| Tucson Gem Show Trip - 2018 Page 3 March 07, 2018 1:45 PM Eastern |
"Go To" :
Check out my ebay store,
Flickr, African Adventures &
even buy crystal/mineral
postage & postcards on
Zazzle!
Check out my ebay store,
Flickr, African Adventures &
even buy crystal/mineral
postage & postcards on
Zazzle!
| One of the places that I like to go while at the massive Tucson Gem and Mineral show is the market that is mostly Moroccans. Beside them across an alley is the folks from Madagascar. Last year, there was many Moroccan dealers that had some of the relatively new find of Moroccan amethyst that came out a year or two ago. This year, there was only 3 tents in total with it, and only one tent had good amethyst, with only 2 flats left. Me and a buddy split the two flats. This locality is known as "Boudi" but is probably more accurately Bou Oudi, Tata Province, Morocco. The 2 flats that we got didn't have any bad or damaged crystals in the flat at all. Also, the price had dropped in half. It's just not supposed to work like that? This was near the beginning of Oracle (near where Granada ends) and just past the banner that hangs across Oracle road. This was either Lester street or one very close to it off of Oracle. The Madagascar folks were just across the street from them. Perhaps now is a good time to explain that the "Tucson Show" is actually a combination of many shows ran by many different promoters and business owners. They all start at different times but the key deciding factor is the END of the show which culminates in the "MAIN SHOW" or otherwise known as the "CLUB SHOW" at the convention center, All the other shows base their start and end dates on that key show. Many vendors, and I've done this myself when I used to vend in Tucson, sell at the hotel shows and then before the last weekend they move everything over to the main show. That is major work (and expense) and the first day of the main show turns the once bustling hotel shows into ghost towns. |
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| I ended up getting some phenomenal star rose quartz eggs with good strong 6-ray stars. The one with inventory # 9867 I sold for $34. This is one of the highest quality and I sell these in the $30 range. I have some with lessor degree of asterism of $25 and $20, Anyone interested in one can contact me from my contact page or simply use the "go to" drop down menu to find my ebay page. |
| I also was able to bring back quite a few of the polished POLYCHROME JASPER from Madagascar. |
| One unusual thing that I saw was "Red Grape Agate" from Utah. Thiis was especially interesting to me because I had gotten a piece in an estate collection from a professor in Alabama that looked just like this. At the time I didn't know what it was, had never seen it before, and had figured that I would never be able to figure out what it was or where it came from. Well, mystery solved! Photo below: |
| Another thing that I got this year per usual was some opal for my Rock Shop in McDonough, Georgia. |
| Now at this point in my trip, I depart Tucson and head toward Holbrook to dig some petrified wood. I headed from Tucson to Holbrook via Globe, Show Low, and the scenic Salt River Canyon. This is an obscure route and one of the hidden gems of Arizona! It was important to leave Tucson early enough to see the sights and also not to have to go around those curves in the dark. It is a serious gain in elevation in a short period of time. Some grades were 8%. Many folks have never even been on an 8% grade road before. |
| North of Salt River Canyon is the mountains of the Apache Reservation. There is an awesome scenic viewing area after a very steep and winding climb. I think the elevation is about seven thousand feet here. Shown in panoramic shots with my Galaxy S7 phone which does an awesome job! |
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| I'll take some pictures of the Payson Diamond quartz crystals that we dug and post them here |
I left Payson and headed towards Blythe, California. Our group, the 4 of us, were going to overnight in Blythe and visit a mine
the next day that was $100 per person per day. Since there wasn’t a sign for the blm off-road track to the mine, we ended up
making a wrong turn. The road got rougher and rougher but we could see the gps waypoint for the mine even though we didn’t
have a data signal for maps. The gps seemed to indicate we were headed towards the mine. The road got rougher and
rougher but I then could see the mine so we kept on. When we got to the valley at 9am, we rode around until it finally became
obvious that there was no way to get from where we were at in the valley to the mine up in the hills. We didn’t have a signal but
finally got in touch with the caretaker who told us we had taken a wrong turn. Not having a sign for the mine will do that, I
guess. But on the way back we were crawling over some rocks and the truck slid and slammed sideways into some boulders
and this blew out a tire.
