by Michael Blood of Michael Blood Meteorites

Soft. Very soft. This market is so soft it makes Charmin look like bulk issue military T.P. It is so soft it makes the skin on a baby's backside seem like the calluses on a brick layer's hands. If this market were any softer, it would float off like a dandy lion seed in a brisk breeze. In fact it sort of HAS drifted off on a breeze.

The irony here is, it is the best "buyers' market" since the days of Nininger! Still, collectors largely are sitting on their hands ­ and more ironic is the certainty that as things pick up and material starts being sold again, prices will inevitably go up ­ and collectors will buy more. Strange, the way the human psyche works.

So, in the interim, I have doubled my teaching load and pretty much put my meteorite business on sabbatical. Prices already dropped so low that most of the sales I have made in recent weeks have been more of an expense than a profit. As a result, I have sold several of my personal collection pieces and raised the money to allow me to BUY meteorites at prices that will allow me to actually make a profit in the future ­ but not now, of course.

One of the most striking problems with this market has been the dissolution of the wholesale/retail division. In desperation and ignorance, many of the largest dealers have erased the traditional split between prices charged for volume purchases and prices given to the individual collector. At first glance, this May look like a great thing for collectors. However, the fact is, such a shift has not benefited collectors one iota.

The real effect has NOT been a drop in retail price (that was the result of many other factors) but an erasure of wholesale prices. This means fewer and fewer dealers are in a position to offer the same material. This eliminates competition, which, of course, would have resulted in the lowest prices, and, to some degree, more importantly, a much faster market "recovery," once things do start to return to "normal." So, while prices are low today, since distribution is WAY DOWN, you can be certain that "recovery" (the return to "normal" prices) will take place FAR more rapidly once "the ball starts rolling," so to speak ­ there will be little or no "competition" around of any given material to provide resistance.

What something (a meteorite) is worth is always measured in what someone is willing to pay for it. However, those among you who took Intro to Economics know that this is a far more complex "formula" than it appears right now, people value meteorites "less" than say 2 years ago ­ RELATIVE TO GOLD (and relative to the dollar). So, in a strictly "market" sense, meteorites are "worth less" now than 2 years ago. But that is strictly in a market sense. You and I both know that the "worth" of a meteorite has not changed one iota in 2 years ­ only the relationship to dollars has changed ­ and that, my friend, is what a "market" IS and the "market" always changes.

WHAT THIS MEANS: It means what I have maintained for over a year, now: now is the time to buy. However, I am no longer just saying it ­ my "business" is now comprised almost exclusively of 1) investing time in updating my woefully out of date catalog and 2) putting my money where my mouth is ­ and where it has been for some time now ­ I am no longer in the business of selling meteorites ­ I am now in the business of BUYING meteorites.

I have to support myself in other ways, but I am buying now for later. Meteorites are here to stay ­ this soft market isn't. The price of meteorites is down, but their value is constant. It's a buyers' market ­ so, now I am a buyer.