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Fred Hall , who is one of the Denver Comets and an illustrador for Voyage!, was in the area that was labeled "Meteorite Hall" and was selling a varity of offerings. He carried many hard to find meteorite books and several specimans for collectors of different budgets. Fred and his girlfriend were very pleasant and friendly. One of the items for sale here was a nice dinosaur painting that a kid had tried to buy for $5.00. Sorry, the painting was $495.00, not $4.95. On display but not for sale where a few meteorites..I think all Sikhotes...that had neat shapes. One looked very much like a bear and another make the perfect bottercap opener and shows meteorites can be usefull household tools. I give Fred Hall the award for "Friendliest Meteorite Seller in Denver 2001". Not far from Hall was Jensen's Meteorites, Mike and William Jensen. Mike Jensen, a very good people person, was manning the booth while William Jensen could be found wandering the show. Here I picked up a case of small generic rikers ($1.90 each), a few micromounts and a Handbook to North Dakota Meteorites ($7.00). The Jensen's had a shelfcase of meteorite books for sale including a couple Hardbound Rocks From Space, The Catalog of Meteorites, Nininger's Out of the Sky and several others. For this effort they receive the award for "Best Collection of Meteorite books at the Denver 2001". A meteorite book collector I am unsure how I walked out of there. Something that should not have been missed by fellow meteorites collectors were several cabinet displays by two of the Comets members. One display by Fred Hall had a very nice selection of Colorado Meteorites which included thin sections and polarized photos. While Andrew Abraham displayed a well rounded collection of stones, achondrites, aubrites, iron, stony-irons along with a nice moon speciman.This area was mostly without meteorite dealers so it was back to the Holiday Inn where I mostly just "hung around" the dealer rooms untill it was time to go to the party. Prices around the show as follows: Meteorite Thin Section starting at $40.00, Gubara everywhere for $0.50 to $1.00 a gram. Esqual in small polished slices for $35.00 a gram. Imilac polished slices $25.00 a gram. Cape York a low $2.50 a gram. Breham $3.00 to $5.00 a gram. Kapeto (Howardite) $600.00 a gram, Allende $5.00 to $8.00 a gram, Canyon Diable $.75-$1.00 a gram, Gibeon $0.50-1.00 a gram, unclassified numbered NWA's $0.45 a gram, classified $.50 to $1.00 depending on weathering grade and dealer. Tektites varied greatly in price. Rizzite Tektites at $.50 a gram for dumbdells and $1.00 a gram for large spheres. Lots of Sikhote-Alin with price ranges from $.30 a gram to $2.00 a gram depending on shape, size, and what dealer room you were in. Moon specimans where at a new low of $3,000 a gram and Mars specimans starting at $280.00 a gram. (Just think gold is around $10.00 a gram.) Meteorite Impactite was almost missing from the show, ( I saw one Beaverhead shattercone and Sudbury slices but no others.) No australites. Very little of the once common metals (Gibeon, Canyon Diablo, and Odessa). Two most common things...yep you guess it Sikhote's and African meteorites. Look for it to remain that way for a while. Saturday night it was the party at La Loma's. Chips, dip, and other mexican finger food were provided by the Comets. We had two rooms saved, but managed to all squeeze in one. This was a great chance for everyone to chat. I did not hear New York brought up even once, but I am sure it was on all of our minds. La Loma's is well known for their Margarita's and I now know why. Their large ones are at least 32 oz. The food was slow and good but I could eat very little. Fred Hall with daughter and girlfriend, along with Dean Bessey sat by me and my brother at one end of the longest table. Down the table seats were filled with many well known meteorite dealers. Hall's girlfriend seemed very nice and his daughter helped entertain us with her mexican jumping bean. At one point the daugther asked me if I like "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". In which I replied by singing a chorus of the Oompa Loompa chat, in which she joined along. We were also entertained by one of the party attendee's standing on the table and saying "Hey everybody watch this." He then proceeded to blow up a skinny balloon over two feet long. After insuring he had our attention, which wasn't hard, he forced the ballon down his month. Gulfing down the last of it, he annouced "Anybody who would like to see the balloon come out come back in 3 hours and pay $10.00." The party was now starting to part and I was tired while my brother was wanting to go dancing so we called it a night. Sunday was finishing deals and backtracking where I picked up several more items including , small Nantans, trilobites, about 10 kilos of morrocans,.and packing the car for our return trip. The trip is an 8 hour drive and we wanted to leave by noon. At one o'clock, the car trunk empty on the way down was now full. We were ready and homebound. One o'clock in Denver is two o'clock in Wichita so we had a road trip ahead of us that would fill the day. It was nice to have a break from this week of mourning. The terrorist attack the horrible tuesday morning before had a great effect on the event. Many collectors and some dealers, like the Labenne's, where grounded in other cities and did not make the event. Several dealers had shipments that did not arrive. The foreign sellers where most affected here. Our losses however where little to the thousands of New Yorkers and airline passangers that loss their life or loved ones. The brave rescue workers that gave their lives trying to save others will be in our hearts forever. The airline passengers that voted to rush the terrorists and the fireman hanging the flag on the broken Pentagon, unforgetable. |
