[Rockhounds] So ya wanna be a mineral dealer, eh? - Part 2 - "How hard can it be?"

[Tom Corson]

See comments below...


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gene Hartstein - Fossilnut.com [mailto:gene at fossilnut.com] 
> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 8:18 PM
> To: corson at infodyn.com; Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing 
> list for rock and gem collectors
> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] So ya wanna be a mineral dealer,eh? 
> - Part 2 - "How hard can it be?"
> 
> Tom:,In addition
> 
> Buying and stocking the perky boxes, jewelry boxes, foldups, 
> foldup box bottom material ( for foldup boxes I use closed 
> cell foam flashing, which I buy in huge rolls at Home Depot), 
> labels, flats, staples... and making these up for all the specimens.

Absolutely true. Other than the story I told about the bases and labeling, I
left out all this stuff in the interest of brevity.

> 
> For online sales you omitted packing, and trips to the shipper.

Packing yes, I omitted it. I've managed to get the packing thing down to a
pretty efficient process. Maybe 5 minutes an order (unless it's really big).
Trips to the shipper, only sometimes when the customer insists on UPS, or I
have an international order. I recommend, and most of my customers use, USPS
Priority Mail. I am aware that others have a differing opinion, but I love
USPS. The govt. actually managed to produce something that actually
functions as a real business! Their cost structure is cheaper than UPS (by
about twice!) and their service is better too. They pick the shipment up at
my front door (for free) and have never lost or damaged an order on me.

> 
> Buying gifts to placate your spouse who rightfully complains 
> that the house is a disaster for a month after Tucson.

I do not have this issue, as no one in their right mind would put up with
me, minerals or not....

:-)

> 
> Repairing and repricing fossils broken by a child or adult 
> who mishandles specimens despite signs and repeated requests 
> to handle carefully.

Oh, I'm so glad you brought that up! Gives me a chance to share a funny
story.

There is this Tucson mineral dealer (we'll call him Dave). He's probably
pushing 80 and been a dealer for 15-20 years. I've learned a lot from him
and we also both love to smoke cigars and sit around and insult each other.
Any time we're doing the same club show, we usually try to set up next to
each other.

Among his many other things, Dave usually has several okenites, and, despite
having an advanced degree and being a retired professor, he almost always
puts them out on his table just like everything else. His tables all have
"do not touch" signs. So, duh?, guess what? The entire milieu of humanity
passing before his tables invariably has to touch and rub his okenites,
because they can't believe the fuzzy, pet-rock looking things are real.

Now, there is absolutely nothing that riles this guy up more than having his
okenite "rubbed the wrong way".... He goes nuts, turns red, hollers - it's
usually quite the scene.

There is also no better way, in my opinion, to liven up an otherwise dead
show than to torment another mineral dealer (we are a sick lot...). :-) So,
if I'm bored, I'll usually wait until a suitable customer comes to my spot
and say something like "See that old guy over there.... Go ask him if you
can rub his okenite, It's really fun!". They do it - he yells and hollers -
and I'm all but rolling on the ground laughing. He almost always gives me
the finger after the customer leaves...

Other variants of this are: show is slow and boring and I'll holler over at
him "Hey Dave! Stop rubbing your okenite and get to work!" or perhaps "Hey
Dave! Have you rubbed your okenite today?". For some reason, I usually get
the same response from him as above...

Come to think of it, the last show we did, I don't think he had any more
okenites. I think he may have okenite PTSD...

:-)

> 
> Show sales- repeating the pack, unpack, setup, take down etc. 
> many times till the items sell out.

Yep.

> 
> Saving receipts etc. and filing periodic sales taxes for each 
> state in which you sell. Putting the records together for the 
> annual income taxes.
> 

Yep. For me this is pretty painless as I have run "real" companies and doing
this is almost second nature for me.

> Verifying that you got credit for all the credit card sales 
> (If you take credit cards)

Same as above... But, yes, it all still takes time.

> 
> For shows, making sure you have motel reservations on the 
> right dates (I have made this mistake one time in 10 years)
> 
> Gene Hartstein
> Newark, DE

________________________________

Thomas W. Corson	 	 OBG International	 
corson at infodyn.com	 Green Valley, AZ 85614	 

http://www.obgrocks.com	 
World-Class Minerals For World-Class Collectors	
________________________________