KOFA National Wildlife Refuge - February 2004 - photo by John Veevaert
John Veevaert    PO BOX 2182   Weaverville, California  96093  USA  (888) 689-8402



Return to the 2010 Tucson Show Homepage 

Show Reports
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Tucson 2010 Report 6

Well here I am at the end of another Tucson Show adventure.  This year the theme of the Main Show was Gemstones and Gem Crystals.  One could expect a lot of eye candy with that sort of theme and sure enough my eyes have been saturated with mineralogical high fructose corn syrup! 

Before I move on to some of the cases I wanted to report on a new find of azurite from Arizona that Evan Jones had.  These specimens come from the Carlota Mine, near Pinto Creek in Gila County, Arizona.  Usually, when a new find comes along we expect them specimens to be of a reference grade.  Not this time.  The crystals are large, lustrous and somewhat reminiscent of examples seen from Morenci and Bisbee.  Several of Evan's specimens also had an uncommon association with Cuprian Powellite which is brightly fluorescent under SW UV light.  Evan has reasonable prices on these and I regret now not purchasing some of them... can't get everything you know...

 
A group of new azurite specimens from the Carlota Mine.


A 5 cm specimen of azurite from the Carlota Mine.


A 5 cm specimen of azurite and cuprian powellite from the Carlota Mine.

 


Here's one of the finest Milpillas azurites I have ever seen anywhere that was in Evan's booth.

On to some of the cases that were here...   

 
Likely the finest group of tanzanite crystals ever assembled in one place.

 
The 5-6 cm tanzanite which was featured on a cover the Mineralogical Record a while back.

I have seen a lot of these before in the case of Gene and Roz Meieran. 
 
 
But this 10 cm or so specimen of violet scapolite has to be one of the best from the Afghan find!

Some folks had cases which deviated from the theme and that is ok when they're filled with rocks like these! 

One of the end cases had a fabulous display of topaz from Ouro Preto in Brazil.
 
These specimens on the right side of the above case were enough for me to give me a dry mouth while I gawked at them.
 
 

 
Then there was the case put in by Keith Proctor.  Oh my gosh! The hell with gem crystals - look at all this crystallized gold!! 


This is just a small group of some of the exceptional crystallized gold specimens in Keith's display.

 
 

Here's an artful display put together by Herb & Monica Obodda
 
 
I never get tired of looking at this crystal of aquamarine owned by the Oboddas.
 
 
Nor these remarkable sphene specimens both faceted and the crystallized specimen.
 
 
 

Sorry about my fuzzy picture here but this is a case placed by Joan Kureczka and Jesse Fisher of pegmatite minerals.
 
 

They own one of the finest Little Three mine spessartines I have ever seen.
 
 

And here is a very rare matrix specimen of elbaite from Viet Nam. Every one of
these I have ever seen before has been matrix free crystals of elbaite.
 
 
 
In one of the thumbnail cases I saw this brilliantly lustrous, glassy morganite from Brazil.
 
 

You can always count on Gail & Jim Spann to put out a feast for the eyes... Some crazy good stuff in this case!
 
This was in one of the Collector's Edge display cases. That bar looks to be in pretty
good shape after spending 140+ years on the ocean floor of the coast of North Carolina!
 


Fellow benitoite freak Rick Kennedy had a fine case with a rough and cut display.

 


Here's a cerussite group of Rick's.

 


And also a fine specimen of benitoite with a 5+ carat faceted benitoite. Rick found that 5 ct cutter in a batch of
mine run material that Steve Perry and I sold to him. The rock cost Rick about $40 and the finished
is worth well over $30,000!I think Steve and I made out ok on that deal as we purchased the mine run from
Bryan Lees and that rock probably cost us about $5 so we made 8 times more on the rock than Bryan did... And Rick?
Well Rick is smiling a lot these days...

 
 
 

And look at this necklace of benitoite and specimen owned by Ed Swoboda.  We're talking about well over $500,000 worth of cut stones here!
 
