now! I managed to pick up bag of nice small individuals this past spring. I cleaned them up (soda blasted) a bit to remove dirt. Some I left intact and others I split in half. So, here is a great chance for those of you that want to have an affordable nice complete or cut piece of a pallasite in their collection. I am noticing some minor brown staining on some of the cut pieces, so I am pricing these cheap and cannot give long-term stability assurances on these particular pieces (but then, Linda has been running a humidifier in the house, thanks to the incredibly/ unbelievably dry conditions we have had the 6months or so I have had these cut pieces sitting around).
1) Complete individuals:

a) 17.8 grams - 30mm x 22mm x 15mm - $27
b) 32.9 grams - 33mm x 27mm x 16mm - $49
c) 59.1 grams - 38mm x 35mm x 20mm - $89
d) 95.6 grams - 53mm x 40mm x 20mm - $143
e) 183.7 grams - 50mm x 45mm x 40mm - $275

2) End pieces:

a) 13.0 grams - 30mm x 18mm x 10mm - $26
b) 25.1 grams - 40mm x 30mm x 10mm - $50
c) 36.8 grams - 40mm x 30mm x 15mm - $74
d) 69.3 grams - 55mm x 40mm x 20mm - $139 – only one this size.
e) 109.7 grams - 60mm x 35mm x 20mm - $219

K-T BOUNDARY SAMPLE: Slope County, North Dakota.
Here is an interesting item I picked up at the Denver show while an electrical issue had my show room closed for an entire day (Sunday the 9th). This destroyed sales for the day but gave me a chance to get out and see things I’d normally completely miss – like this item. This is a 6cm long, 15mm diameter glass vial filled with dirt. The lower (K) section is light gray, the middle (the actual K-T ash, fallout layer) is black and the top (T) is light tan. These are NOT samples as found in the field. The folks that made these collected material from each layer and then put these little vials together (in proper as found order if not in actual as found thickness) using that collected material. A neat and affordable K-T boundary item. These each come with a color post card telling a little about them and the extinction event.
    15mm diameter 6cm long glass vial with the three different layers - $8 each

Please note:
    I do have “group photos” of each lot of material above I can e-mail to those who want (please tell me what material you want a photo of). These contain the exact pieces cataloged under each name. I often have duplicate (well, similar sized anyway) pieces of many listed items. I generally send the first folks to order an item the largest available for the size. You can request the exact pictured piece if it is still available however.
 Shipping:  The post office has, once again, raised rates quite substantially. For small US orders $4 is now needed. Larger orders are now $6 to $14 (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 $13 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $15.
    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.  How ever, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail.

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 218- Admire, coins, graphite, etc.18

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487             
                                                                                                                                 
LIST 218- 
Admire, coins, graphite, etc.


August 21, 2018

Dear collectors,

Once again, I really hesitated to post this offering, as there tend to be very few people interested in meteorites during these (still far too hot where I live) summer days. I know that the entire continent of Europe is almost entirely shut down the month of August as most folks tend to take this month off for vacation (except for the poor folks stuck in the work/ businesses that need to serve all of those vacationers). However, I do have some really neat (all be it generally on the more expensive side) items I picked up months ago that I thought I’d offer up to you my direct customers before they get put out on display at the soon (far too soon) to be here Denver Show.

DENVER SHOW INFO:
I will be gone from home September 4th through the 17th (and possibly a day or two more). I will be at the same spot as last year – Crowne Plaza (just north of I-70 at Chambers Rd - exit #283 – 15500 E. 40th Ave, Denver, CO 80239 for those of you that want to enter the address into a GPS). Some folks were caught by surprise that our show had moved when they went to the old spot (what was the Holiday Inn for decades but then became a Ramada for awhile but may be something different these days) last year and did not find a show. I did get to talk with a few such people, a couple of which never made it to my new location.

