Price of Meteorites: Why Searching for Space Rocks has Become Popular

Are you interested in metal detecting for Meteorites?

Well, you're not alone; interest in this activity has risen over the years because of the increasing awareness of these space rocks. Due to public concern over asteroid strikes and the study of past strikes, craters and hammer falls. 

Today, space rocks are readily available from many different outlets and the quarterly Meteorite magazine caters to the space rock enthusiast, as does the monthly online publication Meteorite Times and the Meteorite Mailing List.

Curious as to how much you'll pay for a small sample?

Meteorite prices vary from one source to another but the numbers quoted here are typical of retail values in today’s marketplace. Unclassified stone chondrites picked up by nomads wandering in the Sahara Deserts are readily available for about $0.50/gram. Attractive stones from the Gao-Guenie witnessed fall (Burkina Faso, Africa, March 5, 1960) can be purchased for about $1.50/gram and a top quality one-kilogram specimen of the Campo del Cielo iron meteorite from Chaco Province, Argentina can be yours for about $400.

 Pallasites are stony-iron meteorites packed with olivine (the gemstone peridot) and are particularly desirable when cut and polished because of the alluring color and translucency of the crystals they contain. Prepared slices of stable pallasites such as Imilac (Chile), Glorieta Mountain (New Mexico, USA) and Esquel (Argentina) are prized for their colorful gemstones and long-term stability, and will fetch between $20 and $40/gram. Meteorites are heavy, so a quality slice the size of a small dinner plate is worth thousands of dollars.

And on the high end of the scale:
  Unusual types such as the diogenite Tatahouine (fell June 27, 1931, Foum Tatahouine, Tunisia). A prime specimen will easily fetch $50/gram while rare examples of lunar and Martian meteorites may sell for $1,000/gram or more — almost forty times the current price of gold!

So that's why the interest! It all comes down to remunerativeness.
The average cost of a metal detecter is $155.00
Metal detecting forum.

Story here on 'Meteorwritings' by
Geoffrey Nodkin, One of the Meteorite Men on Science Channel

click pic
By the way; here are a few prices(as of this posting) of things we humans consider extremely valuable.
Gold-1,651.33 an ounce
Rhodium-1,442.00 an ounce
Platinum-1,187.00 an ounce
Iridium-420.00 an ounce
Osmium-380.00 an ounce
Palladium-263.00 an ounce
Rhenium-75.00 an ounce
Silver-32.36 an ounce
Indium-15.00 an ounce