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Jordi Fabre · Posted: Feb 23, 2013 14:37 Post subject: Tucson Show 2013 - The Westward Look

The Westward Look

Jordi Fabre · Posted: Feb 23, 2013 15:42 Post subject: Tucson Show 2013 - The Party! (1)

A little bit crowded, a little bit a social reunion, a little bit friendly, a little bit a great night. The Party! ;-)

Jordi Fabre · Posted: Feb 23, 2013 17:27 Post subject: Tucson Show 2013 - The Party! (2)

Jordi Fabre · Posted: Feb 23, 2013 18:12 Post subject: Tucson Show 2013 - The Party! and (3)

Jordi Fabre · Posted: Feb 24, 2013 13:06 Post subject: Tucson Show 2013 - The Main Show (1)

And the time pass and the end of the Show arrives. Is the time of the Main Show (Tucson Convention Center)

Jordi Fabre

But nevertheless the most important in the Main Show are, undoubtedly, the display cases...

Jordi Fabre · Posted: Feb 24, 2013 17:31 Post subject: Tucson Show 2013 - My final comments

And finally here's is my usual summary of what I believe has been the Tucson Show 2013.

One of the main novelties of Tucson this year has been the absence of news ;-) If in the past the number of new finds was decreasing, their absence in this Tucson has been almost total, just some minor things like the Jacobsites from the N'Chwaning III, the perhaps? small Pyromorphites with Wulfenite and Azurite from Morocco, the Wulfenites on Mottramite-Descloizite and the series-Duftite-Conichalcite-Austinite both from Ojuela Mine, the silver sulfides from the Oaxaca area, the new works in Santa Eulalia with Rhodocrosites and Smithsonites ... and the vast quantity (and quality) of the material from the mines of Huanggang, China... and as far as I know not much more. Just persistent rumors about new and large Wurtzites from Arusha, Tanzania, but as a collector of reference told to me in the Main Show, it seems that the number of best specimens sold "under the table" is increasing so if they were in Tucson, I did not see them.

Due the lack of news, much has been said about the feeling that, at last, the decline of the “crazy prices” with success in sales has begun. I mean, even we continue to see many prices with 5 or 6 zeros, this year several elite collectors said to the sellers that the price did not correspond much to the quality of the piece: "You're crazy" (personal communication) , allowing one to hope to soon reach a "normalization" rather than continuing the race in which it appears that the value of the piece given is its price, not its quality, so that newcomers to the hobby could believe that the best specimens were those with more zeros ... I would say that many of the collectors who have arrived in recent years to this hobby have learned a lot in a short time and hopefully things can go back to a kind of rationality, rationality that sometime before seems to have been lost.

The hobby is solid, there are many collectors who are happy with their collections and will continue with them enthusiastically, which in my opinion guarantees a good future for the hobby. What may slowly disappear are those pieces with a real value of about two or three zeros priced in five or six zeros.
I agree that exceptional pieces should cost big money, but what does not seem right is that some mediocrities could cost fortunes to satisfy “snob” collectors whose concept of "good" is simply that expensive = good.

With this last post I hope I compensate my limited participation in this thread during the fair due to a multitude of small problems that have been burdening me throughout the show. Again, thank you very much to Valere Berlage, Matt Zukowski, Jean Sendero... for their fine contributions throughout the Show, I hope that many more join this thread to provide their thoughts on this thread. Even if only short texts, all contributions add up to create a much more complete picture of what is and what means the "Tucson madness"

Other recommended threads for more information about Tucson 2013:

- The very broad, comprehensive and well done Gail Spann’s thread: 2013 Tucson Show Adventure ~ Gail Spann Style.
- The infos published by Jolyon in Mindat News
- The stories of the pioneer in this kind of chronicles, John Veevaert

2013 European correspondent of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show™

John S. White · Posted: Feb 25, 2013 06:37 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2013

Some novelties that our fearless leader missed.

John S. White · Posted: Feb 25, 2013 06:45 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2013

More novelties missed by Jordi.

Roger Warin · Joined: 23 Jan 2013 Posts: 1242

Thank you for dreaming throughout Tucson Show.
Thank you for the various comments and also for the Jordi’s conclusion.
Roger.

Matt_Zukowski · Site Admin Joined: 10 Apr 2009 Posts: 737 Location: Alaska

I am back in Alaska and have finally got to the point where i can put more picts up.

First up are the MAD and HAMS cases (Texas seems like a great place to be if you are a mineral enthusiast).