The more specifics: My selling space is a conference room called “Frisco” on the West side of the building (near the hotel itself), whereas the “Main entrance” for the big showroom part of the show is on the East side of the conference building structure. If you park on the West side, near the hotel, and come through the glass doors to the right of the sign that says “Conference Center” on the lower building (to the left of the actual hotel entrance) and turn right IMMEDIATELY after passing through those doors, you will be looking right into my showroom. Don’t get confused if you see beautiful slabs of petrified wood displayed along the back wall – Mike Murphy of Murph’s pertified wood (a long time friend) is using that space. The rest of the room is mine. If you do park on the East side of the conference structure, you’ll have a somewhat long and winding walk to reach me (all indoors, so no worries about weather issues, just exercise). Barring any disasters, I should be open by 10am Friday the 7th. If things go well, I may even be open late the afternoon of the 6th. The official show opening time has changed this year. It was 9am last year but is 10am this year. Some folks (those that sell supplies to the dealers) will be open at 9am. As I did fairly well in the mornings last year I will likely try and stick to a 9am opening time myself this year (though it may be a hair later some days. It was a bit difficult to get everything done that needed to be done and open at 9am some days last year). Evenings: I will certainly stay open after the show’s official close of 6pm (being able to do this was the whole point of getting my own selling room). Last year I did not have a lot of visitors after hours. But then, I didn’t realize that they’d be locking those Conference Center glass doors just outside my door right around 6:30 either. I didn’t get the chance to warn people of this last year (so I am sure many folks simply turned around and left when they found those doors locked. Unfortunately, you really can’t see into my room and see that I am still open from outside those sliding doors either). I plan to stay open until at least 9pm each night, possibly later if folks are still visiting (though, if I hope to open by 9 the next morning, I can’t stay open drastically later). So, if you do come by to visit after 6:30 or so and find the conference center doors already locked, go in through the hotel lobby, turn left after leaving the check-in area, left again when you come to the restaurant area and my room is down the hall another 100 feet maybe. The show officially runs through September 15th. I plan to stay the full length, but will likely close at 6pm on the final day so I can begin the long arduous task of packing.

I will have a cell phone with me but it will only be turned on while I am at the show and as it is a pay by the minute thing I can’t freely chat too much. The number is  (970) 417-8783. I don’t recall how well this worked from inside my selling cage (having no windows, I barely ever got see the sun/ sky the entire show last year) so there may be issues, so don’t get upset if I don’t answer, can’t retrieve messages right away. Regardless, messages may be a problem. In Creede I found that I had a message or two but could not retrieve them. It seems that the message system is demanding a “pass code” for me to do so. I have never needed one before, never asked to change my service this way nor have I been notified of this change (and what ever the “default” pass code is currently). So, if I can’t get this weird issue resolved soon, I may NOT be able to retrieve messages on my phone, unfortunately.

Anyway, on to the list!

LIST 218

ADMIRE, Kansas: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1881.
These are pieces I’ve had laying around uncoated, unprotected for at least a year before I bothered to do anything (polish and coat) with them. They each had some rust but it wasn’t drastic and didn’t seem to be developing any further (and certainly wasn’t doing the oozing, crumbling, crystals falling out thing as many Admire specimens like to do). They have been sitting around out in the open (no special care, storage, etc. Just sitting in a cardboard box in a corner of my office) for at least 6 months since I did the prep work on them. Looking really, really closely (and with a little imagination) you can see a few tiny brown dots on these (but you really do have to look) but no real rusting! However, I do live in a dry (really dry this summer) climate so I’d suggest taking at least some precautions storing these if you live in a humid climate. Regardless, I think these will prove to be among the most stable Admire pieces you have ever had. I have two end pieces and one thick slice. All pieces show multi-colored olivine crystals (with many bright green gemmy ones). The larger end piece has more olivine percentage wise but in generally smaller highly angular pieces whereas the other two specimens have less overall olivine but in larger (and somewhat more gemmy) olivine crystals. Really nice and pretty specimens!a) 136.3 gram end piece – 80mm x 35mm x 15mm - $275
b) 152.3 gram end piece – 70mm x 60mm x 20mm - $300
c) 384.1 gram part slice (has one cut edge) – 130mm x 65mm x 11mm - $750

ANCIENT METEORITE COIN: Seleucid Kings of Syria. Antiochas I. 280 – 261BC.
Nope, these are NOT made out of meteorite (had this misunderstanding quite a lot when I offered these in the past, despite my best attempts to explain otherwise). These are some of the earliest coins that have a DEPICTION of what is supposedly a meteorite on them. In this case, the ‘meteorite” is the pointed rock that the figure (Apollo in this case) is sitting on. Though this “listing” is really for an amazing tetradrachm (a large silver coin that I really, really considered keeping) I do have a few of the (basically same design) small bronze coins for $60 each and one drachm sliver coin (3.73 grams, 15mm diameter) for $300 (these will be with the large silver coin in the group photo).
    Fantastic silver tetradrachm (16.46grams, 30mm diameter) - $800  