We had to unload the bed and the cab (and both were packed with tools, rocks, gear, etc) in order to get to the tools to change
the tire and to drop the spare down from under the bed. Thankfully everyone pitched in and we made relatively short work of it,
all things considered. We had texted the caretaker about the blow-out but were we were had no signal.
We finally arrived at the mine at 2pm. I asked the caretaker if we could get a reduced rate or a half day rate or something since
there was only 3 hours of daylight left and since we were in the valley looking for the mine at 9am and had a blow out and had
made every effort to be there at 9. It was obvious with my blown-out tire resting in view on top of my gear in the truck bed that
we had run into problems.
The caretaker informed us that it was $100 per person per day to dig, even if we were late, and even if it was beyond our control
that we were late. I then said that I thought we should just come back the next day and have a full day for the $100 per person.
As we were about to go, the caretaker had some rocks in a dish of water that he was showing off. I asked could I hold it and he
said “NO”. I just looked at him. Then, after a moment of silence he volunteered an explanation and said that “ the
specimen that you asked to hold is worth five thousand dollars and if you dropped it, it would be nothing but a bunch of ‘I’m
sorries’ and ‘I didn’t mean to’s’ which meant nothing to me”.
Now, I began dwelling on that later that evening and I just decided that I didn’t want to encourage behavior like that by going and
paying to dig.
In review:
If there had of been a sign – even just a cardboard and magic marker sign – at the turn off to the mine, he would have gotten
$400 for the day for our group.
If he had of negotiated a cheaper or half-day rate, he would have gotten $200 for our group.
But instead, he got Zero Dollars.
I know and am friends with the person that bought the claim and that is why I am not specifically naming the mine or trying to
bash the place. That caretaker though, is not doing him any favors.
I totally understand that it’s a very remote place and the claim owner has to just work with what and who he has. But if he had
someone that would go out and hang a cardboard sign every day, and who would talk to people reasonably, I am sure he’d be
many thousands of dollars better off, possibly even thousands of dollars better off per month.
After all, our deal was supposed to be four hundred bucks for just one single day!
the next day that was $100 per person per day. Since there wasn’t a sign for the blm off-road track to the mine, we ended up
making a wrong turn. The road got rougher and rougher but we could see the gps waypoint for the mine even though we didn’t
have a data signal for maps. The gps seemed to indicate we were headed towards the mine. The road got rougher and
rougher but I then could see the mine so we kept on. When we got to the valley at 9am, we rode around until it finally became
obvious that there was no way to get from where we were at in the valley to the mine up in the hills. We didn’t have a signal but
finally got in touch with the caretaker who told us we had taken a wrong turn. Not having a sign for the mine will do that, I
guess. But on the way back we were crawling over some rocks and the truck slid and slammed sideways into some boulders
and this blew out a tire.
We had to unload the bed and the cab (and both were packed with tools, rocks, gear, etc) in order to get to the tools to change
the tire and to drop the spare down from under the bed. Thankfully everyone pitched in and we made relatively short work of it,
all things considered. We had texted the caretaker about the blow-out but were we were had no signal.
We finally arrived at the mine at 2pm. I asked the caretaker if we could get a reduced rate or a half day rate or something since
there was only 3 hours of daylight left and since we were in the valley looking for the mine at 9am and had a blow out and had
made every effort to be there at 9. It was obvious with my blown-out tire resting in view on top of my gear in the truck bed that
we had run into problems.
The caretaker informed us that it was $100 per person per day to dig, even if we were late, and even if it was beyond our control
that we were late. I then said that I thought we should just come back the next day and have a full day for the $100 per person.
As we were about to go, the caretaker had some rocks in a dish of water that he was showing off. I asked could I hold it and he
said “NO”. I just looked at him. Then, after a moment of silence he volunteered an explanation and said that “ the
specimen that you asked to hold is worth five thousand dollars and if you dropped it, it would be nothing but a bunch of ‘I’m
sorries’ and ‘I didn’t mean to’s’ which meant nothing to me”.
Now, I began dwelling on that later that evening and I just decided that I didn’t want to encourage behavior like that by going and
paying to dig.
In review:
If there had of been a sign – even just a cardboard and magic marker sign – at the turn off to the mine, he would have gotten
$400 for the day for our group.
If he had of negotiated a cheaper or half-day rate, he would have gotten $200 for our group.
