METEORITE MARKET TRENDS
March, 2010
by Michael Blood
I received the following question following last month’s report which focused primarily on the
Tucson Show Prices: “I am curious as to why Sikhote-Alin is rising faster than other
specimens/species/classes. I know the continued diminishment of good specimens can
produce greater demand, but why only S-A as the leader of the pack?”
The answer is largely imbedded within the question: “….continued diminishment of
good specimens..” So, The question is then reduced to why S-A is “leader of The pack”
in severe increased cost. Again, the answer Is primarily within the question: it IS the leader
in Diminished availability of quality specimens.
Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of specimens Available, but they are of lower
and lower quality – it Is the availability of quality specimens that has diminished. So, what
used to be a market of abundance Of quality specimens is reduced to an abundance of
Poor specimens. The quality specimens are ever more Rare and the price of same is,
therefore, increasing substantially.
So, since not only the NWA material is also diminishing, But the seemingly endless supply
of Campos is on a sharp Decline. Prices about doubled to last year, but some how this
year were only a little higher – but quality was down All the more. Even the mediocre
specimen supply was down. A good question re Campos is why the price did not show
another sharp increase. (Nor have the NWA specimens – yet).
The reason S-A prices continue to leap foreword is that S-As are truly the king of the
irons: it has killer regmaglypts everywhere – and not just on large specimens, but on
small specimens, as well. They are What everyone coming into meteorites thinks a good
looking meteorite should look like. In fact, they are what every collector, no matter how
long into it, thinks the ideal arion should look like.
Indeed, since nearly all other irons
look sucky when small, this is not the case with S-A.
S-A is the all time great iron. I truly regret not scraping together every cent possible
and buying every gram I could when it hit the all time low of 37c/g when the Russian
material was released all at once and flooded the market. 100% 20/20 hindsight.
And the beat goes on.......
Until next time, HAPPY HUNTING! Michael
