Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 237

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

May 18, 2020

LIST 237

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB).

Not sure why I called this a “list” as it is a single item offering – a roughly 12kg (11990grams actually) nice-shaped Canyon Diablo individual. We are all having a difficult time right now (hopefully for all of you out there it is mostly boredom from being stuck at home so long and nothing more serious) but some folks are having a more difficult time of it than many. It is this that has allowed me to offer up this fantastic natural Canyon Diablo specimen. It belongs to a collector/ mineral dealer (he deals in cabechons, rough slabs for such, mineral specimens, jewelry and more but only occasionally has a meteorite for sale) but he has had a couple things turn up lately. First, he (as many of us “dealers” have) has had pretty much all of his summer shows cancelled, so no income from those events this year. Next he had the bad luck of having his car’s engine go out (completely – as in total replacement time) on him a couple weeks ago (I am currently gathering the parts together so I can do the timing belt, water pump and oil pump on the old Subaru so something similar does not end up happening to me this summer). That looks like it may cost him around $3000 plus to get fixed (or probably a similar amount to buy a good conditioned “new” used car). So, he has made the decision to offer this wonderful prized specimen. I know that this will sell at the Denver fall show but that is assuming that this virus disaster is still not with us enough to have that shut down (or so restricted that the results would be pretty much the same). Thankfully, the owner has another vehicle (an old truck) to drive so the situation is not desperate. Right now, gas is so cheap (we have regular at around $1.45/ gallon locally) that driving this old thing is not too much of a financial problem at the moment. Anyway, as you can see by the attached photos, this is a really nice natural individual. It was a little bit more natural when I got it but I spent a little time knocking off the loose dirt and minor caliche (mostly using the baking-soda air-abrasion tool). I sold my really nice 15kg piece (at a much higher price per gram) a few years ago to pay some bills and would love to keep this piece as a replacement but I just don’t really have the $ right now to do that (particularly seeing as how the various shows have been cancelled the next few months). So, I am offering it here. I have this priced at a level that it would realistically bring at one of the major shows.


11,990 gram complete natural individual – 180mm x 180mm x 100mm - $7800

One other note:
I have been having a LOT of problems with mail going out of the country lately (not too surprising, most of the overseas mail flies in the baggage area of common passenger jets and with few of those operating these days, the mail is getting backed up considerably). As such I am sorry to have to say that I really, really do NOT want to attempt to ship this overseas right now.

I hope everyone out there stays safe and healthy. And I certainly hope to see some of you at the next major show we’re allowed to have.

Take care!

Blaine

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 236

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 236

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

LIST 236

TRAVEL(s) INFO:
Boy oh boy has this part gotten screwed up a bunch recently. First off – I had the dates for the Denver Spring show wrong on the mailed catalogs I sent out (close to 300 of them). I had put down April 17th through the 19th . This show, to not interfere with other important shows used to be the weekend closest to “420”. They had to change it (and lost numerous dealers do to the other show conflicts) to a different weekend as the hotel that hosted the show was already fully booked the 420 time frame for pot shows at the nearby Merchandise Mart. I thought the show went back to its original scheduling when they moved out the Crowne Plaza a few years ago. Nope, I got a postcard telling me that the show was actually April 10th – 12th. Oops! I was about to consider re-doing the list (and tearing open hundreds of envelopes) when I got the notice that the show dates have been moved! The new dates (hopefully just for this year) are May 15th – 17th . So, no reason to worry (too much) about have the wrong weekend as neither weekend I would have put on the list was correct now. However, I had a trip through Wyoming planned with friends (yes, I do actually have some) for May 12th – 18th. So, now I would be missing the show because of that. Well, now it seems that I can go to the show as my (expensive) pre-paid reservations in Yellowstone for the actual days of the show (we’d be in devil’s tower, Buffalo and other places other days) have now been canceled! Yellowstone park will be completely shut down at least until the end of May (and the room rates are drastically higher at that point). So, now I do plan to attend the Spring show assuming it does not get changed yet again. So, if you are going to the show and want to meet, let me know ahead of time (if possible) and if there is anything in particular you want me to bring (otherwise I mostly bring things for sales to the various dealers that want stuff from me each year).
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GIBEON, Namibia: Iron. Fine-octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
(Click on Image to Enlarge)

GIBEON, Namibia: Iron. Fine-octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
Boy oh boy has Gibeon gotten hard to come by recently. Not much is turning up and what little is (mostly from old collections) is usually rapidly snapped up by the Chinese. Well, I managed to pick up a handful of small pieces (from a couple different sources, surprisingly) in Tucson this year. Had the Chinese been at the show this year, I am certain that these would NOT have made it home with me (at these prices anyway). Most of these are completely natural, only the 113g (highly brushed) and the 693g (very lightly cleaned) have had any work done on them. All of these have nice sculpted shapes.. Pieces like these were actually fairly rare even when Gibeon was commonly available.
1) Complete individuals (mostly natural) as found:
a) 33.4 grams - 30mm x 25mm x 20mm - $62 – NOT the piece in the group photo.
b) 63.2 grams - 50mm x 18mm x 11mm - sold
c) 94.8 grams - 60mm x 30mm x 16mm - $160 – NOT the specimen in the group photo.
d) 113.6 grams - 65mm x 25mm x 12mm - $190 – wire brushed.
e) 693.1 grams - 105mm x 40mm x 35mm - $1050 – very lightly brushed..
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GHADAMIS, Libya: Ordinary chondrite (L6)
(Click on Image to Enlarge) 