DAR Al GANI (749), Libya: Carbobaceous chondrite (CO3). Found 1999. Tkw = around 95 kilograms.
I am pretty certain that the person I got this from got it from me many years ago. While pieces of this (and its many pairings) were commonly available back then, there is not a lot of it (not really any large amounts of any of the Libyan finds really) around now. Anyway, this is a nice natural fragment/ individual (though the shape makes me lean more towards fragment in this case) as found. It has nice smooth surfaces and edges and, thanks to wind-polishing, it is easy to see the internal structure (tiny chondrules) showing that this is indeed a piece of a CO3 meteorite.
    29.6 gram natural fragment as found – 40mm x 30mm x 15mm - $120

DHOFAR (020), Oman: Ordinary chondrite (H4/5). Found 2000. Tkw = around 256 kilograms.
For a weathered meteorite, this is actually a pretty cool specimen. It has a nice dark chocolate brown wind-polished color. It has some large cracks (that still have trapped desert quartz sand grains stuck in them) but yet seems really solid (nope, not going to drop it on a concrete floor to test it though). There is actually quite a lot of obvious (but wind-polished) thumb-printed fusion crust surfaces on this specimen (making up over 50% of the exterior actually) A neat example of a weathered, but easily identifiable (thanks to those fusion crusted surfaces) meteorite.
    738.9 gram individual/ fragment as found – 90mm x 70mm x 60mm - $200

GRAPHITE NODULE: Canyon Diablo, Arizona.
I got these as part of a collection (along with several of the other pieces listed here) I bought back early this spring (and then proceeded to forget about the box these were hidden in). Recently, I had a potential customer contact me and ask about Graphite nodules about a month ago. This reminded me of the “lost” (forgotten) box of collection material (of which I then remembered these were part). I sent off a couple pictures of these specimens (so I do have a couple pictures more of these than just their presence in this offering’s group photo) but never heard back. So, now that I’ve weighed and “cataloged” these, I am going to offer them here and now. One (the largest) is a really nice complete solid nodule as found. The other pieces are end pieces (resulting from splitting another nodule) that show nice metal veining inside (though this feature didn’t show up real well in pictures, despite considerable effort on our part). These are all really nice pieces of an interesting and now rarely seen material these days.a) 26.2 gram end piece – 35mm x 30mm x 15mm - $50
b) 33.7 gram end piece – 38mm x 30mm x 12mm - $60
c) 87.1 gram complete nodule – 40mm x 37mm x 30mm - $130

TUXTUAC, Mexico: Ordinary chondrite (LL5). Fell October 16, 1975. Tkw = 20+ kilograms.
Originally, two pieces totaling 4.25kg were recovered. Later (in 1989) another 25kg piece was found. Robert Haag got this piece but not without some issues. It seems that the folks that had it busted it up into many small fragments trying to find the gold, diamonds, etc that MUST be in the stone to make it worth so much. Of coarse, no such things were in it but we, as collectors, are left with mostly fragments of this meteorite. This is indeed likely one of the fragments that resulted from this “problem”. I say likely because I can’t be certain it is from that 25kg mass or a later piece (I think a couple small pieces turned up later) as this does have some minor weathering to it. This is indeed mostly broken fragment surfaces but it does have a patch of (nicely thumb-printed) fusion crust on one end (I’ll try to capture this in the group photo).     106.2 gram fragment with crust on one end – 60mm x 30mm x 30mm - $700

ZAGORA, Morocco: Silicated iron (IAB). Found 1987. Tkw =  20+ kilograms.
It has been a long while since I have had a piece of this meteorite. I thought about cutting this in half to show the silicated interior but decided to leave it as it is as it has a neat sculpted shape (that likely resulted from the softer silicates eroding away easier than the surrounding iron). This is a complete, as found (right down to the small amount of local dirt still adhering to the piece) specimen. As already mentioned, this has a neat shape with a nice mostly smooth dark chocolate brown surface. A nice piece of a now rarely seen meteorite.    104.3 gram individual as found – 70mm x 25mm x 20mm - $550  

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 217

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

                            LIST 217

July 17, 2018

Dear collectors,

Here is an offering that is a batch of things that I have picked up while I was doing the (popular) Rohr collection offerings or had set aside earlier and forgot about. I kind of hesitate to do summer time offerings like this as few folks are home and those that are generally have their minds elsewhere other than collecting in the summer months (so responses are generally minimal if any to July and August offerings). However, today is a scheduled offering day, I did have a few interesting things to offer and I did want to take this chance to make a couple announcements.

