Although I have been a long-time member of the meteorite community, I am not a member of the IMCA for several reasons. The current Ebay auctions for a large piece of magnetite claimed to have been found with some sort of "Buck Rogers" electronic device from three miles away has already given a black eye to the IMCA. As soon as the misrepresentation of this material was discovered, the IMCA leadership should have contacted the seller and requested he put an end to sales until he had legitimate proof that what he was selling was actually meteoritic. The description in the auction is very unprofessional...something that the IMCA should not tolerate.
I'll ask the same question I asked several months ago...what exactly does the IMCA do anyway? Here is another one of your members pulling a fast one on the public and we don't hear/see anything being done!
Time to clean house folks,
JKG
At 12:11 PM 7/12/2004, Nicholas Gessler wrote:
Hi IMCA members and non-members:
Bob has hit the nail on the head!
Just what does displaying the IMCA logo mean or guarantee?
I have not seen this addressed on the IMCA list, so it looks like he discussion falls here.
It seems to me that displaying the IMCA logo should obligate members to GUARANTEE the authenticity of their sales.
Perhaps that is all that the IMCA can realistically do.
All of us have misidentified meteorites from time to time, amateurs and professional meteoriticists alike. I don't think IMCA should be in the authentication business. Yes, providing information on identifying meteorites is fine, but there are several websites already doing that. At present, the labs are the final arbiters of authenticity. But I am sure there are many on this list who can distinguish most meteorites and meteorwrongs without the help of a lab.
When eBay is asking for suggestions of proactive measures to be taken to prevent fraud, in my opinion the best and only way to proceed is to allow the public at large to express their opinions openly to the bidders and the sellers. I know that eBay tries to prevent people from doing this, but free comment is what makes a free market free.
I spoke to an eBay representative yesterday, and will continue that discussion...
Cheers, Nick
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