GHADAMIS, Libya: Ordinary chondrite (L6). Fell August 26, 2018. Tkw = about 100kg.
The above is more of the Berber spelling of the town name, others have it as “Ghadames”. Regardless, this is a super nice new fall that turned up in Tucson this year (and got the biggest amount of $ out of my pocket for any one item this year). This still has not turned up in the official listings for some reason. However, there is no doubt that this is a) a fall and b) an L chondrite (by magnetic susceptibility readings) and c) by internal texture an L6. I had a couple other large super fresh individuals but have already sold those (I cut this one because it had an easy to work with shape and a tiny amount of rust spotting). Every piece listed below has at least some fresh fusion crust along an edge (the larger pieces are 50% to 100% edge crusted). A beautiful new fall at a (surprisingly) not scary price.
1) Slices, part slices:
a) 2.7 grams - 20mm x 13mm x 4mm - $16
b) 5.4 grams - 24mm x 20mm x 3mm - $32
c) 10.2 grams - 34mm x 25mm x 4mm - $60
d) 20.0 grams - 55mm x 45mm x 3mm - $115 – complete slice.
e) 40.9 grams - 62mm x 46mm x 5mm - $225 – complete slice.
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NWA (7675): Ordinary chondrite. (L5)
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NWA (7675): Ordinary chondrite. (L5), S2, W2. Found 2012. Tkw = 663 grams..
Now this is a meteorite that, to be honest, I question the weathering grade and not for the better, unfortunately. I do see some fine metal grains in some of the slices I got from cutting this, but not a lot. Frankly, this does not show much of anything (how’s that for marketing?). This does have some minor thin shock or hematite veins and some slight hints of chondrule outlines in a medium to dark brown matrix. I suspect that this got put to research as the original buyer hoped (given its lack of obvious chondrite textures) this might be a primitive achondrite of some sort. Not particularly pretty, but an affordable “new” meteorite.
1) Slices:
a) 7.0 grams - 35mm x 18mm x 4mm - $9
b) 13.0 grams - 55mm x 17mm x 4mm - $16
c) 25.9 grams - 50mm x 45mm x 4mm - $31
2) End pieces:
a) 34.9 grams - 47mm x 22mm x 17mm - $40
b) 187.8 grams - 58mm x 30mm x 55mm - $190 – Main mass.
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NWA (11669): Ordinary chondrite. (LL3)
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NWA (11669): Ordinary chondrite. (LL3), S2, W2. Found 2013. Tkw = 23 kilograms.
I kind of wish I picked up a little more of this (and in more solid pieces – I had problems keeping larger slices together when cutting and polishing this stuff). This, to some degree, reminds a little of Ragland, NM or Wells, TX LL3 specimens I had in the (distant) past. Like those, this shows pretty much no metal at all but makes up for it by having lots of chondrules (of various shades of gray, brown, orange and more, just not quite as bright as Wells). Unfortunately, like most type 3’s these days, this did not get sub-typed as that now requires hundreds of probe data points costing LOTS of money (due to rule changes within the Nomenclature Committee) so that only gets done on truly fantastic looking, obviously low sub-type specimens now. All but the very smallest specimens in the list of slices below are “one of a kind”. This is among the very most “affordable” LL3’s I’ve ever offered. I also have bags of cheap small “E-Bay” type pieces available, so just ask if you are interested (I’ll put together a custom bag of total weight and, when possible, sized desired pieces for you).
1) End pieces:
a) 23.8 grams - 30mm x 20mm x 15mm - sold
b) 44.3 grams - 40mm x 35mm x 15mm - sold
c) 102.2 grams - 70mm x 65mm x 12mm - $190 – NOT the specimen in the group photo.
d) 124.5 grams - 80mm x 60mm x 15mm - $225
e) 310.9 grams - 85mm x 70mm x 25mm - $500 – has carbonaceous clast
2) Slices: $3.00/ gram. Sizes available:
2.4g, 5.2g, 9.6g, 16.6g, 25.8g
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NWA (12269): Achondrite. Martian (Shergottite).
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NWA (12269): Achondrite. Martian (Shergottite). Found before July 2018. Tkw = over 2kg.
Here are slices (and a couple end pieces) of this interesting (and quite solid) shergottite pairing to NWA (12269) I picked up in Denver last September. This meteorite is different from other shergottites in that it does not contain olivine, just clinopyroxene and maskelynite (plagioclase turned to glass by shock). This tells us that, unlike Earth, Mars did not produce a homogeneous liquid mantle during accretion. This shows that Mars had only a semi-liquid mantle with zones of differing mineral compositions. These pieces will be out in either a small plastic display box or a small Riker (depending upon size of the specimen). This part got left out of the mailed copy, unfortunately (I had a computer crash that wiped out much of my typing the first go-around and I forgot this little detail the second time).
1) Slices:
a) .15 grams - 7mm x 6mm x 1.5mm - $30
b) .25 grams - 10mm x 6mm x 1.5mm - $50
c) .51 grams - 12mm x 11mm x 1.5mm - $100
d) .97 grams - 18mm x 11mm x 2mm - $175
e) 1.9 grams - 25mm x 18mm x 2mm - $310 – complete slice.
f) 4.5 grams - 45mm x 28mm x 2mm - $675 – complete slice.
2) end pieces: I have only these two:
a) 5.1 grams - 25mm x `17mm x 8mm - $670
b) 61.9 grams - 40mm x 29mm x 26mm - $5500 – a real museum piece. In fact, I bought this one to be my “pass around” Mars rock to replace my softer NWA (7397) similar sized end piece that I believed was already sold (to a museum).
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ANCIENT METEORITE COINS (Obverse)
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ANCIENT METEORITE COINS (Reverse)
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ANCIENT METEORITE COINS: Large silver Tetradrachm. Around 17g and 30mm diameter.
I have offered the small bronze coins and a few of the much smaller silver coins of this design on past lists (and sold out). I finally was able to get an assortment of these wonderful large (the largest, highest denomination I believe) silver coins of the same design and time period to offer. As with the other smaller pieces, these are mostly Anitochos I, Soter (280-261BC) pieces (I do have one Antiochos II piece though). I have 3 of the cheapest ones (I’ll line them up next to each other in the group photo) and a few nicer (more expensive) pieces. As with the other coins, these ARE NOT MADE OUT OF A METEORITE. These have the head of the ruler facing right on the obverse and the reverse has Apollo seated on a conical rock (the omphalus) that was believed to be a meteorite. So, these coins are a very early (if not THE earliest) coins to have a meteorite represented on them.
a) Nice but circulated example - $375
b) A bit nicer but Antiochos II - $400
c) Better still - $675
d) The best - $950

Please note:
Shipping: For small US orders $4 is OK for now. Larger orders are now $8 to $15 (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 $15 (Canada seems to be right around $11). I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders (both local and overseas). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $16.
I do have a fax machine that seems to work (but I have to answer it and manually turn it on), so overseas people can contact me that way if they must.. How ever, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail when possible.