But instead, he got Zero Dollars.
I know and am friends with the person that bought the claim and that is why I am not specifically naming the mine or trying to
bash the place. That caretaker though, is not doing him any favors.
I totally understand that it’s a very remote place and the claim owner has to just work with what and who he has. But if he had
someone that would go out and hang a cardboard sign every day, and who would talk to people reasonably, I am sure he’d be
many thousands of dollars better off, possibly even thousands of dollars better off per month.
After all, our deal was supposed to be four hundred bucks for just one single day!
| The next day we went to Quartzsite to see the vendors there. I hadn't been here since 2005 or 2006 and the time that I came the place was packed and the QIA show was going on. But on this visit the Tucson show was going full bore and about half the vendors had headed on to Tucson or to home. There was still a lot of vendors and lots to see. I ended up buying 36 pounds of geodes for my shop. About half are duds but the other half has amethyst and sometimes bigger crystals or packed full of amethyst crystals as single crystals or as surprisingly good amethyst scepters! I figure that for $1.50 a piece that people will have fun with them even with a 50% failure rate. |
| I may post more pictures of the Payson Diamond Quartz Crystals that we dug up. It has been cloudy with not much chance of sunlight to take good pictures lately. |
| Left Photo: Somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a pig trail off of Wiley Wells Road. The road is infamous for being in rough shape and of course, we had took a track off of the main road. A track (not really a road) that is for rock crawling and that doesn't lead anywhere really. In the summer the "gem trails" books recommends having TWO or THREE or MORE spare tires in case of flats. That's because in the summer heat the tires are softened and much weaker. In my case, I was on a huge rock and slid sideways on it and slammed into some boulders on the downhill side. It hit so hard that I wondered if I still had a wheel attached, much less a tire! |
| The Desert Gardens show is really good, even after Tucson has opened. When the Q.I.A. show is running it is good and it's a toss-up as to which place to go to first as they both have different things. Tyson Wells leaves a lot to be desired. I'd still run through it fast just in case there is something new, or something marked down, or someone setting up there just not knowing any better. A couple of the Tyson Wells buildings were closed and there was probably things worth seeing in them - like the Brazilian amethyst building and Arkansas Quartz Building. For it to be the first half of February it was really hot in Quartzsite. The ambient air temp reading was 81°F but in the sun it sure felt a LOT hotter. I think that due to there being less pollution and no clouds or haze that the sun is a lot stronger there than in my current home state of Georgia. |
| Just to get my story straight: I ended up passing back through Tucson after going off digging for 4 days. A lot of the things that I got the next week on a second pass I have already mentioned on a previous page. But, I did miss posting a picture or two, one of which that is so crazy that I want to be sure to post it. I had went into a room that had Australian gold nuggets and it was a sight to see! It is easily one of the most valuable rooms in the place. I'd estimate that there's millions of dollars worth of inventory in the room. Gold is $1300 per 31 gram troy ounce and specimen gold is worth a good bit more than that per ounce, so one look at these photos will show that I am not exaggerating even a little bit! Regular gold - $1300 for 31.1 gram troy ounce or about $42 per gram. Most places I don't bother to ask if it's alright to take pictures, but in this case I thought that I had better ask. They said a curious thing: "Yes, Sure, we do ask that you don't post on social media". That makes no sense because if you are selling something, people PAY to have things posted on social media! I'd think they would encourage posting on social media instead of discouraging it or in this case prohibiting it. The only thing that I could think of is that it was a security issue and they were worried that the pictures would bring them Zero Buyers and a ton of would-be shoplifters and thieves! Just look at that one plate: I'm not sure if they are selling by a US 28 gram ounce or the traditional 31.1 gram Troy Ounce that precious metals are usually sold in. The prices below I figured at 28 grams, so the prices and values below may be a little over 10% more if they use Troy Ounces. I've done the math @ $62 per gram and these cost between $870 to $1740 EACH depending on exact weight of the individual nugget. There's about 40 nuggets here, so (35 x $870 = $30,450) + (5 x $1740 = $8700) = $39,150 this means this plate has approx FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS in nuggets. And the shelves were lined with plate after plate of gold and there were several display cases! So over 2 million $ in that room for sure! Some of the plates had gold at $100 per gram. This I suppose was based on locality and type of nugget. The ones with less wear that may show signs of crystalline or crystal faces undoubtably cost more. Another complicating factor is that these are a natural product and aren't 100% pure refined gold. These probably contain a significant amount of metallic impurities such as silver, copper and platinum! It's worthwhile to click and expand these photos. |
