FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[BlueCapProductions]

On May 15, 2018 we will be launching our new podcast series - Breakfast With Minerals.

In this series, Show Hosts, Gail and Jim Spann, will be sitting down with various key influencers in the mineral-collecting world to discuss different topics that affect us all.

Recorded at the Fine Mineral Shows (both in Tucson and Denver), we will continually strive to address issues that we feel are important to the industry.

Instead of having a Comments section on the actual podcast hosting service, we will use the Friends of Minerals Forum as the hosting place for all the comments. We invite everyone to provide feedback, thoughts and ideas and we will urge our podcast participants to interact with you directly on this forum. Our goal is to not only provide thoughts and perspectives on each topic but to also continue the discussion online.

In this first episode, Gail and Jim sit down with Bryan Lees, Jamie Newman, John Rakovan, Dave Waisman and Stephen Neely to address the issue of The Current State of the Mineral Collecting World and How we Preserve it for Future Generations.

We will always try to provide as unbiased a panel as possible by addressing many different segments in the mineral collecting world. For example, for this episode we have a Mineral Dealer (Lees), a Museum Curator (Newmann), someone in the mineral media world (Rakovan), a Show Promoter (Waisman) and a Collector (Neely).

It is our sincere hope that this series of podcasts turns out to be of great value to the mineral collecting world.

I'll be back on the 15th to officially kick off this new venture.

Thank you!

-Bryan

[Jordi Fabre]

Excellent idea. Glad to help.

FMFers please participate, sharing ideas is the key to improve!

Thanks Bryan (and Gail, and Jim, and Bryan Lees and Jamie Newman and John Rakovan and Dave Waisman and Stephen Neely and... and... 🤗

[Bob Harman]

Sounds like a great idea. I know that I have had some strong feelings about the current health of the hobby and what the future may hold. I have, several times on several websites posted my concerns and views. I look forward to this whole forum!
BOB

[Bob Carnein]

Maybe I missed something; do we have to sign up for the podcasts? How do we do that?

[Malcolm Uffelman Jr]

[James Catmur]

He says it will launch on the 15 May, so not yet.....

[Kevin Schofield]

As with Bob H, I too have a keen interest and some views in this topic (see article in the first issue of Mineral Up for this year), so look forward to what emerges.

Some of the language in the announcement, however, makes me a little sanguine, and does little to allay my fears for the direction we are moving. Maybe it's just my age (but that's one of the issue we face as a hobby isn't it :-)?) but it's unclear to me that "key influencers" (a species I thought to be largely confined to teenagers on U-Tube commenting on makeup trends and leadership gurus holding pricey seminars) and the all-too-comfortable reference to the "industry" of mineral-collecting have a place in the world of the regular collectors who are the bedrock of our hobby (and for most, it is a hobby, not an industry).

Having said that, bravo! for Bryan for setting this up, and let's see what the great group of folk on the panel have to say...

[BlueCapProductions]

Bob and Malcom, James has it correct. It's not yet launched but will launch on 5/15/18. I'm doing a bit more housecleaning to make it ready for the public. However, if you want to watch the work in progress (but the first episode is not available yet), you can visit the website:
https://www.breakfastwithminerals.com
(link normalized by FMF)

This will also be where the first episode will appear at 7A (Hawaiian Standard Time) on the 15th


Kevin, you bring up some excellent points. I'm always looking for the best words to use to describe different aspects of the mineral-collecting world. "Key influencers" was the best way I could come up with for describing the people we're targeting as guests. I think it's critical that we capture the thoughts and stories of people who can most influence the direction of the "industry" and who have also done so in the past. I'm always open to suggestions on different ways to describe these people so fire away!!!

As for the use of the term, "industry" vs "hobby", I've been thinking about this a lot. I know that for a HUGE segment of people who collect minerals, this IS just a hobby as you point out. However, if you look at the the shows, exhibit cases, quality of specimens and, yes, the prices of minerals, I think it's safe to say that mineral collecting has gone well beyond just a hobby. And it's this expansion that has the ability to potentially change policy (as Neely describes in this first episode) and more greatly influence the general public who are unaware of mineral collecting as a whole (as Lees and Waisman discuss).

So to remain with the comfortable label of, "mineral collecting hobby" I feel does a disservice to what we're discussing. Maybe, "industry" is too BIG of a word (in which case I'd love to hear other suggestions) but I feel it's more descriptive.

One "industry" that I feel is somewhat similar is that of photography. To MANY, MANY people, taking photos is a hobby. But this is also a HUGE industry. So it's kind of both. One word (industry) describes the category as a whole and one word (hobby) describes the level of participation an individual has in the industry. Of course I recognize that it's not a 100% accurate analogy which is why I say I'm open to suggestions.

Thank you everyone for your input and support!!!!

-B

[Bob Carnein]

How about "enterprise"? "Industry" sounds just a bit off to me.

[BlueCapProductions]

To me, "enterprise" sounds like something that's newly starting.

I sometimes use, "mineral-collecting world" as one way to describe this. Maybe this would be a good term moving forward???

[Jordi Fabre]

In Spanish language is a word that I believe could describe well what you mentioning as "mineral-collecting world" or "industry" applied to what started as a hobby and now is a big biz.
This "Spanish" word is "afán" and its translation to English language is: eagerness, toil, hard work...

I ignore how it sounds to an English speaker, I just put my two cents in

[Matt_Zukowski]

Sorry Bob C, but the Enterprise is a star ship.

[Peter Lemkin]

This seems from the description and the people involved to be discussions by some of the top mineral dealers. This will be interesting to all, I'm sure. However, I think if you don't at some point or better occasionally do interviews or somehow get feedback from buyers at various price ranges, you will be telling only a part of the 'story'. You can't have sellers without buyers and vice-versa. Since childhood I have been an avid mineral collector and have done much field collecting as well as trading and buying of minerals at shows etc. I have sold a few times, but do not consider myself a dealer in any shape or form - and certainly not at the high end. If your purpose is just to communicate between the high end sellers, fine; but if you really want to get and give a picture of the business of mineral sales I think that would have to include some less-than top end sellers and serious buyers at a few levels. Over my lifetime [I'm 67] the prices have just skyrocketed, and my income has not. Also, mineral shows were once the province of mostly mineral-mad collectors and dealers. Now there seem to be those who 'collect' on a speculative basis or as fashion to decorate their expensive homes. Much has changed. Some will argue that the increase in prices has made it economically possible to have dedicated mining operations for mineral specimens, and that is true more than in the past, but I find more and more at mineral shows I for one find it more a museum of the unattainable - or really have to work much harder to find that somehow underpriced interesting piece. I feel lucky that I amassed a huge collection when prices were more reasonable. Sadly, I'm so in love with my collection I don't think I could part with it even if I badly needed the money [and its value certainly has greatly increased]. I just think that totally ignoring niches other than the very high-end and highest quality dealers will be presenting a picture with parts of the mineral business missing. Some small dealers, often selling what they dig themselves, are very important, in my opinion to what is and is not available and at what price. There are also specialized dealers, take for example the guys from Afghanistan who come with their lovely Afghani minerals, who may not be in the 'big league' of sellers, but make available some of the more lovely specimens and this would be true of some Brazilian and other dealers who come to some major and a few secondary shows. Just some thoughts from a mid-level [as far as price] collector. Nevertheless, whether you take my advice or not, the show will be of interest to all on some level.

[Jesse Fisher]

[Jordi Fabre]