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 235

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 235

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
LIST 235

March 3, 2020

Dear collectors,

I am (finally) back from Tucson and (more or less) caught up on things. Some adventures this year but NOTHING like last year. The only thing that died on me this year was my hover-board (well, my uncle did pass away but that was in July of last year. None the less, that did change a few things logistically this year). I only get to use the hover board during the shows (my driveways are gravel and the runway is fairly soft dirt, when it isn’t wet – sticky deep adobe mud when it is). It seems that the battery on my toy now only wants to run for around half an hour or so (it used to last well over an hour). Welll, I was riding it pretty heavy one evening (including a couple complete trips around the hotel as they re-surfaced the parking lot recently). I thought it is getting a bit mushy/ sluggish in its response but it had only been running for 20 minutes or so. A quick glance at the battery light showed it was still green. However, as I was standing on it, moving around (and listening to music at a volume that was a tad high) and I failed to notice that it was flashing a steady “low battery” warning. Well, I leaned into it (got going pretty fast) and then tried to do a sharp turn. Nope, didn’t work out so well. When the engine on my airplane quits (which it seems to enjoy doing from time to time) most people think the thing falls out of the sky like a sack full of wet bricks. Nope, the wing works fine and, as long as I have left myself something to land on within gliding distance, it is no big deal to land and effect repairs (and fly back out when done if I really picked the landing spot well). Not so with a hover-board. When it quits (and it can indeed do it quite suddenly if you are not paying attention) it does indeed drop you to the ground like a bag of bricks. Yep, this is indeed what I did. I watched the machine roll away with a flashing red light (dead battery) signal and that is what dumped me. I managed to pull a bunch of muscles in my left leg and bung up my left hand a bit. Nothing broken (but my pride) but I did end up taking an extra day to pack down the room and load the car (I was moving quite slowly). We also had another “vanenture” on the trip home. The fan belt kept coming off of its pulleys as we were heading to Flagstaff. This happened a half dozen times (about every 8 miles – we got good at putting it back on) on the way into town. We made into town, thankfully. Blake tightened up the clamp on the upper hose on the radiator as that is where it looked the fluid leak was coming from. I wish it ended up being that easy. We ran the car for 20 minutes in the parking lot of the hotel we decided to spend the night at. No leak! So, off we went to Auto Zone to get a new tensioner pulley (it seemed to be making a bit of noise, was old and may have gotten damaged in the shock(s) of the belt coming off). Well, while there, after turning the engine off (this is when a car gets the hottest and builds up the most pressure) the radiator blew a ¼” or so hole (near the hose clamp – so we weren’t to far wrong in the spot of the leak, just what it was exactly). So, time for a radiator replacement right there in the parking lot. Unfortunately, they did not have the right one (and did not have the spare man-power to help me go pick one up). So, a 1.5mile walk (well, more of a shuffle like a post apocalyptic zombie as I had all of those torn leg muscles to deal with) to O’Reily auto parts (who DID have the right radiator but also not enough man-power in house to bring it to us – I got a Lyft back to Auto zone though). It all went together just fine but did take us until a bit after 9pm to get the job done. The next morning, starting the car brought out all kinds of bad metal on metal screeching noises. Hmmm, maybe something else (like the alternator or, my guess, the power steering pump – two items that really can’t be replaced by a couple of shmucks with limited tools in a parking lot). We ran the car for close to half an hour. The noises didn’t go away but they did lessen. My thought was “bad belt” (despite the distinctly metal on metal sounds) as if it were another mechanical failure the noises should be getting worse, not better. A quick experiment showed I was right. So, a new belt (which we now knew how to install in under two minutes) and we were on our way without further trouble (other than the 4” nail that flattened one of the new tires on the car right in the driveway in front of my house. No clue where the nail came from, just happy the thing went flat here and not while on the road. The way we were loaded it would have taken considerable effort, and lots of unloading, to get to what we needed to change a tire on a roadside somewhere). So, adventures, a couple days delay but nothing as serious or difficult as last year.

The things listed below are things that were either left with me (consignments) or I purchased at the show. The show was a bit slower this year (largely due to none of the Chinese buyers and less than half of the Japanese buyers showing up this year, thanks to the Corona virus scare) but not terrible. However, this meant that I, as I did not sell as much, I did not buy as much either. At this point, it looks like this might be my only “after Tucson” e-mail offering (unless I start turning up more smaller things I forgot I bought as I do the finishing touches on putting away all that I brought home). I suspect that my next post/ offering will be my mailed catalog which I plan to try and get out a little earlier than normal as I (supposedly) will be going to Yellowstone with some friends in the earlier part of May this year.

List 235
(click on image to enlarge)

CAMPO DEL CIELO, Agentina: Coarse octahedrite (IAB).
These are both complete slices just drastically different in sizes. The smaller piece is prepared and etched on both sides. However, this piece is small enough that you don’t get a real good idea of the etch texture of this meteorite. The large slice is really thin and, as such, is only polished and etched on one side (it would be a really, really hard job to polish out and etch this backside on a slice this thin). However, the prepared side shows a nice classic Campo etch structure.
a) 70.5 gram complete slice etched both sides – 80mm x 55mm x 3mm - $90
b) 459.4 gram complete slice etched one side – 300mm x 130mm x 2mm - $500

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
This is a part slice (1/4 of a complete slice – two cut edges and one long natural edge) I picked up in Tucson this year. I had offered pieces like this on my April 2019 list and rapidly sold out. When I got the chance to pick up some pieces to satisfy people that have been on a waiting list for a specimen from that offering I bought all I could. It turned out that only this piece was “left over” (I wasn’t able to get many specimens, unfortunately). This piece shows a nice vibrant etch and is etched on both sides.
47.0 gram etched part slice – 42mm x 38mm x 3mm - $94

