This past weekend I went to two gem shows in Southern California, the Victor Valley Gem & Mineral Society's Tailgate and The CFMS Annual Show. Both shows offer different minerals specimens which is why I had to attend both. Here's how it went.
Victor Valley Gem & Mineral Club Tailgate
Located in-between Victorville & Barstow, CA this show is always lots of fun. It's outdoors and in the middle of the desert which can be a blessing or curse depending on the weather. While it was freezing cold this year, it wasn't snowing or raining.
The show held at the base of a well known rockhounding mountain, Black Jade Mountain, that produces several minerals including black jade, jade, actinolite, hematite, verde antique marble and epidote to name a few. Many of those minerals can also be found on alluvial fan below the mountain.
I hadn't been to this show in 4 years. Hard to believe it's been that long. The last time my family and I attended was in 2015. We actually set up our own booth and sold gems and rocks. We camped for 3 days and had a great time, despite there being no signal for the internet!
So why is this show special? it's special because most of the dealers are genuine miners and/or rock hounds. This means they get unique specimens they personally dug up. It also helps because they are more willing to work with you on price, whereas a dealer isn't as flexible.
Here are some examples of what I am talking about.
Here are some of the pieces I picked up at VVGMS.
Spencer Idaho Pink & White Precious Opal
This was an amazing piece at an amazing price from an old rockhound. He had cut some of it off to make jewelry with and offered the remains to me. I'm thinking about making a bling necklace out of the whole thing.
This beast of Mexican Jelly Opal cost me $5 from the same gentleman.
A large piece of Silver Lace Onyx. Very hard to find material this size.
California Federation of Mineralogical Societies Show
After about 3hours browsing and buying I headed down the mountain pass to the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies' show in Pomona. When I arrived an hour later I was a bit pissed off. Parking cost $12 and the entrance fee was $5, so I was out $17 before I even stepped in the show!
Relief came quickly though as the first dealer by the door was Dragon Minerals. I've written about Steve and his wife in the past. They are a dealer that caters to everyone, both rockhound, collector and dealer. Steve's selection and price are second to none. Steve doesn't mark up his minerals like other dealers and so instead he moves a lot of material.
Steve is also a great resource. A retired geology professor, he has helped me understand and identify several minerals. He is an interesting salesman as he will talk to you about a mineral and sell it to you. It's quite the skill.
I quickly picked up several green fluorite specimens from the UK, benitoite, morganite and several other specimens from Dragon and moved down the aisles to find my other go to dealer, Earth's Treasures by Rick Kennedy.
As I wandered down the aisles I began to get a bit disappointed. There were quite a few vendors selling bead necklaces and other mass produced garbage from China. This was not the show for that stuff to be at. This show is supposed to represent the best of California's dealers. It most definitely failed judging by the lack of well known, quality gem and mineral dealers.
After walking up and down the aisles I finally found Rick's booth. He had what I came for, Benitoite. You see Rick is one of the top 3-4 Benitoite dealers. He helped me early on not only acquire material to etch, but also encouraged me to do so. I am forever grateful to him for helping me out when I first started collecting.
I picked up two Benitoite specimens and an interesting turquoise specimen. The turquoise is crystalized in a vein of quartz or calcite. Haven't determined which yet. It's a very unique piece and I was happy to take it off his hands.
Lastly I ran into one of my old gem & mineral club members, Jenny. She's an older lady with really unique offerings. This time she had some beautifully polished Kokoweef Cave Onyx, which I also picked up at Victor Valley earlier and some fluorite with galena which I have purchased from her in the past.
She also had this really rare Utah octahedron magnetite, museum quality specimens, which I couldn't pass up. Have a look at one.
After talking with Jenny for a while she told me she would bring more specimens I like to our club's show in early May. I told her thank you and it was time to head home to start looking at all the pieces I had purchased that day, I bought a lot!
So you see, each location offers up different material. Lots of rough, lapidary material to be found at the tailgate and straight up collectors' specimens at the CFMS show. That is why I had to attend both. I even went back to the tailgate the following day to pick up a bunch more material I had passed up for fear I wouldn't have enough cash for the CFMS show. It was a very productive weekend and should make some of our customers in Japan very happy when we bring these specimens back to them.
Thanks for reading!
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