First, I will be out of town early next month (August 2nd through the 7th) for the Creede mineral show, hiking, visiting some folks and maybe picking some mushrooms (assuming we actually GET any this year. It has been so dry and looks like it will continue to be that it might be another no mushroom year similar to last year). The show itself runs 10AM to 5 or 6pm Friday through Sunday (the 3rd, 4th and 5th – with Sunday being the earlier closing time). They talked about moving the show to a big new tin building to the south of town but I think that ended up being turned into a school so the mineral show is in the usual (neat) spot inside the mountain on the north end of town.

Other announcement: I have a customer desperately seeking a complete Allende individual in the 150 to 180 gram size range (obviously, the two listed below and all the other pieces I have are far to small). He has contacted me several times over the past few months checking to see if I have found anything. Nope, nothing suitable so far. So, if anyone out there has such a thing they might consider selling, let me know.

LIST 217

ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
Here are a couple small pieces that came in with collections I picked up fairly recently. The smaller (fragment) is very fresh and has lots of CAIs. The larger (individual) came labeled as “possibly Murchison”. Well, they had the carbonaceous chondrite part right but this is certainly a nice Allende individual and NOT Murchison (unfortunately). This is also quite fresh but it does show a little (very little) bit of adhering dirt so it was likely not picked up right after the fall, but certainly not long after. This is a complete individual, but it does have the usual chipped crust areas and edges that pretty much all Allendes have.

a) 6.1 gram fragment – 20mm x 13mm x 13mm - $60 – 11mm x 8mm patch of crust, lots of CAIs.
b) 20.1 gram individual – 30mm x 20mm x 18mm - $200 – about 80% crusted  

BAZINE CREEK, Kansas: Ordinary chondrite (L4). Found April 15, 2014. Tkw = 438 grams.
Here are some pieces of a meteorite that I didn’t even know existed before a couple weeks ago. This was found by a guy looking for arrowheads and noticed that it looked unusual. A friend of this person had found (and sold) a meteorite to a collector/ dealer and suggested that he contact that person. Well, the rest is history and these slices are part of the results. This material is nothing special. It shows some nice obvious chondrules in a medium to dark orange/brown matrix. I only have relatively small slices in hand right now (the ones listed below) but I can get the main mass (116g end piece - $1000) and have some pictures of that if anyone is interested. I have left these as I received them – mostly unpolished (as this is relatively fragile material) so most of these pieces show some saw marks. The largest slice here is a complete slice and comes with an Allen Shaw Collection label.
1) Slices:

a) 1.1grams – 18mm x 8mm x 4mm - $11
 b) 2.9 grams – 24mm x 16mm x 4mm - $29
 c) 3.4 grams – 25mm x 17mm x 4mm - $34
d) 8.3 grams – 43mm x 23mm x 4mm - $83

        e) 16.8 grams – 52mm x 40mm x 3mm - $160 – complete slice, comes with label.
2) Small fragments in a bag – about .3grams - $5 – Not in photo (I forgot about these).

NICKEL BLOOM/ TREES:
As I collect pure elements, I have seen plenty of small, lumpy balls of nickel. I have even seen a couple “trees” like these. However, this is a particularly neat display because it has 3 different sized trees welded to a 5cm-diameter iron disk. So this makes for a much nicer paper weight/ display than just having a tree or two (or the lumpy balls that I have in my collection). I ran the XRF on these and they are mostly pure nickel. I did pick up a trace (1% or so) of Cobalt on one of them.

    3 nickel trees on 5cm iron disk display - $50

NWA (unstudied): Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Found before Feb. 2018. Tkw = 37 grams.
I got this from a person who got it from a Moroccan, hoping it was a pallsite. There was indeed a rather large (8mm or so) olivine looking crystal (partly wind eroded) on one surface so this was not a pie in the sky hope. Upon polishing down the flattest surface, it quickly became clear that this was a mesosiderite and not a pallasite. There is the large crystal (well, the remains of it after weathering a plucking while sanding) but the rest of it has a nice fresh mesosiderite texture; a nice mix of similar sized iron and silicate grains (with the silicates being around twice the area of the metal overall). Nice looking stuff, wish more of it was available, I’d love to have bigger pieces of this to get studied and offer. Unfortunately, this was the ONLY piece available.