GEBEL KAMIL, Egypt: Iron. Ni-rich ataxite, ungrouped. Found 2008.
This is a relatively large piece of the material that was found surrounding a crater in Southern Egypt that was found by way of Google Earth satellite photographs. This is a fairly young fall event, estimated to have happened around 5000 years ago. This was also very likely a witnessed event to some degree. Debris from the impact partly covered up what was an active trade route road near the crater. I personally wonder if this event isn’t part of the reason that many of the words for iron in ancient languages relate to the sky and stars (it sure would have been a wake-up call as to where some iron came from). This piece is a classic shrapnel piece as most meteorite specimens found around the crater were (I think a fairly large fusion crusted piece was found in the crater). This has the nice dark chocolate brown wind-polished surface texture over most (around ¾) of its surface. The bottom (part that was in the sand all of these years) is a bit more rusty orange in color and looks to have a couple areas of thin glass (from melting of the sand it landed in) still adhering to it. This stuff has gotten quite hard to come by lately as the folks that took the effort to pick this up some years ago have pretty much sold out (and new material is not being recovered).
2538g complete natural shrapnel fragment as found – 170mm x 80mm x 40mm - $2100

MOUNT DOOLING, Australia: Iron. Coarse octahedrite (IC). Found 1909.
Here are two great complete slices that clearly show the recrystallized etch structure pieces of this unusual meteorite shows. It was this etch structure (along with its anomalous chemistry) that showed that a “new” iron meteorite found some 400km away near Perth in 1960 was actually a transported piece of Mt. Dooling. This meteorite is a member of the fairly rare IC group of iron meteorites. Both of these pieces are etched on both sides. I have these priced quite a bit below what I priced (generally smaller) pieces of this meteorite at on a mailed list (and sold out) a couple years or so ago.
a) 106.9 gram etched complete slice – 150mm x 55mm x 2mm - $320
b) 115.9 gram etched complete slice – 155mm x 60mm x 2mm - $348

NWA (6963): Martian (Shegottite). Found 2011. Tkw = about 8 kilograms.
Originally, only about an 80g fusion crusted piece of this was recovered. Once it was found that this was a Mars rock, intensive recovery efforts lead to many more pieces (totaling somewhere around 8kg) being found. This is a wonderful super thing slice that is in a membrane style display holder (though NOT one of the “Membrane Boxes” some of us remember from some years ago). This has a small round base that allows this to be stood up on one corner for a nice shelf display (I’ll put the piece that allows this below the holder in the group photo). This slice has a nice shock vein near one side that was/ is large enough to have some gas bubbling.. These bubbles likely contained little bits of the Martian atmosphere at one time (and, if any are still intact inside this vein those likely would still contain some traces of Martian atmosphere). I have priced this quite a bit below what most people offering pieces of this material seem to be asking at this point.
5.20 gram slice – 70mm x 33mm x 1mm - $1300

NWA (8402): Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Found 2014. Tkw = 23.85kg.
Here is a nice complete slice of this really classic looking mesosiderite. This has a wonderful mix of metal (making up around 40% of the cut surface area – often as cm sized rounded nodules) and silicates (of which around 75% is pyroxene and 25% is plagioclase). This particular meteorite was also found to have a fairly high amount of silica. This, along with the high content of plagioclase, some equilibrated silicates and lack of brecciation show this to be member of the rare A-3 type mesosiderite group. This is only the 4th meteorite known of this type. The other three are all named recoveries that are pretty much impossible for a collector to obtain: Emery, SD, Lowicz, Poland and Morristown, TN.
148.8 gram complete slice – 140mm x 75mm x 4mm - $1000

NWA (12630): Lunar, anorthositic breccia: Purchased February 2019. Tkw = 233g in two piece.
I suspect that this another piece of the stuff that came out in a big way a bit over a year ago and has lots of different NWA numbers assigned to various pieces of it (the stuff I’ve had is NWA (11273). However, this does have a distinctly different appearance to it. This is clearly an anorthositic breccia but the clasts are not nearly as clear as other specimens. I suspect that this particular part of the meteorite has suffered higher impact melting effects (or this might be a different meteorite recovery completely that got mixed in). Regardless, this is a nice complete slice in a 75mm x 60mm glass fronted display box.
1.82 gram complete slice – 30mm x 27mm x 1mm - $200

Please note:
Shipping: For small US orders $4 is OK for now. Larger orders are now $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 $15 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $16.

I do have a fax machine that seems to work (but I have to answer it and manually turn it on), so overseas people can contact me that way if they must. 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 234

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale - List 234

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

LIST 234
January, 7th, 2020

Dear Collectors,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here is the e-mail version of my recently mailed list. With the Yahoo groups changes I can now attach photos to my offerings (though there is now no “archives” anymore. You will have to go to blaine-reed-meteorites.blogspot.com to see older posts) I didn’t do that in this case as there are 8 photos that go with this offering. So, rather than loading everyone up with a bunch of photos that they may not really have much interest in, I will just ask people that are interested in seeing a particular listed item’s group photo (or several of them) e-mail me and I’ll send you the one(s) you ask for.

TUCSON SHOW INFO: I will be on the road from January 28th until around February 19th. For the show itself, I will be in my usual spot: Days Inn (formerly Ramada Limited) - 665 N. Freeway, Tucson. I’ll be in my usual spot (room 134). I should be open by mid to late morning Saturday February 1st. I likely will indeed stay through the bitter end – February 15th will be the last day. I open the door most days at 10AM. I will have the door open most evenings until around 9:30pm or so (later if people are visiting/ still wandering about) but there may be a couple nights I will be out for dinner or such for a couple hours but that should be a rare event.
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Sikote-Alin
Click on images to enlarge.

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Iron. Coarsest octahedrite (IIB). Fell February 12, 1947.
These are all (obviously) fusion crusted individuals. I picked up a couple oriented pieces in a collection I bought recently. I tied these together with the few oriented pieces I had in my stuff to make an offering. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot to offer so these are all “one of a kind” pieces (though I do have a few “in between” sizes available in addition to these listed specimens). I hesitate to offer “one of a kind” things like this on these “mailed” catalogs but then I have had a pretty hard time coming up with any quantity of new irons (at reasonable prices anyway) to put on these lists lately (I like to have some kind of iron on each one if at all possible). I also figured that many of you already have samples of this meteorite so there may not be all that many collectors looking to buy another specimen, even if it is oriented.
1) Oriented, complete fusion crusted individuals:
a) 8.7 grams - 20mm x 15mm x 7mm - $35 – not in group photo
b) 20.6 grams - 28mm x 17mm x 10mm - $82
c) 48.9 grams - 45mm x 25mm x 15mm - sold
d) 76.9 grams - 35mm x 30mm x 17mm - $305
e) 128.4 grams - 60mm x 30mm x 19mm - sold
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Buzzard Coulee
Click on image to enlarge.