 
Ok that will do it for the 2010 Tucson show - for me at least.   There are many people writing show blogs now and I can assure you I did not see everything here in Tucson by a long stretch.  I have kept my focus on finding out what was new in the mineral world since the 2009 Tucson Show and the 2009 Munich Show.  I would encourage everyone to read up on as many of these as you can click your mouse on to give you the best vicarious view of Tucson possible. 
 
The following comments are mine and only important to me and should in no way be misconstrued as the authoratative word on what is what with the world of minerals and the Tucson Show.  You won't get any names of dealers or collectors out of me but you'll be getting some inside stories of what happens in the Tucson Mineral Mosh Pit. 
 
I spoke with literally hundreds of dealers and collectors during the past 3.5 weeks here in Tucson.  I have been here since January 19th and been to just about every venue in town.  This was the poorest show in anyone's memory for new finds of any significance.  We are in the middle of a new find funk.  Until more new mining or quarrying operations get on line it will be difficult for new material to get here.  Also, our political system is creating some serious problems.  A mere handful of dealers from Pakistan or Afghanistan could get Visas to get to the United States.  Shipments were detained in customs and so on and so on.  It is no wonder that the more important and significant new finds are more likely to show up in Munich in the future rather than Tucson because of this reason alone.  But this is the world we live in now.  
 
Despite the lack of a number of new finds there were an incredible number of stunning minerals with equally stunning price tags available here.  Based on a few conversations with collectors it seems that the advertised prices floating in the stratosphere are not all that firm. One collector's story left a rather head scratching feeling with me. He said that he'd been offered a fine specimen of leadhillite from Tsumeb for $65,000 initially.  He said thanks for the view.  A day later the same dealer offered the same rock for $15,000... Imagine that - a $50,000 drop in price in just 24 hours.  This means one of two things to me: either there was a whole lot of fluff in the price going in or that particular dealer was having a poor to marginal show.  This is not an isolated story either. A number of collectors reported getting discounts of up to 40% off the labeled price for offering the dealers cash. What it reenforces to me is the need for collectors to get educated on what is or isn't an important mineral specimen, and what a fair value for the upper tier minerals is.  Spending time in museums, visiting shows like Tucson, reading periodicals like Rocks & Minerals and the Mineralogical Record will serve you better in the long run than taking any dealer's (mine included) word for things. 
 
Despite that story the sale of minerals seems to be on the rise again.  For dealers who had decent rocks at decent prices or who had the "best of" material available there were a lot of happy shoppers.  I was surprised at the traffic level at the Pueblo Inn.  Several mineral dealers there did very well despite the main attraction being more along the line of beads. Then there is the Executive Inn which, at one time, was the premier destination in Tucson.  It was like a visit to Uncle Joe's Funeral Parlor with fewer than half the rooms filled and good parking available 24/7. 
 
The Marty Zinn shows were all well attended in general though the feeling was that attendance was down somewhat from last year.  It seemed to me that the Inn Suites was rocking as parking was always a bit of problem.
 
A lot of people do a lot of work to make these shows possible and that includes both the show organizers and the dealers.  When you walk in to a room at a hotel or at the Main Show you have to stand back and be slightly amazed that every rock you see was handled at least a few times before appearing on a shelf or display.  Every sign you see advertising a show like this took someone some time to put together and organize. In other words, these things just don't happen and without the work of all involved I and many others would still be plugging away at our former day jobs.
 
Enough of my blathering.  I am finished and ready to start boxing up orders. I hope you found some of my wanderings through Tucson of interest and I am sure to be back here again in 2011.  Till then or the next show I attend and yack about,
 
Cheers!  
 
John Veevaert
Trinity Mineral Co. 
 


Past Shows & Reports
PLEASE NOTE: The minerals that were offered on these pages are all sold
1999
Munich Show
2000
Sainte Marie Show
Munich Show
2001
Sainte Marie Show
Munich Show
2002
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2003
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2004
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2005
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2006
Tucson Show
Bologna Show
Sainte Marie Show
East Coast Show
Munich Show
2007
Tucson Show
Dallas Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2008
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2009
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2010
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show

Munich Show

2011
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2012
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show 
Munich Show

2013
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
Crystal Days (Poland)
Munich Show  

 

 
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