    36.5 gram end piece – 28mm x 25mm x 20mm - $180

PLAINVIEW (1917), Texas: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Found 1917 but likely fell 1903.
This is a complete slice that has nice (somewhat weathered) fusion crust covering the entire edge. The edge also shows that the whole stone had some nice sculpting to it. The interior is a bit dark (this is obviously a later/ more recent recovery piece), but does still show metal, troilite and breccia fragments. The only real issue with this piece is that it is quite wedged – having thickness varying from 6mm to 12mm. A nice (affordable, per gram wise anyway) piece of a fairly famous meteorite none the less.

    160.2 gram complete slice – 80mm x 60mm x 9mm - $275

TAMBO QUEMADO, Peru: Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1950. Tkw = 141 kilograms.
This is one of my favorite etched meteorites. Most meteorites loose their etch when they have been heated. Tambo was highly heated at some point (in an attempt to either melt or torch cut it I suspect) but this seems to have only helped the structure show upon etching somehow. The heating somehow seems to have created more contrast in the etch (some areas are distinctly darkened) making the etch one of the more vibrant in the meteorite world. I have seen a few etched Tambo pieces that were cut from a section of the meteorite that was (supposedly) not heated and they really didn’t look like much to me.  This is a little rectangular etched sample (no natural edges) is from the heated material and does show this better etch fairly well (though it could stand to have it etched a bit deeper. I didn’t try this as I, frankly, pretty much suck at etching).

    19.5 gram etched rectangular sample – 23mm x 20mm x 5mm - $135

TIERACO CREEK, Australia: Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1922. Tkw = 41.7 kilograms.
Here is an interesting item I got dropped off with me quite late during this past Tucson show. If I had it earlier (and knew of how little of it is in private hands) I would have easily sold this there at the show. This is NOT an impressive specimen. It is kind of half way between iron and shale. The best way to describe this is as a “spall fragment” (that has also spalled a 1.7g smaller piece and a few crumbs). Interestingly, the description of this meteorite in the 3 volume Buchwald Iron Meteorites book set describe exactly this concerning the Tieraco Creek meteorite (mentioning that it clearly had a shape sculpted by this exact spalling and had such layers coming off of it in places). Now on to the rarity of this stuff. I personally have never had or seen a piece of this meteorite in all my years of collecting/ dealing. I also have access to a collection list of a person who probably has (or had – I think some of the pieces have since been offered for sale) the largest collection of iron meteorites known (in different names, not necessarily by weight) and they did not have even a crumb of this one. Ths label that comes with this specimen looks to be fairly old (1970’s perhaps) and is from a dealer I have never heard of (Apple Valley Minerals Ltd. Salavella- Fred Cororan of Rhode Island).
    69.1 gram spall fragment and crumbs – 65mm x 55mm x 7mm - $690

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 216--Rohr collection part 5

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 216-- Rohr collection part 5

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

LIST 216

June 12, 2018

Dear collectors,

Here is the fifth Rohr collection offering. This was supposed to go out last week, but I needed to go to Denver Wednesday and figured it best not to send out a list and have only one day to be here to respond/ pack orders (though I got delayed and actually ended up leaving Thursday). Any offerings I send out the next month or so may end up being on an abnormal schedule (I originally planned to have lists, assuming I had something to offer, go out the first and third Tuesday of each month so folks would have some idea when to look for them). Linda’s mom (my mother in law) went into assisted living last Tuesday. It seems that as I know how to clean up/ out a house full of stuff (had to do this for my mom, aunt and uncle) the bulk of the cleanup work is on my shoulders. So, I will be going to Denver off and on the next month or so going through the process of cleanup, hauling trash, setting up and running estate sales in hopes to get the house on the market as soon as possible. This is a difficult, tedious and sometimes very dirty (as was the case this past weekend when I cleaned out the back patio, garage and storage sheds) job, but I have been in this rodeo a number of times before and know how to handle it. I have no set schedule for all of this but will try to leave an answering machine message for those of you that call letting you know when I am gone and when I expect to back. As far as e-mail is concerned – Nope, I won’t have any while on the road doing this job, unfortunately. Not only will I not have the time (I am averaging 12 to 14 hour work days in this job), the phone and associated internet service has already been shut off at the house (already transferred to Linda’s mom’s new place).

