Getting Ready for the Tucson Show

Whew, we have all been very busy raiding our storage, and processing minerals for the upcoming Tucson show. We have a new location at the Innsuites (now called Hotel City Center — I think there’s a Tucson Ordinance saying they have to change all hotel names every 3 – 5 years just to confuse the rock hounds!) We’re next to Collector’s Edge on the first floor this year, and we are excited to have such a great location at the best hotel show in Tucson!

When we bought all the inventory from Hawthorneden, at the end of 2006 there were 4 large rooms of flats, including an entire store. One room was their wholesale business, one room was all their show stock, and another room was all their “unprepped,” material. We’ve recently had to raid the unprepped material, and its exciting because we find all sorts of unusual crystals like Anatase from Norway, swiss and Italian Quartz, etched aquas (an excellent example is on the site , and a couple flats of 1970′s Adamite, among many other things.

As a career mineral dealer, I often buy very large lots of material. The nature of mineral finds is often either scarcity (very common) or a feast. Anyone who has mined, knows when you find a pocket all is right with the world and you just keep pulling amazing crystals out in abundance. As a dealer, when I get the opportunity to buy good quality at the right price, I often buy all of it. I’ll put away some it into storage, wholesale out flats, and sell the best pieces individually. Frank of Hawthorneden spent 40 years operating this way, and it has been fun to have acquired a room full of his “stashed goodies.”