October 5, 2017
On September 12, we received a pallet of new material.
There were 700 pieces of azurite and malachite from the Sepon Mine in Laos. This probably is the largest selection of this material in the United States. The pieces range from 54 down to three pieces in a flat and range from $10 to $900 each. The quality for the most part is excellent.
There were 620 pieces of azurite from the Yangchun Copper Mine in Guangdong Province, China. This mine has been closed for many years and only a few pieces were available. My supplier was probably able to purchase this lot from an older miner. The pieces in this lot are in the shape of balls with well developed crystal structure resembling roses. They are relatively small, ranging from one to two and a half inches. They average about $45 to $60 a piece.
We also received 170 polished, doubly terminated fluorite points. The pieced range from 3 to 6 1/2 inches long and about 3/8 to 5/8 inches in diameter. They are made from excellent quality Chinese fluorite. They range from $35 to $90 each.
Finally, we received 300 polished word stones and 300 polished worry stones with words printed on them. The word stones are $4 each and the worry stones are $6 each.
As a final note, we have about 6 metric tons of various products from Madagascar on order. 250 kilos of the nearly transparent yellow calcite spheres from Guiahou Province, China, 50 kilograms of smaller fluorite spheres from China, and about 30 kilos of nice natural quartz crystal points (many doubly terminated) from Yunnan Province, China. These products, along with many other products that we will be purchasing in Tucson, will be arriving in mid-February.
August 7, 2015
1,200 pounds of new Madagascar material.
On August 4, 2015, a 1,200 pound shipment of new material from Madagascar Arrived at the store.
This shipment included:
- 50 kg of rose quartz obelisks (153 pieces). They range from $9 to $59
- 90 kg of rose quartz bowls (about 50 pieces). They range from $62 to $161
- 75 kg of very nice clear polished quartz points (about 600 pieces). They range from 1 and about 7 inches and range from $3 to $197
- 150 kg of agate and amethyst geodes (about 300 pieces). Some of the pieces are really nice, while others are just OK. They range from about $10 and $150.
- 150 kg of unpolished agate and amethyst lined geodes. They vary considerably in quality and range from $10 and $120.
- 1000 pendants without bales. There are 500 extremely colorful labradorite pendants and a 500 piece assortment of assorted Madagascar stone pendants. The rocks include ocean jasper, carneilian agate, polychronic jasper, amazonite, and several other stones. These pendants are $8 each.
We will have representative samples of all of this material at the store and at the Seaside and subsequent shows this fall.
We are expecting a 600 piece selection of Chinese minerals in mid-September.
There will be about 200 pieces of dark green, sparkly, botyroidal fluorite from Xingiang, Henan Province. The Mineral News in the July 2015 issue stated that they were very expensive, but something every serious collector should consider. Well, we will have them. The pieces will average about 1 1/2 kg and probably be priced between $60 and $250, much less than most pieces on the internet.
There will be about 200 clusters of quartz from Huanggang, Inner Mongolia. There is quite a variation in size and associated minerals. The photos will show the variation. The prices will range from about $30 and $300 depending on size and quality.
Finally, there will be a 200 piece collection of azurite and malachite. At the present time, we don't have the location but will have it shortly. These pieces will range from $30 to $120.
Boxes of fluorite
February 13, 2015
TUCSON BUYING TRIP 2015
Introduction
Wow! What a busy five days of shopping!
While we were in Tucson, we visited with many old friends and made a bunch of new ones. We probably examined the wares of several hundred vendors, some just a cursory look and others a very extensive look. We visited 12 of the 40 show venues.
Purchases
The most important aspect of the show was that we found all kinds of products for you to select from. By the time we finished shopping on February 11, we had acquired 9 large pallets of merchandise (About 15,000 pounds) of stuff. After five days of intensive shopping, we decided to forego the main show and go to the Sonoran Desert Museum to relax on February 12th.
Here is a brief summary of the new products we purchased by country or type of product.
- Argentina
- About 250 small, nearly clear, light colored, beautiful fluorite bowls ranging from 1 1/4 to 5 inches in size
- Brazil
- 13 kg of small to medium sized lepidolite mica books
- 100 kg of extremely fine muscovite crystal clusters with feldspar
- China
- Many products made from peacock marble
- Several coffee table sized polished slabs of marble
- Small obelisks made of a wide variety of rock products
- 200 kg of additional, nearly clear calcite spheres
- 150 kg of doubly refractive rhombs of the same calcite
- 100+ kg of quartz with embedded schorl tourmaline
- A few very nice small fluorite bowls and vases
- A couple hundred additional sceptered quartz points and clusters from Inner Mongolia
- Several fluorite slabs and obelisks from some old stock of one dealer. (The new products from this material are two to three times more expensive as the old material.)
