Buying meteorites can be a rewarding hobby and investment. But, which meteorites to buy is the question. When buying meteorites, bigger is not always better. You can get a Nan Dan/Nantan meteorite which fell in Lihu and Yaozhai towns, Nandan County, Guangxi, China in the year 1516, which weighs a couple pounds for under $300-$400. But, chances are, unless you use special preserving techniques, its going to rust away on you. So did you get a good deal, depends on your point of view. There are a lot of Nantans around for sale (at least 9600 Kgs have been found) making the Nantan meteorite one of the less expensive meteorites on the market and one many sellers have, even those who are not meteorite dealers. I have to tell you though, for $300 to $400, you can get a very good start on a nice representative collection of meteorites instead of just one potential pile of rust. There are many kinds of meteorites ranging from very rare and expensive Martian and Lunar meteorites to very common North West Africa (NWA) meteorites. The major catagories are: Ordinary Chondrite • Carbonaceous Chondrite • Iron • Stony Iron • Achondrite • Mars, Lunar • R-Chondrite • E-Chondrite. You can find most of these at any given time on eBay rangine in price from under a dollar to start to many hundreds or thousands of dollars. So how do you decide? Look for sellers with great feedback selling mostly or a lot of meteorites (there are many of these great sellers on eBay, many have an I.M.C.A. member number, IMCA stands for International Meteorite Collectors Association). Of course, some dealers are not members, but that makes them no less trustworthy, in fact, some of the best are not members. People selling just one meteorite (often a meteorite from China) are not regular dealers. Also watch for high shipping charges on very small items. The best dealers have very good rates. Meteorites are a great hobby and make a great addition to any type of collector's collection!

On bidding for meteorites, think before you jump. Most meteorites are no exclusive and there will never be another piece sold. Even the more rare meteorites seem to show up once and a while on ebay. This is because there are always trades and exchanges behind the scenes. During these events, a small fragment or fragments, may pop off during cutting. It's these pieces you will most often see on ebay. Even those rare Antarctic meteorites can show up, just because of trades made by institutes that need or want some other meteorite.  What this tells you is that unless it's a super rare piece of nice size and shape, don't go overboard on the bidding. I watch many new bidders go way out there on bidding because 1. they have money, and 2. they get caught up in the bidding frenzy. This isn't limited to meteorites either, you should see what they do in comics! Talk about loosing perspective!

Hobbies are supposed to be fun, but some see it as a do or die thing, complete with bragging rights. This isn't fun, it's obsession. There is usually much less value in obsessive acquisitions than market would normally bear (excluding those designer boutiques which price things beyond measure so that the salesperson make 6 figures in a 20 x 40 ft storefront on just commissions!).
Research your prospective purchase, figure in shipping and budget, then go shopping!