CAMEL DONGA, Australia: HED achondrite (Eucrite). Found January 1984. Tkw = about 30 kilograms.
I remember when pieces of this first came out. Wow – they had really fresh and super shiny black crust. This is a “find” so we don’t know when it fell but I’d guess that it was very, very close to when it was found. I say this because the pieces of this meteorite that came to market quickly started showing weathering (this meteorite does have sometimes large nodules of fresh iron in it). Specimens that were coming out just a year or two after its first recover were already showing a little bit of yellow dirt staining and loss of shiny areas of the crust. A few more years down the road and some piece were looking pretty bad. This piece is not one that was part of the first recoveries, but it is close. This does have some very minor dirt staining and a couple small areas where the crust has dulled a bit, but not much. Overall, this is still a very nice little shiny crusted complete eucrite specimen. This also comes with an IMPACTIKA label (that had this priced at $175 and then lowered to $150).
5.06 gram complete crusted individual – 18mm x 15mm x 8mm - $100

CANYAO DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
Here is another (the last, actually) of the really neat thin/ sculpted Canyon Diablo pieces Linton had. I am not uncertain that this was the thinnest (overall) of all the specimens. A neat piece that really looks like it was formed by someone playing with clay. This has been wire-brushed but probably could use a light touch-up (I have left it as I got it). This comes with a Linton Rohr Collection label.
69.2 gram thin/sculpted individual – 55mm x 40mm x 10mm - $70

DHOFAR (373), Oman: Ordinary chondrite (H6). Found October 8, 2000. Tkw = 383 grams.
This is an end that, though highly wind-polished, has a nice, rounded shape to the back-side (so this is NOT a broken fragment). The interior is the usual Oman meteorite find mottled medium to dark brown interior but it does still show a moderate amount of fresh metal flakes scattered throughout (less common for these Dhofar things). Most of the weathered Dhofar stones I have had over the years are L5 or L6 things, this is distinctly different as it is an H6. The best part about this stone is that it represents a bit more than 1/3rd of the whole piece that was classified under this number. I am not going to say that there aren’t other pieces that would pair to this, but at least this stone was obviously an individual and not just a fragment of a larger piece that had different Dhofar numbers assigned to it (though I really have not noticed this problem as much with the Oman stuff as with the “Sahara” and NWA material). A decent little display piece and possibly the “Main Mass” if much of any of the rest of the stone was cut into slices. This comes with a “Sergey Vasiliev Meteorites” label.
135.6 grams end piece – 57mm x 38mm x 22mm - $185

NWA (1664): HED achondrite (Howardite). Found 2002. Tkw = 6310 grams.
Now this is a fresh howardite! This has lots of different colored (mostly small – a few mm or so) fragments (white, gray, black, tan and even some nice bright green glassy spots) in a very light gray matrix. This has two labels with it. One is a “the Lintonius Collection” and another (likely the original one that Linton got with the specimen) that touts this meteorite to be “Unique” having KREEP and chondrule like glasses up to 1cm. This piece is a roughly square thin slice (so no natural edge that would have likely been coated with fresh black crust) in a 2” x 2” plastic display box.
4.5 gram slice – 29mm x 27mm x 2mm - $70

NWA (7045): Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 2011.
Well, the Big Kahuna label that comes with this piece has it as “NWA x (unclassified)” but I fully recognize this material. I had a fair amount of it (and likely still have a small bag of it in storage somewhere) a few years ago. This was the NWA pallasite that had somehow (like Huckitta, Australia) managed to have all of its metal converted to magnetite and hematite without completely blowing itself apart. So, like Huckitta, this nice little end piece shows a number of nice (quite large) olivine crystals in a dark blue-gray matrix of magnetite and hematite. As mentioned above, the Big Kahuna label has this “unclassified” so I am putting in one of my NWA (7045) labels to go with this.
13.2 gram end piece – 35mm x 20mm x 8mm - $40

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Coarsest octahedrite (IIAB). Fell February 12, 1947.
This is a fusion crusted individual that has been cleaned. It has not been super harshly cleaned – as some of the material I have seen available lately for “bargain” ($2.50/g and under) pieces of this stuff. This piece still has a fair amount of actual fusion crust patches on 2/3rds of its surface (one side seems to be missing this). Anyway, a good but not great individual (and priced accordingly).
64.6 gram thumb-printed individual – 30mm x 27mm x 20mm - $145

WILLAMETTE, Oregon: Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1902. Tkw = 14,100kg.
This, unfortunately, is not the real iron portion of this meteorite but 4 small pieces of the exterior shale. Years ago, I used to get pieces of this from time to time, but have not seen any available in a long time. This “specimen” consists of four roughly equal sized pieces (around 1cm each). No label came with these (they look completely proper to me) – they were just in a clear bag with “Willamette, 2g, #220681” written with a black sharpie on it.
2.2 grams – 4 pieces - $30

PRIVACY STATEMENT

PRIVACY STATEMENT - Blaine Reed Meteorites- Yahoo Groups and Google Blogger
(May 29, 2018 version)

Hi Folks,

It seems that I am being required to make a privacy announcement to all of you that are current members of my brmeteorites_list group and more (and it also seems that I will have to find a way to send this to anyone new who signs up for the group – even though I don’t personally know who new members are or when they sign up).