- 150 kg of nice quartz points from Sichuan and Yunnan Province
- 1,000 small yellow calcite spheres
- About 300 assorted cabinet sized mineral specimens from several provinces
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Between 200 and 250 pounds of beautifully patterned polished malachite free forms from about 1/3 to five pounds per piece
- Madagascar
- We really got carried away here. Be bought almost three tons of material, mostly polished stone
- About 7 kg of clear polished quartz obelisks from 2 to 4 inches tall. Very nice!
- 170 kg of good crystaline celestite geode material, natural or shaped like eggs or spheres. All have very good color and little damage.
- About 200 kg of shaped septarians lined with drusy aragonite
- About 240 kg of interesting shaped bowls of septarian, rose quartz, and clear quartz
- About 150 kg of hearts made of rose quartz, carnelian, septarians, polychronic jasper, labradorite, and blue calcite
- About 150 kg of larger, freeform labradorite
- Well over 1,500 kg of spheres, eggs, and hand sized, polished pieces of labradorite, polychronic jasper, septarian, rose quartz, blue calcite, and carnelian
- 200 1 1/2 to 2 inch polished Cretaceous ammonite pairs
- 75 kg of the larger cretaceous polished urchins
- About 175 labradorite and other stone pendants
- About 10 kg of polished petrified wood eggs
- Mexico
- 350 pounds of uncracked geodes from 3 1/4 to 6 inches in diameter
- Morocco
- Four very nice large coiled, spiny ammonites
- About 200-250 nice apatite crystals
- About 20 flats of a new, very dark red quartz crystals that have similar structure to cactus quartz crystal. These are very fine and moderately expensive.
- About 80 very well crystalized specimens of blue barite from Nador. We did a lot of negotiating on these to get a reasonable price for them
- 140 cracked quartz crystal lined geodes ranging from 5 to 12 inches in diameter
- 150 kg of unbroken quartz lined geodes about 4 to 6 inches in diameter
- Peru
- 40 kg of small pyrite clusters
- Several hundred soapstone, black onyx, and serpentine animal carvings
- About 80 frames of butterflies
- About 50 very unusual pyrite gemstone trees
- About 40 combination rhodonite and rodochrosite spheres
- Jewelry
- For the metaphysical oriented customers, we bought almost 2,500 very interesting pendulums and pendants
- About 1,400 animal necklaces
- Several hundred other assorted pendants
Show Summary
The number of venues and vendors seemed to be about the same as in previous years. From talking to many of the vendors, it seems like the number of customers were down, but they were buying. The low to moderate end sellers were doing fine (We made several of them happy!) The high end dealers seemed to have lower sales this year than in previous years.
It seems like the prices are just getting higher and higher. Some of the materials have gone up radically over the last five years. Many mineral specimens have in creased between 2 and 4 times what they were five years ago. Many of these products are now more expensive than what the market will bear.
Our shipment should arrive about February 18. We will be able to display our new products as soon as we get them unpacked and priced. With all of this new material, it will take two or more months to complete this task. We will post new announcements showing more photos of the new material as we unpack it.
We hope to see you at our store or at one of our gem shows. (See our show schedule.)
Fulorite bowls from Argentina
Lepidolite from Brazil
Muscovite from Brazil
Fulorite bowls from China
Obelisks from China
Fulorite vases from China
Malachite from the Democratic Republic of Congo
Clear quartz obelisks
Rose Quartz Bowls
Ammonite from Morocco
Blue barite from Morocco
Red quartz from Morocco
July 28, 2014
We have just ordered a 50 piece selection of unusual quartz from China. The material is yellow quartz with hematite from an iron mine at Jinglong, Longchan County, Guandong Province, China.
I have seen thousands of pieces from this mine, but have never seen any pieces with this color. My source tells me that this is the natural color of the material and that they have not been color enhanced.
The material suppposedly comes from a single cavity.
There are several larger pieces in the lot. Due to my cost, as well as the rarity of these specimens, they will probably be priced from about $150 to $1500. I won't know until they arrive in about ten days.
Hopefully, this shipment will arrive in time to be sold at Seaside on August 15-17.
The photos on this page show 11 of the 50 pieces. The hands and tape measure will give you an idea of the size of the pieces.
May 29th, 2014
On May 20th, 2014, we recieved a 325 piece selection of outstanding quartz from Inner Mongolia. The location for these specimens is Huanggang Mine Complex, Hexington Banner, Keshiketeng County, Ulahad League, Chefeng Prefecture, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China.
Many of the crystals are complex and have multiple scepters. Some of the associated minerals include fluorite, dolomite, maganocalcite, hedenbergite, arsenopyrite, and lollingite. The maganoncalcite fluoresces bright pink. There are a few unidentified minerals that fluoresce white or bright blue.
