Last weekend was one of California's best gem & mineral shows, the West Coast Gem & Mineral Show. It's held twice a year in Spring and Fall and it's free to attend! I've been attending it twice a year now for 4 years and it never disappoints.
This year the event was moved to the Hilton in Costa Mesa Ballrooms. This was a much larger and nicer venue than in the past which was held in the dealers hotel rooms at another hotel. The rooms were cramped and often times uncomfortable when trying to browse the specimens.
While there are a lot of dealers there, there are three are my go to, Dragon Minerals, Sibel Minerals and Earth's Treasures. Each one is a specialist in certain fields and their prices are very good. Also, they like to talk so it's good to stop by and shoot the shit about what's been happening.
Earth's Treasures is run by a guy named Rick Kennedy shown in the photo above. Rick is one of the top 3 benitoite dealers in the world. He has been collecting benitoite since the 1980's and has some of the world's best pieces. He helped me out a lot when I first started collecting benitoite. He sold me small pieces of rough that I learned to etched with and found some amazing benitoite specimens in the process. His prices are always fair and he always gives discounts.
Two years ago Rick found a large strike of smokey quartz & scepters in Northern California shown below
Sibel Minerals is a retired geologist and his wife who say over the years selling pink halite has paid for their house! His collection is very diverse and pretty spectacular. Every year his glass cases contain several minerals over valued at over $5,000 each. It's his keystone minerals that always have me coming back though. Keystone is gem collector speak for 50% off. He always has some benitoite, turquoise nuggets and California minerals.
He has a red beryl that I would like to buy, but I don't have an extra $10,000 right now...
Dragon Minerals is run by Steve and his wife. Another geologist, Steve is also a university professor. He is one of the best dealers at the show. His prices are the best, his selection is huge and he is very knowledgeable, he taught me the difference between canvasite and pentagonite. When I am looking for gems & minerals that I am going to resell he always has what I need, tourmalines, all beryls, benitoite, local and foreign minerals.
This year he had some great Himalaya Mine tourmalines and some newly found, amazing fluorite from England
Here are a few of the other specimens I bought.
Benitoite, Neptunite & Joaquinite.
Himalaya Mine Pink Tourmaline.
Linarite, I know my thumbnail is dirty!
Turquoise, high grade.
And a whole flat of these beautiful, gemmy amethyst geodes.
In closing I'll leave you with two shots of beautiful emeralds.
As I mentioned the show is held in spring, May, and fall, November. If you are in Southern California it is definitely worth checking out. The website is here: https://www.mzexpos.com/west-coast-fall
I'll be taking next Monday off since I will be on an airplane back to Japan. I'll be going to the Tokyo Gem and Mineral show so stay tuned for a report on it!
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A #rockhound's paradise right there! I love the backstories! What these vendors have done over the years has really paid off for them and I wish I had collected rocks my whole life, but it's never too late too start! Maybe in 30 years I'll be doing the same!
#rockhound is the tag for #rockhounds! Manually curated by @rockhounds / @bitfiend! Share your rocks!
Thanks @rockhounds. There are a lot more backstories I'll save for another time. Most dealers really work hard collecting, inventory, identification, etc. It's a lot of work. In fact as Sibel and I were looking at a specimen I was buying we discovered gold in it!
Keep collecting. Most of the dealers I know have been collecting for 30-40 years. Now it's like their retirement .
Yup thats my goal! It is a lot of work. I tried researching all the minerals that can be found on the shores of lake superior and its quite a lot! Especially trying to identify them in the field. I should have paid more attention in earth/space science class :p
Tell me about it! I grew up on the other side of the Pala Mining District famous for tourmaline, Aquamarine, Morganite & Kunzite. If only I had started collecting in high school!
I know the agates are good up your way, but what else? Fluorite right? I believe there are famous fluorite & copper mines up there.
I've probably done minimal research on the mines but from what I hear it's mainly Iron ore / taconite. Of course there's nickel, copper and platinum to be found. A buddy and I think we may have found copper before but never tested it. There probably are mines too but I don't think they're currently in use. There's definitely amethyst, jade and quite a lot of quartz and granite and maybe even marble to be found. To be honest, I've never seen rocky beaches with so many different gemstones before I moved here.
素敵ですね！
そうですね！ありがとうございます。
Beautiful gems there, my brother sent me a few a couple weeks back. I'm loving the bumble bee Agate I got.
Thanks @dmilliz. Ya! Bumble bee is pretty cool material. The yellow in it is like no other. Cheers! 🍻
Oh my goodness look at all them wonderful
gems, minerals, rocks and awesome stones!
Really cool #mineralmonday 💎 @rt395!!
Awaiting your next from Japan :-)
Yeow those emeralds are very sweet!
Thanks @Shasta. I need to take better pictures, but ya those emeralds were awesome. The woman was trying to sell me the monster ones. I told her they were a little out of my price range.
I also went to a mineral show before.
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The Tokyo show is December 14th Sunshine Tower Ikebukuro!
I'm drooling! Beautiful specimens. It is such a joy just to get to see these! Thank you. Safe travels!
I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures at the Tokyo show then. There is one dealer there that only sells emeralds, paraiba tourmalines and red beryls. Their booth is amazing and really stands out because of the colors.
Here is a picture from last year.
I can't wait to see your photos! It's been years since I was at a show, and I have never been to a big one.
Good heavens!! Such splendid show! Oh!I wish you could have taken me with you! These are my favorite things!
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Thanks @kaminchan. I will be going to the Tokyo show in the middle of December so stay tuned for that one!
Thanks! Looking forwards to that one!
Cheers.