| Here are two totally random street scenes that I took to send a friend via whatsapp just to show what I was seeing at that exact moment. Tucson is in a valley ringed with mountains so in any direction that you look you see mountains in the distance. It’s totally cool! In February, that is. In the summer months, not at all! I wouldn’t want to live in Tucson or Phoenix in the summer as it reaches 115°F every day, and even at 11pm at night it is still over 100°! The towns at or above the Mogollon Rim don’t have that problem though and I really like the low humidity. |
| Some Tucson Trivia: When in Tucson you may look up and see a F-15 or F-22 fighter jet, a B52 Bomber, or huge military transport planes. No, you're not going crazy - Tucson is home to Davis-Monthan Air Force base and a military aircraft BONEYARD where all old, spare, retired, damaged military craft go from all over the US and even from overseas US bases. The reason they are in the air is that some are being delivered, some are being tested and sent to where they are newly needed at, and some are repaired and tested before being stored. I took the photo (LEFT) the first ten minutes that I was in Tucson as I spotted one immediately. This was some kind of military transport plane, I think. The fighter jets are really cool to watch as they test them, meaning they take off at full bore! As you may imagine with old planes that are on there way to be dismantled for spare parts, or have just been repaired or pieced together, they crash here about TWICE A YEAR. I've seen on the news about every 6 months where one will crash and sometimes the pilot ejects successfully and sometimes they die in the crash. There was a fatality last year, I believe. There is also an extremely interesting aircraft museum in Tucson. I suppose they figured that if they were going to store some and put some out to pasture that they may as well display them. I have pictures of this in one of my other tucson trip reports. |
| BEARS! They are a real traffic hazard and road kill obstacle. But not in Tucson, of course. I keep meaning to take a picture of the sign warning about bears on the highway on Interstate 20 near Waverly, Louisiana. Usually, by the time Im ready to take the picture the sign is 3 miles past me already. But I was on my game this trip -See 'bear on highway' warning sign (LEFT). I didn't get a picture of the "Watch out for bears! Billboards that they have up, though. One year I did see one dead on the road and this was before I had seen the warning signs. I was like, "Woah, I need to pull over and rest because I am hallucinating and seeing dead bears on the road!" I was convinced that I was seeing things that wasnt there and that it couldn't have possibly been a dead bear on the road. Then, a few miles down the road I saw the warning sign. I was really tempted to turn around and go back and take pictures, but I didn't know how far the exits were apart and how much extra time that would take. But yeah, Because....................... Bears. (that should be read in your best "Because, Aliens" inner mental voice). |
| So, I'm totally riding down the highway and thinking about boobs. It's gotta be because of the mountains around here. |
| "I think I done told everything that I can tell". |
| It seems that I did leave out a couple of photos. Seen at left are Pietersite slices for $400! If you look close, one is marked $735! (that one has glare so you can't see the color or pattern but the price is VERY easy to see!) Awhile back I sold a 8 pound chunk for $400. I guess I should have turned it into forty thousand by slicing it up! I actually had TWO 8 pound chunks and I believe I have pictures of those on one of my "African Adventure" pages and on my PIETERSITE PAGE I took this photo at the 22cnd street market. Also, below, are pictures of assorted blacklights. There was someone there at 22stmkt that was selling them. And lastly, a picture of my garmin GPS showing that the round trip - doorstep to doorstep - from my house to Tucson, digging in various places (including Blythe, California) and then back through Tucson, and then back home was 5,036 miles! I think some people think I am exaggerating when I say that I have to use Mobil1 synthetic motor oil because the trip is longer than a standard oil change duration! Now I use Mobile1 full synthetic extended performance oil: 1 year or 15,000 miles - whichever comes first. I do yearly oil changes right before the show in my 2013 Tacoma 4x4 and it works out well. Mobile guarantees the engine so I do that on my 2015 Yaris also. |
| Below are pictures of a water-clear "Payson Diamond Quartz Crystal" that I dug in early February during my trip to Arizona. |
