Buying Meteorites is like buying a diamond. You either buy it because its beautiful or its really interesting to you, you need it for your collection, or you believe it will make "the" gift for that special friend. So, you want to buy as large and good looking item as you can afford or are willing to pay. Meteorites are rare compared to diamonds, you won't find them in the local jewelry store or deparment store. But, "common" and "exotic" meteorites can be found and knowing something about them helps as does knowing who to buy from! When you look at meteorites on auction sites, some things to look for are: Is the seller providing detailed information about the meteorite? Many good meteorite sellers will also post the story around a meteorite if its interesting and known.

A great place to research a meteorite that's being sold is the Natural History Museum's Catalog of Meteorites:
 http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-curation/projects/metcat//indexsing.dsml

 Are the pictures clear? <br>Does the seller have good feedback? Remember that it is very hard to please everyone and some people, who do not know what they are really buying, get caught up in the bidding process and pay way more than the item is worth or what they would like to spend. This is where a lot of bad feedback comes from for meteorite and mineral dealers.

Do read some of the feedback. Recent(and continual)positive feedback is a good indication your dealing with a regular seller and should have no problems.

While many top meteorite dealers do not belong to any organization other than The Meteoritical Society ( http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/ ), there are other interest groups as well, one being the International Meteorite Collectors Association (http://www.meteoritecollectors.org/) which includes as members, most of the meteorite sellers here on ebay.

Seeing an IMCA member id numbers is a great way to insure your getting a real meteorite. Other items to watch out for are how they describe a meteorite, tektite, or mineral. Does most of the listing pertain to meteorites and your buying experience or something off the wall. This is a dead give away to a real meteorite deal.

They will only list facts about the meteorite and how they do business on ebay.

Stories about a great-uncles friend finding a rock which was attested to being a meteorite by a high school science teacher just isn't good soilid evidence for me. Neither are visions. Real meteorites are sold on ebay by real meteorite dealers and collectors. Others also sell meteorites, but are neither meteorite dealers or collectors.

Would you buy a diamond from a vegatable seller or a preacher?

Meteorites are a great way to have something which is unusual and rare and has traveled through space and time to your hands. Enjoy them for the interesting item they are!