[Rockhounds] How do you decide whether to buy a specimen or not?

[William Dicks]

Kreigh, you always have some insightful comments and interesting
perspectives to create or keep a thread going. Thanks for keeping me
considering new things.

As an educator I consider what specimens would be of interest to my
students. 
It might just be:
* a wonderfully clear example of cleavage faces
* examples of "special minerals" that show double refraction or color
variations 
* maybe something flashy to grab their attention

On a more personal level, I go through your five steps as well.
(although I think "What your wife will say or approve" deserves a
category of it's own).
I have to admit to seeing a very special sample and really blowing the
budget because of the "drool factor". I my case it was an especially
nice sample of stibnite. :-))



Bill Dicks
Teacher,
Northville High School
Board Member,
Michigan Earth Science Teachers Association


>>> Kreigh at Tomaszewski.net 03/15/09 11:16 PM >>>
We all have collecting goals that are different, but most of us buy 
specimens from time to time. Some on this list are dealers, and we have

had some recent interesting discussions of the mineral business from 
the standpoint of being a dealer. I would like to continue that 
discussion and give the dealers a different view into the collectors 
they sell to.

I am asking all you collectors to imagine walking up to a mineral 
dealer's display and think about what questions you ask yourself before

you pick up a specimen and buy it. Can you boil your questions down to

a handful?

Most of us would have very small collections if it were not for 
dealers. We can't collect at all the interesting locations due to time,

cost, distance, etc. We rely on dealers to bring remote specimens to 
us. If we can help our dealers better understand our needs, we can all

have better collections.

I have five questions I ask myself before purchasing a specimen (and 
some commentary)...

1.	Can my budget afford it?
		If the deal is very unusual I might spend future budget
money;
		no usually kills the deal.

2.	Is it a reasonable specimen of a species I do not already have
in my
	collection?
		If yes, we probably have a deal, but I need to finish
looking
		around.

3.	Is it a reasonable specimen of a Type Locality I do not already
have
	in my collection?
		If yes, we probably have a deal, but I need to finish
looking
		around.

4.	Is it an ore mineral from a Locality I do not already have
	in my collection?
		If yes, we probably have a deal, but I need to finish
looking
		around.

5.	Is the deal too good to pass up?
		Is the specimen underpriced, and I can come out way
ahead by
		quickly trading it?
		Is the specimen better than anything I already have, and
I can
		come out way ahead by trading the specimen I already
have?
		Will my wife go 'Ohhhh!'?

If the answer is not yes by this point we don't have a deal.

What questions do you ask yourself before purchasing a specimen?

Kreigh


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