Here are several of the specimens from the lot. They will be priced between ten and several hundred dollars.
They are available for purchase now.
Report on Tucson buying trip 2014
Dan and I spent six days of continuous buying at the Tucson Gem Show. You may or may not know that there has been considerable amount of price inflation on our types of products. We went through many hard negotiations to obtain the best prices we could get so that we could have affordable prices for you.
We purchased between 7,000 and 10,000 pounds of minerals; fossils; inexpensive jewelry; rock spheres, eggs, obelisks, and pebbles; and rock vases. In many cases, we were able to get large quantities of material at prices that will permit us to wholesale those products to valid dealers. The following paragraphs describe most of our new products. Due to the quantity of material, we will not be able to get everything unpacked and priced until the end of March 2014.
Minerals
China Minerals
There will be about 20 flats of minerals from Inner Mongolia. There are ilvaites, very unusual quartz specimens, andradite garnets, and several other minerals. There are about 100 kg of single almadine garnets and 100 kg of tourmaline from the Altai Mountains. There are about 36 kg of unusual round pyrite concretions with nice crystal faces. These concretions are not the ones that disintegrate.
There are several flats including some large pieces with fluorite, maganocalcites, and pyrites. There are about six flats of very attractive siderites with chalcopyrite and sphalerites. Finally, there are about four flats of extremely attractive botryoidal lavender colored fluorite and four flats of amber colored fluorite clusters.
Spain
There are 10 flats of the nice cubes of Spanish pyrites.
Peru
There are about 90 kg of inexpensive pyrite masses with small crystals from Hanzala, Peru
Mali
There are a couple hundred pieces of prenhite and epidote.
Madagascar
We were only able to find one flat of decent celestite. Almost all the celestite that was available was badly damaged. There are several clusters of larger garnet from the Antsirabe' region.
Morocco
There are several flats of very nice crystalline azurite concretionary masses. There are several pieces of a new blue barite specimens from Nador. There are about 12 flats of very nice gypsum desert roses. Finally, there are about five flats of almost microcrystal geodes of magnesite.
Fossils
Morocco
There are several hundred new Eocene shark teeth.
There are about 200 new Devonian trilobites. I have never carried several of the species in this selection. There are also about 200 Ordivician trilobites. There is one large plate with three large Paradoxides. All of the trilobites are well prepared with very little if any restoration work.
Madagascar
There are several hundred Cretaceous ammonite pairs ranging from 3/4 of an inch to 5 inches. There are about 30 kg of very colorful petrified wood ranging from 3 1/2 inches to 8 inches in diameter and about 3/8 inch thick.
Lebanon
There are about 125 Cretaceous shrimp on limestone. Most are singles. However, there are several plates with two, three, or four shrimp on them.
Jewelry
There are over 5,000 new pendants including some nice kyanite pendants and several pendants that would be of interest to metaphysical customers. There are also over 800 hematite and glass bracelets of many styles.
Insect frames
There are over 160 frames of butterflies mainly from Peru. The frames have between one and 32 butterflies. There are also about six very nice large Atlas moths in the selection.
Polished products
Peru
There are about 300 two and three inch soapstone carvings of several types of animals.
Mexico
There are ten 12 inch chess sets of varicolored onyx. These sets are very inexpensive for the amount of work required to make them.
Pakistan
There are many two to six inch bowls, wine goblets in felt boxes, 4x8 inch vases, three and four inch mortar and pestles, coaster sets, and canisters. Finally, there are over 150 actual size apples (these have not been available for several years). All of these products are made of Pakistani onyx.
China
There are about 500 kg of yellow and amber colored calcite spheres. These pieces are nearly transparent and have a bright polish. They are by far the best quality of calcite spheres we've ever seen.
There are over 150 kg of very high quality banded fluorite obelisks. In addition, there are lots of fluorite slabs, 300 kg of fluorite spheres, several lesser quality fluorite obelisks, and several hundred worry stones and small points.
There are about 100 new pieces of the very colorful Peacock Marble from Yunan Province. The pieces include four and five inch mortar and pestles, canisters, and several new styles of vases.
Madagascar
There are about 1,000 kg of spheres, eggs, pebbles, hearts, and larger freeform pieces. These pieces are made from labradorite, quartz, carnelian, agate, rose quartz, polychromic jasper, and septarian nodules. All of this material is of very good quality and many of these pieces were hand selected.
There are about 100 kg of a type of septarian nodule eggs and spheres that we haven't sold before. These pieces have large cavities lined with dark brown drusy aragonite crystals. They are excellent quality and quite attractive.
Summary
As you can see, we had a very successful buying trip at Tucson. We hope to get photographs of some of this material on this website by late April.
We hope to see you at one of our shows listed elsewhere on the website or at our store.