Dirk Ross, who takes my Yahoo groups postings and (kindly and thankfully) re-posts them on an open to the public blog contacted me last Wednesday (the day before I was leaving for Denver) telling me that I MUST quickly produce and make public a “privacy policy”. It seems that new privacy laws in Europe require this of me (under penalty of law) as I do indeed have some customers in Europe. I was told that I needed to make a privacy policy, get it to my European customers and give them the chance to be removed from my systems if they don’t like what they see (I am extending this option to folks everywhere, not just to those in Europe). He (Dirk) sent me a copy of a privacy policy from another collecting/ hobby site for my review and alteration for my needs. Well, I did indeed look through that particular privacy police notice briefly but a) I didn’t have time to do anything (I was leaving early the next morning) and b) felt most of this particular privacy statement had nothing to do with me or the various ways I reach people (this collecting site had log in user name and passwords, used cookies and had direct on site purchasing capabilities). As such, I completely ignored the situation for the time being. However, once I got back home 4 days later, I found a message that, due to my inaction on the subject, Dirk had felt the need to indeed take much of the text of the active collecting site’s privacy policy and post it as a front page of the blog he set up for publicly posting offerings from my Yahoo groups list. Some of you may have already seen this. My concern is that many of you may become somewhat concerned, given the rather detailed nature of that particular privacy statement (it has mentions of tracking, cookies, user names, passwords and purchase records). Here I want to set straight what is MY privacy policies. Anyone who feels, after reading this post, that these are not acceptable, please contact me and I will remove you from my brmeteorites_list Yahoo groups membership, e-mail contacts list and/or my hard copy customer file (there is nothing I can do if you are seeing things through the blog re-posts other than say – don’t visit the blog site if you have concerns).


Customer records kept:

First, I DO keep some records. I have an old-fashioned card file (3” x 5”) that has customer cards that contain customer name, address, phone and or e-mail. These cards also have notes as to purchases but only the month/year the purchase was made and the total amount. I use the purchase data for two reasons. First is that if I have not heard from a particular customer for considerable time (several years – longer if the customer had shown a fairly consistent purchasing pattern in earlier years) I remove them from my mailing list (yes, many of you do know that I do still actually periodically mail a paper catalog). I have also found these purchase notes to be highly helpful for retrieving info for customers later. I have had customers that have needed for me to look up something they purchased earlier (need the cost, size, date, etc) and these brief notes allow me (though with considerable difficulty, so please don’t ask for this unless it is really needed) to usually find the info they need. So, these purchase notes are mostly for controlling my mailing list but also can be used for the customer’s benefit (when really needed).

Customer credit card information:

I don’t keep credit card info records, much to the chagrin of customers who like to say “just put it on my card”. Each time a customer wants to make a credit card purchase I have them give me the required data either over the phone (most common), as several coded e-mails (rarely) or by fax (pretty much the only reason I still have a fax is that some overseas customers, rightly, feel more secure providing the needed data that way than by e-mails). When I am done processing a credit card order the card info (numbers, expiration and such) get dropped through a cross-cut paper shredder. If the card info was sent to me through several coded e-mails those e-mails are deleted as soon as I am done with the transaction (and I do not “respond” to any such e-mails as this takes the data in that particular e-mail and re-sends it back through the system. If any further contact is needed, it is done through a fresh new subject e-mail, not by responding to ANY e-mail that contains any portion of credit card data). The receipts that are generated by my credit card processing machine (which uses a land-line phone connection, not internet or cell phone) do not have your card info on them (years ago some did) – only the last 4 digits of the card and nothing else. Even those records (along with the actual receipt books of the sales that year) get tossed into a fire pit when I clean out old tax records later (usually around 7 years later, as that is how long the IRS requires me to hold onto tax records and the supporting paperwork).

