My parents just brought home a meteorite that they found in the forest and I think its from the comet shower we just had. Now I'm not sure what to do. I checked it out and it is real. Now I'm wondering what I should do! Could I get money from it?!

 

 

 

Hmmm, I was just reading an article Reports: 'Fireball' Crashes into Water Off New Jersey USA.

 

 

 

Astronomers had predicted a possible light show over the western parts of North America Saturday.

 

Also I removed your duplicate topic for you.

It depends what kind of meteor it is. You should go take it to a scientist if you're thinking about selling it. It looks really nice though.

Why sell it? Do you know how few of those things exist in private collections? How many of your neighbors can say they own a meteorite?

 

 

 

It's worth keeping.

Keep it unless you can get more than $100,000 for it. if you can, flip a coin best 2 out of 3.

 

 

 

700th post! woot!

Part of me wants to sell it and part of me wants to keep it. I may never find another one again in my life.

I would say to keep it.

 

 

 

As you rightly said, you may never be able to find a piece of it again, even if you do it maybe behind a glass cabinet.

 

 

 

Keep it, treasure it, bury it in your household items and in the years to come you might give it to someone, sell it or still have the desire to keep it.

 

 

 

Considering to some people that already is a treasure.

I'd keep it, and let your kids sell it for 10x as much :D

I would say find out how much it is worth, and then decide.

 

 

 

You could probaly take it to a university around your area and have tests done on it.

 

 

 

If you sell it, make sure that if it goes on display that you are credited for finding t :XD:

I'd keep it, cool thing to show to friends.

 

 

 

BTW, your title is wrong, it should be "Meteorite" :P !

I would say find out how much it is worth, and then decide.

 

 

 

You could probaly take it to a university around your area and have tests done on it.

 

 

 

If you sell it, make sure that if it goes on display that you are credited for finding t :XD:

 

 

 

Oh yeah, take it to a testing place to see if you found a new element :P

I would say find out how much it is worth, and then decide.

 

 

 

You could probaly take it to a university around your area and have tests done on it.

 

 

 

If you sell it, make sure that if it goes on display that you are credited for finding t :XD:

 

 

 

Oh yeah, take it to a testing place to see if you found a new element :P

 

 

 

 

 

Not only that :XD: , but the elemental content of it is what will decide its worth, which is where I was going with that :wink:

If it's worth anything more than $10k I'd sell it. You never know, there could be a huge meteor storm again and they'd become worthless. On the other hand, money is very unlikely to sink a huge amount in value.

 

 

 

Sure it's a nice thing to own, but decide yourself: Is it worth it being a "collector" then finding out later there have been tons of more meteor storms since you found yours, and now they're worth $50 a piece? I'd definitely sell it over having an item of sentimental value you just found

First thing I'd do is take it to somebody who can tell you for sure if it is a meteorite or not. It could just be a rock.

Thats pretty cool. Who knows where that stone has been, maybe it has been 1 million miles from the earth?

 

 

 

I would keep it for a while, but it would be smart to let someone estimate how much it is worth.

To ID it call your closest large University. I don't know where you live but I'm sure you know the names of the biggest universities in your state. Look on their website for an email address to an astronomy professor, if you can't find it online call the campus's 1-800 information hot line and ask to be connected to the astronomy department or to a astronomy professor, you shouldn't even to have to give the operator a reason why.

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping it depends on the value, it can honestly be worth anywhere from $0 to 15 million dollars depending on what's in it and where it's from. Also 'keeping it for your kids to sell' is pointless, meteorites don't really increase in value over time... a trust fund does.

 

 

 

EDIT: Wait, your from Illinois? Fantastic, the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign has one of the best university astronomy research centers in the Mid-West, if not the country. Their astronomy department has it's own pageand with a quick search I found their contact info,send them an email with that picture and tell us what they say :D

I don't want to rain on your parade, but that looks like a hunk of quartz...Meteorites are generally dull looking rocks or chunks of iron. I don't know jack about meteorites, but that looks like a chunk of quartz and I've never seen a meteorite that looked like quartz...I'm not even sure if it's possible to have quartz on a meteorite or not.

To ID it call your closest large University. I don't know where you live but I'm sure you know the names of the biggest universities in your state. Look on their website for an email address to an astronomy professor, if you can't find it online call the campus's 1-800 information hot line and ask to be connected to the astronomy department or to a astronomy professor, you shouldn't even to have to give the operator a reason why.

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping it depends on the value, it can honestly be worth anywhere from $0 to 15 million dollars depending on what's in it and where it's from. Also 'keeping it for your kids to sell' is pointless, meteorites don't really increase in value over time... a trust fund does.

 

 

 

EDIT: Wait, your from Illinois? Fantastic, the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign has one of the best university astronomy research centers in the Mid-West, if not the country. Their astronomy department has it's own pageand with a quick search I found their contact info,send them an email with that picture and tell us what they say :D

 

 

 

Cool, thanks. I'll make sure to do that!

Sell it pal, i mean, it's a rock...what would you do with it?

If you do decide to sell it make sure you get what it's actually worth. You don't want to be ripped off now eh.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but that looks like a hunk of quartz...Meteorites are generally dull looking rocks or chunks of iron. I don't know jack about meteorites, but that looks like a chunk of quartz and I've never seen a meteorite that looked like quartz...I'm not even sure if it's possible to have quartz on a meteorite or not.

 

Meteorites can't have quartz. See if the meteorite can scratch glass, if it can it probably has quartz, which would be bad in your case -.-

I don't want to rain on your parade, but that looks like a hunk of quartz...Meteorites are generally dull looking rocks or chunks of iron. I don't know jack about meteorites, but that looks like a chunk of quartz and I've never seen a meteorite that looked like quartz...I'm not even sure if it's possible to have quartz on a meteorite or not.

 

Meteorites can't have quartz. See if the meteorite can scratch glass, if it can it probably has quartz, which would be bad in your case -.-

 

 

 

I found an old piece of glass in the garage. The "meteorite" does leave a small mark, almost like a scratch, on the glass depending on what part of it I scratch with. :(

 

 

 

Either way, I'll still do what you recommended and contact a university just to make sure.

Could you get another, better picture of it?

 

 

 

It doesn't look like quartz to me, its to metallic looking.

Could you get another, better picture of it?

 

 

 

It doesn't look like quartz to me, its to metallic looking.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have a good digital camera so I'm limited to my cellphone for taking pictures. Here's another one from a slightly different angle:

 

 

 

There are 800+ for sale on eBay right now. Size does seem to matter for meteorites; the heavier ones are fetching a lot more money.

 

 

 

This site might help you identify your item.