# The Market for Meteorite Fragments **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699 "2009-07-29T19:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/1 "2009-07-29T19:57:19Z")
Suppose I come into posession of a meteorite fragment, like [that German teenager that got knocked over by one](http://www.slashgear.com/30000mph-meteorite-hits-german-teenager-1246877/#entrycontent). Is there a market for these? Will NASA or some scientific lab reimburse me so they can study it? Or is it just another worthless rock? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/2 "2009-07-29T20:25:42Z")
Meteors in general are common enough that anyone with a real interest in them, like scientists or museums, pretty much already have all they need. Now, if your particular meteor happens to be a particularly interesting one, like one that hit a person, then that might be more valuable. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/3 "2009-07-29T20:30:06Z")
Buy and sell: [http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/Meteorites\_For\_Sale/index.html](http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/Meteorites_For_Sale/index.html) [http://www.meteorite.com/dealer\_list.htm](http://www.meteorite.com/dealer_list.htm) ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/4 "2009-07-29T20:35:25Z")
There was one that streaked across Central Texas recently and was accidentally caught on video by at least one camera. It broke up into several fragments and meteorite hunters began plotting all the finds in an attempt to locate all the fragments, several of which were fairly large, on the order of pounds. In a follow-up newspaper article a couple of months back it mentioned that some of these larger pieces had been sold for “undisclosed amounts” but that similar sales previously had been for around $10,000. US. Quick search and [here’s](http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/03/17/03172009wacmeteor.html) a related article. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/5 "2009-07-29T21:44:53Z")
[Here’s](http://crystalcaste.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=CC&Category_Code=XS) a very cool set of dice made out of a meteorite. I was very tempted to buy it when they had a complete set… but $500 was a little steep. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/6 "2009-07-29T21:59:13Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Suppose I come into posession of a meteorite fragment, like [that German teenager that got knocked over by one](http://www.slashgear.com/30000mph-meteorite-hits-german-teenager-1246877/#entrycontent). The [Bad Astronomer](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/12/a-boy-claims-he-was-hit-by-a-meteorite/) is pretty skeptical of some of the claims in that story. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/7 "2009-07-30T10:24:56Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > The [Bad Astronomer](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/12/a-boy-claims-he-was-hit-by-a-meteorite/) is pretty skeptical of some of the claims in that story. I’m pretty sceptical of the claim in the [Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/5511619/14-year-old-hit-by-30000-mph-space-meteorite.html) article that the chances of it happening are “one in a million”. By that logic, about 6,000 people should be hit by a meteorite in their lifetimes (or each day/year/whatever they are basing the chances on). ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/8 "2009-07-30T13:54:29Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I’m pretty sceptical of the claim in the [Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/5511619/14-year-old-hit-by-30000-mph-space-meteorite.html) article that the chances of it happening are “one in a million”. By that logic, about 6,000 people should be hit by a meteorite in their lifetimes (or each day/year/whatever they are basing the chances on). Well, first off, it’s probably just being used as an idiom, not a formal estimate of the chances. 😃 Secondly, context is everything. You might say that the odds are one in a million, not for any particular person, but for the entire current population of the earth in a year. I’m not sure that would be so out of line. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-market-for-meteorite-fragments/504699/9 "2009-07-30T19:08:15Z")
How does the seller prove it is a meteorite? Here in Northern Nevada I met up with real ol’ timer who had a few “gold” nuggets in some old jar in a shed. Clearly from the weight it could very be a significant percentage of gold but he told me it would cost more to assay it than it was worth. Also in the case of gold, in any significant quantity anyway, there could be a problem of proving the seller has ownership which is a bit curious since almost anyone can walk into a pawn shop and sell gold jewelry.