Tucson 2010
Our annual trip to Tucson is always a fun break from the long north country winters. It is a quick visit during the first four days of the "wholesale" show. Although there are always a few deals to be had, the idea of a wholesale show has been lost on many dealers. More and more we are seeing the mineral prices skyrocketing. It would appear to most that the "wholesale" show is just an early opening for retail sales. There are lots of second tier minerals, mostly damaged, which can be found. Decent specimens always seem to be priced quite high and sometimes at obscene prices. Okay, enough whining.
Venders are set up everywhere...tents, rooms, store fronts, warehouses, of truck tailgates...some carry their wares in cases while others want to haul you off to look in their car trunks. The Tucson show is certainly an experience! Above (lower right) are Jay Walter and Scott Wallace in front of the Inn Suites room for Majestic Minerals and Alpine Mineral.
Geodes, Cathedrals, Churches, or what ever you want to call them, of amethyst from Brazil are always fun to check out. For hard core mineral enthusiasts like us, these don't count as specimens but they make for good home decorations and pictures. I think the middle one would make a really neat dog house.
So, what about the minerals? Well, there were some nice Chinese babingtonites like last year so I partook of these. Also, some decent Pakistani tourmalines which I have posted on the February Update along with the babingtonites.
To important finds were the azurite/ malachite specimens from Mexico which have been available for a few months now. There were plenty of these to be had but almost all larger crystals and larger specimens had strong contacts from matrix or other crystals. I could not find a one that I was satisfied with. The second big find has been around for a short time too and those were the vanadinites from Morocco. The crystal are large and the prices decent. Most however have distracting to debilitating coatings on one or more sides. I did find a couple flats of this material to bring home but most of this material has been seriously high graded and does not hold up to the quality of the material from the 2002 find and dates prior.
All in all a fun visit to the land of Sun.