BUZZARD COULEE, Canada: Ordinary chondrite (H4). Fell November 20, 2008. Tkw = about 41kg.
Here are some nice little complete individuals I had set aside some time ago. I re-discovered these while doing inventory work a couple weeks ago. I believe that these were not (for the most part) picked up right after the fall but their recovery could not have been to long after as these are all nice, fresh and black showing only the tinniest amounts of hints of oxidation (that could have been from storage in a not so dry climate since they were picked up). I don’t have a lot of these (only around 50g total – including a number of pieces that have areas of chipping and/or secondary crust) so don’t wait to long to order one of these if you want to add this name to your collection.
1) Complete, quite fresh individuals:
a) 1.5 grams - 15mm x 9mm x 4mm - $22 – not in group photo (but similar)
b) 2.0 grams - 13mm x 10mm x 10mm - $30
c) 2.8 grams - 14mm x 11mm x 11mm - $42
d) 3.8 grams - 24mm x 11mm x 7mm - sold
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NWA 10809
Click on image to enlarge.

NWA (10809): Ordinary chondrite. (L4), S2, W2. Found 2016. Tkw = 384 grams.
This stone was purchased in Temara, Morocco in May of 2016. This is actually pretty nice stuff. I can see why this was submitted for research work, it does indeed have the look of a type 3. The research description has this described as “well-formed, fairly closely-packed chondrules within a sparse matrix containing altered metal. Well, looking at the slices I got from cutting this up, I can certainly see the “well-formed chondrules” and it does look like there isn’t a lot of matrix in this meteorite. However, I am not certain about the “altered metal” part. I see quite a lot of fresh metal grains all through this. However, there is some brown staining which is likely indeed from altered metal. This is quite fresh looking material none the less.
1) Slices:
a) 7.2 grams - 28mm x 21mm x 4mm - $12
b) 15.7 grams - 50mm x 30mm x 4mm - $24 – complete slice.
c) 27.3 grams - 60mm x 45mm x 4mm - $40 – complete slice.
2) End piece:
a) 95.3 grams - 58mm x 45mm x 18mm - sold

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Richfield, KS
click on image to enlarge

RICHFIELD, Kansas: Ordinary chondrite (LL3.7). Found 1983. Tkw = 41kg.
Now here is a blast from the past. I owned the whole thing and managed to sell all but a few small slices (listed here) that I re-discovered while doing inventory work a couple weeks ago. Richfield was of interest to some scientists as it is a regolith breccia from the surface of the LL parent body. This meteorite is fairly dark so it does not show its chondrules real clearly (actually, these show up better on the unpolished backside of these pieces). This darkening (often as a dark green or reddish brown) is from solar wind implanted gasses in the meteorite. Of the original 41 kilograms, I have only around 200g left.
1) Part slices:
a) .95 grams - 14mm x 7mm x 3mm - $13
b) 1.8 grams - 15mm x 12mm x 3mm - $24
c) 4.0 grams - 34mm x 15mm x 3mm - $53
d) 8.9 grams - 48mm x 24mm x 3mm - $115
e) 14.0 grams - 48mm x 30mm x 3mm - $175

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NWA 12013
Click on image to enlarge.

NWA (12013), Carbonaceous chondrite. (CV3). Found before Feb. 2018. Tkw = 332.1 grams.
This was certainly recognizable as a carbonaceous chondrite when I got it, it was just a bit of a question as to exactly what kind. This did have the look of a CV but it did have a LOT of matrix and chondrules that looked very CK like on the exterior. So, I was hoping that this might end up being a CK3. Unfortunately, that was not to be. This ended up being a CV3, all be it one with a very high amount of matrix (around 50% of the meteorite). Still looks like a cross between a CK and a CV, but then the two do seem to be closely related (I believe scientists are still arguing over whether or not they are from the same parent body).
1) Slices:
a) 1.4 grams - 20mm x 12mm x 3mm - $17
b) 2.8 grams - 19mm x 17mm x 3mm - $34
c) 5.1 grams - 32mm x 22mm x 3mm - $60
d) 10.2 grams - 40mm x 30mm x 3mm - $115
e) 21.2 grams - 75mm x 35mm x 4mm - $235 – complete slice.
2) Main mass: 55.5 gram end piece – 70mm x 40mm x 12mm - $500.00

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NWA 5363
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NWA (5363): Achondrite (brachinite-like, ungrouped). Found 2008. Tkw = about 9.7kg.
This is paired to the more famous NWA (5400). The Tkw above is actually the rough total for all the pairings that have been currently reported of this interesting material. Though its composition and structure are very similar to the olivine-rich (and quite rare) brachinites, this is the only known meteorite that has Oxygen, Chromium and Nickel isotopic composition identical to Earth. Because of this, it was originally thought that this meteorite might represent a piece of the very early Earth, or at least some of the primordial reservoir material that later formed the Earth. However, later work showed that Ca, Ti, Mo and Ru contents in this meteorite are far too different for this to be likely possible.
1) Slices:
a) .42 grams - 10mm x 6mm x 2mm - $15
b) .92 grams - 14mm x 11mm x 2mm - $33
c) 1.6 grams - 20mm x 14mm x 2mm - $56
d) 3.8 grams - 30mm x 15mm x 3mm - $125
e) 7.1 grams - 38mm x 30mm x 2mm - $230 – only one this size.
f) 14.2 grams - 67mm x 37mm x 2mm - $450 – only one this size.

