[Rockhounds] Retail business question

[Rik Dillen]

And here is my confession ;>)

I do something like 5-6 shows in a year, sell some specimens accidentally
through the internet and some on our monthly meetings.
I have no 1000 EUR specimens in my collection, let alone that I would sell
such museum pieces.
As for Alan, most of my stuff is priced under 5-10 EUR.

I buy stuff e.g. in Tucson (every couple of years), visited David Shannon
(and now Colleen) now and then, and the last 5 years or so I bought
something like 10 collections from the inheritors of deceased mineral
collectors here in Belgium. Not collections from rich people, most of the
stuff is also priced in the neighborhood of 5-20 EUR. All the best specimens
go into my own collection, the rest is sold at modest prices, just to be
able to recuperate my money. In that way I can just pay for what I keep in
my own collection without adding extra money. That's it.
I know what it costs to do a show as an exhibitor, and I'm always wondering
how people can even make their living from that. What I get is hardly enough
to pay for my surplus specimens plus the participation cost at the show. My
expenses aren't even included, because I consider that as the cost of my
hobby.

I sell specimens at shows mainly for those reasons :
- to get rid of everything I have already represented sufficiently in my
collection
- to get into contact with many other collectors and dealers (contacts are
far more intensive and numerous behind than in front of a table)
- to have fun (I would not go to any show that would be boring)

To pay for living there are many other much more rewarding jobs, so I
appreciate people who can make enough money from selling minerals to live
from it with their family. It must be hard.
Moreover, any mineral dealer who collects minerals himself, does not sell
precisely the specimens that would bring hem the most money, because exactly
those he would keep.
On the other hand, the sellers who know most about mineralogy mostly are
collectors themselves.

Some thoughts from Belgium, with my best regards to you all.

Rik DILLEN 
E-mail rik.dillen at skynet.be 
Homepage : http://users.skynet.be/rik.dillen 

MINERANT 2009
9-10/5/2009
Antwerp Expo - Antwerpen - Belgium
www.minerant.org