I have been getting several requests to name the dealers engaged in less
than honest business practices. I have publicly called out those who
violated the sanctity of meteorites I was involved with in the past by
self-pairing and piggy-backing material I placed on the market. At one
point, it was almost a full-time job. I am not interested in creating a
"Dealer hall Of Shame" list however you can put one together yourself
with a little bit of work. You would be surprised at the number of
dealers who are engaged in deceptive trade practices.
I found 108 violations out of the 265 lunar meteorites currently listed
on eBay by simply cross referencing the Meteoritical Bulletin. There
are a lot more than 108 if unclassified material with no numbers is
taken into account.
For NWA material, the Meteortical Bulletin will assist in providing you
with a list of dealers to avoid. Carefully write down the NWA numbers
in question and enter them into the Meteoritical Bulletin search text field.
Link to the meteoritical Bulletin search page:
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/
Things to look out for in the bulletin.
If there is more material by weight available on the market than what is
listed in the bulletin, then there is fraud taking place.
If the number of complete stones listed in the Bulletin under a
particular NWA number is exceeded, then you are looking at another case
of self-pairing which is also fraud.
If you are not provided with a complete chain of custody back to the
persons name in the bulletin who submitted the meteorite for study, then
it is not worth pursuing.
If you type in the NWA number or name and no data shows up, it means the
stone is not official and has not been approved.
It is interesting to see who made the list of dealers to avoid!
Happy hunting,
Adam
______________________________________________
Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the
Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com
Meteorite-list mailing list
Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