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Philippinites
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PHILIPPINITES: Tektites from the Philippine Islands.
It has been many, many (like 30) years since I have acquired a batch of these things. Oh, I have had the occasional piece pass through my hands from time to time but never in any sizable quantity. Through special circumstances, I recently picked up several kilos of these interesting tektites. Most of these are the typical round, flattened round shape, though a few (mainly the smaller pieces) are elongate. I hand picked the pieces on this list to have more of the grooving than the bulk of what I got. These are not like the deep, deep grooved Rizalites but they do show nice grooving none the less. I have priced these better pieces at only a tiny bit above what I have been getting out of smaller/ plainer Philippinites over the years (ask for pricing on the pieces I would call more “regular” if you need larger quantities cheaper or simply want a cheaper Philippinite for your collection). All of these are natural shaped but, given how bright and shiny most of these are, I suspect that they have been (nicely) cleaned at some point before I got them.
1) Individuals:
a) 11.0 grams - 32mm x 17mm x 13mm - $7
b) 21.9 grams - 27mm x 28mm x 19mm - $13
c) 33.4 grams - 32mm x 30mm x 23mm - $20
d) 44.7 grams - 47mm x 27mm x 20mm - $26
e) 57.5 grams - 35mm x 36mm x 30mm - $32 – not in group photo.
f) 63.7 grams - 39mm x 36mm x 33mm - $35 – not in group photo.

Please note:
Shipping: For small US orders $4 is OK for now. Larger orders are now $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 $15 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $16.

I do have a fax machine that seems to work (but I have to answer it and manually turn it on), so overseas people can contact me that way if they must. 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 233: Fresh from CR Aguas Zarcas and more

List 233: Fresh from Costa Rica Aguas Zarcas and more

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
LIST 233

December 17, 2019

Dear collectors,

I am back from my Costa Rica trip. It was overall an enjoyable trip, though often quite warm and sticky (I am not used to humidity, even at relatively cooler temperatures). Kevin’s side of the country was, for the most part, sunny and dry. The dry season, with its strong winds out of the east, was setting in (we did still get some time of sitting in the clouds and watching fog drift by thing – a very, very rare thing for me to see in my part of Colorado but common where he is perched up on the top of a mountain). However, I feared that this might mean that the other side of the mountains might be rainy. I figured the clouds carrying moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to the east might end up getting the moisture wrung out of them as they got stuck against the easterly mountainsides and made their way up and over. Yep, this is indeed what we found. Aguas Zarcas was heavy cloud cover, lots of rain, some (generally minor) wind and at times surprisingly chilly for a tropical area. All of this certainly meant that we weren’t going to be out stomping around looking for specimens on our own (also because it was a bad time for lots of really dangerous snakes in the area. Unlike the ”nope ropes and danger noodles” crawling around my area theirs don’t make any noise to let you know you are getting to close. I have indeed managed to avoid getting bit by a rattle snake hidden in the leaves on a trail a couple times by knowing what they sound like - and that sound ain’t like they present it in the movies folks). So, we had to limit ourselves to meteorites that locals had already found. Unfortunately, it seems that not much is being found any more. Some of the few pieces that were recovered recently are certainly showing their age (I hand picked and avoided those, paying a higher price to do so of coarse) and other pieces (that looked to have been recovered quite earlier) seem to have become special family heirlooms (“not for sale”). Oh well, at least I tried. The few things I did pick up are listed here below at a price only a little lower than I have offered similar pieces in the past (but then, I didn’t really pay much less at the site and am not even including the travel expenses as part of these piece’s direct cost at this point). I am having trouble deciding what piece(s) I want to keep for myself so I thought I’d let fate decide – I’ll keep whatever is the nicest piece listed below that does not sell from this offering.

The other items on this list are the last of the Riker mounted display pieces I picked up as a collection during the Denver Show. All of these have labels and it turns out that one more of these is also a Casper labeled piece that had that label hidden under another different one. I’ll make notes in the descriptions below of what labels come with each specimen.

NOTE: As with the last offering, shipping on most of these (everything but the Aguas Zarcas) is going to be a bit higher (around $5 or $6 for a single item for basic US) as these, being in glass fronted display boxes, will have to be shipped packed in boxes. My usual jewelry boxes in a padded envelope won’t work for most of these pieces.

List 233
Click on Image to Enlarge

AGUAS ZARCAS, Costa Rica: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2). Fell April 23, 2019.. These purchased Dec 9th, 2019.
These are the pieces that, as mentioned above, I bought on the trip I just got back from. These are all natural fragments (though the largest has some claim to being a complete individual) and, after a light cleaning on my part, are quite fresh. Each has at least some fusion crust present (actually, all but the smallest have quite substantial amounts of crust). As mentioned above, the largest piece looks like it could be considered a complete individual. It has around 45% nice thick primary crust coverage with the remainder being angular “broken” surfaces. However, careful inspection shows non-sharp (micro roll-over) edges on the primary crust where it meats one of these “breaks”. Also, a hand lens shows obvious (but small) patches of thicker fusion crust on the high spots of most of these broken surfaces (so they can’t be “after the fall” breaks). One surface looks to be crusted so thin that it looks almost like a smoke coating. There is some hints of smoothing of the break as well as the fact that no real inside texture/ structure can be seen (aside from a couple larger chondrules poking through perhaps) whereas the other fragments (clearly showing post fall breaks) the interior structure is clearly visible. Regardless, I am not pricing this piece higher because of any of this.
1) Natural fragments. All have some crust:
a) 4.4 gram fragment – 16mm x 15mm x 15mm - $350 – about 15% crust covered.
b) 5.0 gram fragment – 20mm x 20mm x 10mm - $400 – about 45% crusted.
c) 7.4 gram fragment – 25mm x 18mm x 12mm - $590 – about 50% crusted.
d) 22.2 gram fragment/ individual – 32mm x 28mm x 20mm - $1700

BRENHAM, Kansas: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1882.
This is a Riker display that has two part slices – one 3.4g (17mm x 12mm x 5mm) and the other 13.5g (25mm x 20mm x 9mm). This has two labels; one (unnamed) that has the two weights as 3.4g and 14.2g. The label that was hidden underneath was a Casper label (for the 3.4g piece) that has “Happy Holidays!” written in the ‘Remarks” line. The larger piece looks to have a Nininger number on it. It certainly has the exact look of a Nininger number paint job, starts with the proper “10” for a Nininger Brenham but the next number/ letter is damaged enough to make it unclear exactly what was painted here (the last 3 look to be 119 though this could be “10M19”). This piece is also the typical thickness that Nininger would have cut back then.
2 part slices – 3.4g and 13.5g (possible Nininger piece) in Riker - $100