Selling/ giving out of customer’s data:

Nope never have and don’t plan on ever doing it. I see this info as property of the customer, not mine (this policy has already cost me a big customer and friend – I’ll explain below). Years ago, I did have a new to the field dealer offer me $5k for my customer list (and, at the time, that $5k would have really helped). Despite the consultations of a famous now retired meteorite and mineral dealer telling me to sell, I did not. That new dealer went on to become super successful without the help of my customer list none the less. Another person (the big customer and friend mentioned above) wanted to do a book on pallasites and wanted a list of the people with collections of pallasites. This person was REALLY BIG in his main field (coins) and had done some really fantastic books along these lines. I still have his book on US silver dollars and it is an absolute thrill to read. It has history of each coin: general news of the year, area it was minted, how many were made, how many (and in what grade) are accounted for in large collections and estimates of how many are likely in small collections and sock drawers. Anyway, he really, really wanted to do a similar book for pallasites (it would have indeed been really interesting as well). He contacted me wanting me to give him a list of pretty much every person who ever bought a pallasite specimen from me, what different pallasites they had bought over the years and what sizes the pieces were. I politely declined. Unfortunately, it didn’t end at that. The demands for the info (he knew I had it) got rather heated at times. I finally explained to him that though I DID have the info he was asking for it was NOT mine to give. The best I could offer was that I could ask folks that had bought pallasites from me if they would like to have them and their collection as part of a book. No good, the author felt he needed all the data, not just of those willing to participate, to make the book factual and useful (true, I suppose). Anyway, what relationship I had with this person pretty much ended over this. So, the gist of this is – I have never sold personal customer info (either contact or purchases) and don’t plan to.

Data collected and used by Yahoo and the site hosting the blog re-posts:

I think this is the part Dirk was the most concerned over. Unfortunately though, I have no idea or control over what info these folks gather and how they use it. Yahoo, obviously, has your e-mail address (those of you that have joined the brmeteorites_list group anyway) or they wouldn’t be able to send you my groups postings. Yahoo also likely has some data on you if you are in my e-mail “contacts” list. As for the blog hosting site, I have no idea for certain but I would not be the least bit surprised if they have cookies (that are usually used for tracking and advertising purposes) and possibly more. Again, I have absolutely no control over this part of the equation. The only protection against this open door is to not visit the blog site, be removed from the brmeteorties_list group membership and/ or my e-mail “contacts” list. As for the parts of the brmeteorites_list group I can control: I did purposely set up the group so that members do not receive and cannot see each other’s e-mail addresses (but then, I am not certain it could be any other way, given that I am the only one that can post anything). I suppose it is possible that some computer hacker could figure out how to hack their way to that data if they really felt it was worth the time and effort though (something else that I really have no real control over).


I am sure I have forgotten to address something. Please let me know if I have and I’ll try to deal with it as I am notified of my failings. It is just that I am not very computer savvy and really don’t personally see a lot of privacy issues running business the way I do (paper lists, e-mail offerings you have to sign up for to receive and a blog site you have to go to on your own to view. Order processing by you needing to directly contact me and so on). Regardless, I have been told new European laws require it as I do have some customers in Europe. No matter where you live, all of this still applies. If you feel that there are risks with your personal data you do not want to take, please let me know. At this point the only actions I can take directly is to remove you from the Yahoo groups membership and or my e-mail “contacts” list if you are part of them and remove and destroy your customer card in my files if you have one. If you desire any of these actions, please contact me at brmeteorites@yahoo.com or call (970) 874-1487. I’ll need the e-mail address you are receiving the yahoo groups offerings at to find and remove that contact from the group membership list, the e-mail address that might be in my “contacts” list (if different from the one in the “groups” file) and I’ll need your name and address so I can be sure that I am getting rid of the correct customer card in my 3x5 file if that is the action desired. As for the blog hosting site – nothing I can do there accept say that if you feel that visiting that is a risk then DON’T VISIT IT!

Blaine

Privacy Policy- GDPR & ePrivacy

Greetings,

On the eve of the new EU privacy law known as GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, we want to remind all of our customers, but especially those in EU countries, that you can unsubscribe from our emails at any time you want by selecting the unsubscribe tool at the bottom of every email we send out.

IF you are on our email mailing list is 100% voluntary and you must sign up for it yourself...we do not "harvest" email addresses from any other source....everyone on this list has purchased from us in the past.

We hope that our update emails are of value to you! We create them to keep you informed of our new offerings and certainly hope that you will continue receiving them.

All the best,
Blaine Reed Meteorites