Moon rocks on E-Bay, is this just a scam or can people really just buy moon rocks as souvenirs?

Answer 1

As others have mentioned all genuine Lunar samples sold on Ebay are meteorites. They are legal to own other than antarctic meteorites. In fact all come from countries outside of the USA. Here is a great website by the U of Washington in St Louis that will answer most questions about Lunar Meteorites.
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites.htm
Now I must caution anyone buying them from Ebay that there are plenty of fakes being sold as well. Of course your next question is how do you tell the real ones from the fakes. Unfortunately a certificate is no good as anyone can print out a really official looking one on their computer. My recommendation would be to buy from an IMCA member. All sellers who are members of the IMCA will proudly display their membership number at the end of their auction.
http://imca.cc/
Now if you find someone selling a lunar who is an IMCA member be prepared to pay a lot for the meteorite. Most will sell in the $500-5000/ gram range. It is possible to buy one for as little as $20 but it will be a very tiny piece much smaller than a grain of rice.
I guess I better mention that I am a IMCA member and have sold Lunar meteorites on Ebay in the past but do not have any currently for sale nor have any plans to sell any. But I am still trying to find one everytime I go outside.
One final item worth mentioning is that are also several known meteorites from Mars as well. But that is the only planet represented in our meteorite collections so far.

Answer 2

That all depends on where they came from.

Moon rocks from Apollo cannot be owned therefore cannot be sold. The Apollo samples were obtained by people using equipemtn paid for by the US taxpayer on behalf of the whole world, and NASA holds them in trust for everyone, distributing them to geologists and museums, or as small samples in educational packages (which I have seen and handled personally) only. It is in fact illegal to claim private ownership of an Apollo rock. Anyone doing so should be reported as they are either in illegal possession or else they are committing fraud.

However, not all Moon rocks come from Apollo. A number of meteorites over the years have been identified as lunar in origin, and ownership of these is quite legal.

So, if an eBay auction offers lunar samples from Apollo it is illegal, but if it offers lunar meteorites it is fine. However, I'd want to be assured that what I was buying was a certified lunar meteorite before parting with any cash, so eBay probably is not the place to buy it.

Answer 3

It's a scam unless they're selling meteorites. Lunar meteorites can be sold legitimately but they are incredibly expensive. Moon rocks that were returned with the Apollo program are not legally for sale, and would go for millions if they ever could go on sale.

Answer 4

Jason T is correct. Large impacts by asteroids on the moon threw up significant amounts of material into space. Some of it would have entered earth's atmosphere, small amounts of it would have survived. Tekites are small rounded glassy objects. Actually there is some controversy about their lunar origin, and many may be ejecta from strikes on earth, with the material thrown into space where it would instantly cool, then fall. Still there is a good chance that quite a bit is lunar in origin.

Answer 5

Of course it's a scam, moon rocks are worth an unbelievable amount of money due to their rarity.

Answer 6

Considering what it cost to travel round trip to the moon, I can't believe that NASA would sell their moon rock collection. No individual has ever been to the moon SO where would they get moon rocks.
good luck

Answer 7

It's a scam, what did you think? NASA is not about to sell any of their rocks, and nobody else has any.

Answer 8

Most probably a scam. I would want to see a certificate of authenticity before I bid.