CAPE YORK, Greenland: Iron. Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1818.
Now this is a neat little Riker display. It has a label identifying the Meteorite (name, type, etc.) with “1 GM” handwritten on it, a nice etched 15mm x 10mm thin slice of the meteorite in a gemstone holder and a commemorative Greenland postage stamp (that looks to be from 1978). The stamp seems to show what looks like might be an ancient knife/ tool of some sort (this is indeed what the locals used these meteorites for) on a background of a large etched slice. I am assuming the “1GM” is the rough weight of the slice, but I didn’t pull all of this apart to find out.
15mm x 10mm etched slice, stamp and label in Riker box - $90

ESTHERVILLE, Iowa: Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Fell May 10, 1879. Tkw = about 320kg.
This is a thick part slice that has its larger portion being the silicate material (though there are still substantial chunks of iron, they show a bit better on the backside). This comes with a metal “meteoritelabels.com” label with the proper 4.75GM weight written in pencil in the specimen weight space.
4.75 gram part slice – 20mm x 13mm x 6mm - $90

HOLBROOK, Arizona: Ordinary chondrite. (L/LL6). Fell July 19, 1912.
Here are two nice complete fresh individuals in a Riker display. These come with a Schooler’s label that has the pair weight of 1.6grams. Yep, this is exactly what my scale got. The smaller piece weighed .68g on my scale and the larger was .92g. The larger piece has some areas of secondary crust (of the type and thickness that leaves no doubt that it is secondary crust, unlike some of the areas on the largest Aguas Zarcas listed above) but is NOT broken and is certainly a complete individual (the smaller piece is pretty much completely covered in primary crust).
2 complete individuals .68g, .92g in Riker with Schooler label -$40

MILLBILLILLIE, Australia: HED achondrite (Eucrite). Fell 1960/ found 1970.
This is a part slice of the more unusual fine-grained textured area of this meteorite (the vast majority of Millbillillie showed a brighter black and white salt and pepper texture). This piece has one natural edge that shows some weathered fusion crust that has some of the orange spots/ staining that shows that this really is a Millbillillie. This has a nice label with it but this does not say who’s label (Ann E. Nonimus??) it was. This label has the weight as 2.4 grams but my scale showed this as 2.2 grams.
2.2 gram part slice – 22mm x 10mm x 3mm - $30

NORTON COUNTY, Kansas: Enstatite achndrite (Aubrite). Fell February 18, 1948.
This is a Riker containing two small fragments of this meteorite along with a Schooler’s label. The label has these as .8g together and this is indeed what my scale showed. Each of these fragments is roughly 10mm x 5mm in size.
2 fragments totaling .8g in Riker with Schooler’s label - $25

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 232

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 232

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

LIST 232

November 19, 2019

Dear collectors,

I have had a little time to look into, learn a little more about the changes to yahoo groups. It seems that is will not be quite as devastating to me (in how I generally use this venue anyway) as I was first led to believe. I will indeed be loosing the archives (so don’t expect to be able to go to the group archives if you received a list, deleted it and then decided you wanted to have another look at it). I also will not be able to put photos for those interested to go to the group photos to see. All archives will be removed (deleted) soon and no new “uploaded” content (photos and such) has already been blocked I believe. So, it seems that I can use this pretty much as I always have – for sending out a mass e-mail offering to those that have signed up for it but that is all. Those of you that directly receive my yahoo groups postings will now have to contact me (brmeteorites@yahoo.com) and have me send the associated photo(s) back as an attachment to a “reply” e-mail. As for any kind of archives (that also include photos), a friend (Dirk Ross) has been posting these e-mail offerings (along with the associated photos) and posting them at blaine-reed-meteorites.blogspot.com for many years now. This site contains pretty much all the posts (the meteorite offering ones anyway, not some of the ramblings/musings on other issues I’ve occasionally sent out) as well as associated photos. So, lost an offering or want to see a particular offering’s photo(s) –you should be able to go to the blogspot and find it there. Anyway, I’ll try to keep everyone notified as I learn more about the changes.

Here is an offering of things that I picked up more than a couple months ago at the Denver show. I have been so busy with things (and I leave yet again on the 29th and will be gone – really gone, as in out of the country – until December 12th) that I simply have not had time to do these offerings. These items are all Michael Casper labeled pieces and are set up displayed in riker mounts with their labels (I have a group photo but, as mentioned above, you will have to contact me directly to ask for it). Some interesting and hard to come by these days items here (and some not so hard) but they are all quasi-historic as Michael was one of the bigger dealers years ago and has long since moved onto other things.

NOTE: Shipping on these is going to be a bit higher (around $5 or $6 for a single item for basic US) as these, being in glass fronted display boxes, will have to be shipped packed in boxes. None of my usual jewelry boxes in a padded envelope for these pieces.

Click on image to Enlarge.

CHINGA, Russia: Iron. Ni-rich ataxite (IVB anomalous). Found 1913. Tkw = 300+kg.
This is a nice rectangular part slice that has two cut edges and two natural edges (the shorter sides are the natural edges). This has a simple polished face as, being an ataxite, it wouldn’t show much of anything if someone did take the time to etch it.
31.6gram part slice – 38mm x 18mm x 6mm - $65

COLE CREEK, Nebraska: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Found 1991. Tkw = 16.3kg.
I don’t recall having a lot of contact with this meteorite. I may have had a piece here or there over time but really don’t recall much about it. This is a roughly square-shaped piece that has one natural, weathered fusion crust edge. The side that is up in the display has been polished but this seems to have darkened it quite a bit and made the chondrules hard to see (they show up quite nicely on the unpolished back side).
31.1 gram part slice – 40mm x 34mm x 8mm - $90

EAGLE, Nebraska: Enstatite chondrite (EL6). Found, likely fell 1947. Tkw = 9,242grams.
Now this is one I do remember. It seems that a large fireball was seen in the area this stone was found. That was in October of 1946. This stone was found in 1947. Glenn Huss had managed to finally acquire the thing in the early 1980’s. It had very fresh crust, so it was clear that this stone had not been out in the weather long. The thing finally got cut and studied in 1984. It also showed a very nice fresh interior to match the fresh crust. This cutting work (and some sales) happened right around the time he was retiring, so very little of this got out into the collecting world (and as far as I know, the main portion of this remains locked up with the owners having no intentions of selling any). Glenn let me have some pieces of this on consignment when he finally shut down, but it was not a lot. This piece is kind of a block – a smallish rectangular slice that is quite thick (but then, this thickness is how meteorites were generally cut back then. Museums and research folks preferred thicker pieces). I have not seen a piece of this neat meteorite in a looooong time.
3.9gram block/ part slice – 17mm x 9mm 8mm - $225

