It's been slow going digging in the mountains this spring with little to crow about so far this year. After last fall's finds a small amazonite pocket or softball size pocket with smoky quartz crystals doesn't seem worth the time to write up. Gotta just keep at it, sooner or later something good with turn up. :-)
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| Day 1 is a little slow going but things got busier on Saturday |
This year’s Colorado Springs Mineral Show put on by our
local Club seemed fairly successful.
While some dealers did better than others it seemed the larger variety
of specimens the more likely a dealer’s chance of sales. If all you had was fluorite and folks didn’t
like fluorite they quickly moved on. If
you had a large selection of different minerals folks would stop by and look
through boxes hoping for a bargain or something they liked. I had thought of participating in this show as
a dealer but when I heard there would be a dirt floor and no electricity I
decided not to bother with it and submitted a case of specimens for display
only. This years theme for the show was fluorite. This means people can display their fluorite in an exhibit case and win a prize. Of course you can exhibit just about anything mineral related in an exhibit case and the Club is happy to display it.
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| These were some of the fluorite exhibits up for competition. |
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| Fluorite and Goethite display winner of the "Prospector's Trophy" |
The Club had room for 50 vendors
with 5 listed as standby. One week prior
to the show 12 vendors had backed out and lost their initial deposit but there
were 5 others that stepped in to help take their place. When I entered the venue I noticed the floor
was recently covered in concrete and electricity was being installed. Oh well--maybe I will try next year. I think one of the problems our Club has of
holding a Mineral Show is that our venue changes nearly every 2-3 years. I attended this show all 3 days. I worked the Silent Auction for our Club and
helped out one of my friends who was a dealer.
Being a solo dealer can be difficult when things get busy as sales get
away and 5-fingered discounts rule the day.
I noticed a couple price tags get changed and my dealer friend thinks he
lost one topaz fragment to an elderly woman who decided she needed a free
sample. The kid’s area also lost a number of dinosaur bones to thieves--too
large of a booth area and not enough adults supervising.
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| Kids area got hit repeatedly.... this picture shows why. |
An organized group of thieves tried to make off with a
number of articles prior to being caught.
Two of the group would engage the dealer on one side of his booth while
two others would load up their pockets at the other end. I’m guessing there were more thefts, but
these were the ones I was aware of. Thankfully dealers look out for each other
to help minimize this. We had a few
security folk roaming the venue so they eventually caught up with this gang. Lighting was also a problem at the
venue. The ceiling was easily 40 feet
above the floor and lights were few and far between… a couple of the lights
were out which made for very dark areas. If you didn’t have your own lights on
your sales tables nothing popped. I
tried to purchase a few things while at the show but settled for only one
fluorite piece on matrix which I traded $10 cash and some lesser specimens. The fluorite were rather unique and the
dealer was getting a lot of looky Lous and Lucys but his prices were too high
to make many sales. The fluorite dealer was
a young guy and was shooting for the moon price-wise for his fluorites. Haha. He was figuring he could live off his fluorite find for years. Other than the trade I made with him I don’t think he sold much. I heard afterward that he is digging the fluorite out of a prohibited/closed area by the USFS (hearsay).
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| Fluorite I purchased for $10 and trade. About 3 inches in length |
I tried to
negotiate a deal with another vendor and thought I made the purchase with a 10%
discount until the dealer’s wife stepped in and said no discounts at which
point I said no deal. I wasn’t enamored
with the piece but thought it was unusual enough to offer a price. Another dealer had some nice fluorite
specimens from Hardin Co, IL. His prices
would have been good if the pieces hadn’t been damaged, but a cleaved corner or
two on cubic crystals turns me off. The
food and refreshment area was a success.
The prices were good and the food was ok.
More outstanding cases below....
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| Martin's exhibit was "Best in Show" with many local Colorado minerals displayed. Martin lost his entire collection a few years ago in the Black Forest fire which burned down nearly 500 homes and is rebuilding his collection from scratch. |
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| Andy's case of minerals found primarily near Sentinel Rock, El Paso Co, Colorado 15 years ago. Many twins are displayed. |
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