HUCKITTA, Australia: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1924.
This is a complete slice of a fragment of the oxidized material. It was mostly unpolished (shows some saw marks if you look closely) and not coated. I did not take this to the sander but I may if it does not sell as it is. I did, however, go ahead and spray coat it (not so much to stop rusting that is not going to happen with this anyway, but to bring out the structure as spray coating generally acts like polishing). I kind of wanted to leave it alone as much as possible for now so the specimen weight will match the Casper label that comes with it.
22.0gram complete slice of a fragment – 45mm x 27mm x 6mm - $50

IMILAC, Chile: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1822.
This display consists of two of the shocked/ shrapnel specimens that were found around the impact crater. These have the twisted, skeletal metal with shattered, sandy yellow, orange to hints of reddish pink olivines in the recesses. The label on top (the Casper Meteorites one) is for the specimen on the left (7.6g). There is another label underneath the Casper label (but no name or clue who’s it is) for the other specimen but that has it as 9.1g and the specimen is really 8.5g. The prices on these from way back when were quite high. I think the sticker next to the 7.6g one was $100 and the other was $120. I’m selling both (with the labels, riker and all) for midway between these prices.
2 natural shrapnel pieces totaling 16.1grams - $110

POTTER, Nebraska: Ordinary chondrite (L6). Found 1941. Tkw = 261+kg.
It has been quite awhile since I’ve had any Nebraska meteorite and I just realized that I have 3 on this list alone. This display has multiple specimens one large one and 5 smaller slices/ fragments. I know some pieces of Potter like to fall apart on their own (not sure how a meteorite so weathered can do this) and assumed that this is what has happened here. Nope, the large 27.8g piece is an old-style thick slice that has two cut edges and two old weathered crust edges, but no places where pieces have broken off. Looking at the smaller pieces more carefully, it becomes obvious that these came from a much thinner cut slice, not the larger specimen with them. This display has two labels with it. I put the JM DuPont Collection label on top of the Casper label that has the weight as 30.8g (the DuPont label has no weight listed) which is indeed the weight (a hair less actually – I think I saw something around 31.0g on my scale when I did a quick weight check). Not sure if it really goes with this display, but there was also a New England Meteoritical Services label in the collection box and this was the only Potter in the box so that label goes with this as well.
30.8g slices/ fragments. One 27.8g slice (37mm x 33mm x 8mm) and 5 smaller - $100 – DuPont labeled

TATAHOUINE, Tunisia: HED achondrite (Diogenite). Fell June 27, 1931. Tkw = 13.5kg.
This is just weird stuff. The meteorite blew apart low in the atmosphere delivering many generally very small fragments of a mottled bright green with gray streaks meteorite to the ground. Years ago, when Alain Carion went to the fall site and recovered these things for the collecting world (late 1980’s probably?) this was the only known unbrecciated diogenite. I am not so certain that this is not still the case. This is a typical fragment of this strange material. Nothing exciting but interesting none the less. The Casper label has this as 3.6 grams but it really weighs 9according to my scale) 3.7grams.
3.7 gram natural fragment – 18mm x 12mm x 10mm - $45

Notice- Yahoogroups to End. Google Blogger WILL remain for Blaine Reed Meteorites 23OCT2019

Important Notice-

BlaineReed Yahoogroups to End soon. 

Google Blogger WILL remain for Blaine Reed Meteorites- sign-up for Blogger if you want to remain informed. Thanks! *note by Dirk Ross

Blaine wrote-

Hi Folks,

I am really, really busy trying to get ready for the many trips I have coming up in the next month or so. I leave early tomorrow morning for Phoenix for a memorial for my uncle (the one that scraped the nose of his car down the side of a brand new Cadillac the morning I was leaving his house for Tucson this year). He passed away back in early July (I think it was July 3rd while i was goofing off in Keystone to go skiing at A-Basin the next day (it was the first time in nearly a decade they had enough snow to allow skiing on the 4th of July).

I get back from the Phoenix trip and then have only a few days to get ready for the Socorro Mineral Symposium show/ trip. I was supposed to already be prepping for that one but got busy doing some upgrade insulation work on the solar hot water system and then got hit with the NPR interview folks (15 hours of re-looking things up/ typing/ talking) that are doing a story on crazy Curry.

So, I am WAAAAAAY behind on things at the moment and then get hit with the news that Yahoo groups looks to be effectively shutting down on October 28th!!! Nice! a huge change coming and they give us NO notice (I had to get this second hand). It seems that no new content will be allowed after this date and all stored files (photos, conversation archives, etc) will be deleted on December 14th (or about 2 days after I get back from Costa Rica). I am trying to research things to see what is still going to be possible, what is not and if I need to go out into the wild and find a completely different venue for this. The problem right now is the timing. I'll only be home around 2 1/2 weeks the next month and a half or so and, as I'll still have to do all the work that would normally have to be done if I were here (things don't stop just because I am gone) I really don't have a lot of free time to figure this out.

What little I've been able to see so far seems to indicate that I should still be able to send out e-mails, so I may be able to keep sending out offerings for the time being (but I will have to send the associated photos to those that want to see them by e-mail individually) but there will be no archives to dig through for stuff that was offered in the past (which is quite unfortunate as I often do have a number of things that were on older offerings). Also, it seems that whatever "group" I am left with (with however little functionality) will automatically be made "private". I don't know if this means that all of that currently receive my postings will have to re-sign up or not. I don't think it does though (but right now I don't have much information to work with). I DO know though that anyone that is not currently a member will have to contact me and I will have to send them an invite (and then they'll have to take steps to sign up (and, hopefully, it won't change to be like Google where you can only do things/ sign up for things if you have one of their e-mail accounts).

Right now, I just don't have a lot of information and no time to figure much out either. All I can do is try to let you know more when I know more about what all of this means and how it is going to change things.

Blaine