FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

Talking about Tucson 2018... 2018 Tucson HTCC status

Welcome to the craziest Show in the world (and this year even more!) 😋😋😋

More to come...
European correspondent of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®

[Jordi Fabre]

So sorry to tell you that our annual party will have to be canceled because Casa Vicente has serious structural problems and that will keep it closed for an unexpectedly very long period (see: https://www.casavicente.com/ )

As you know very well we have used this restaurant from the start as our headquarters for the party and, honestly, it is so late we can't find another right place for such a large party. Sorry to warn you a little bit late but we just received this bad news. Vicente tried to get the restaurant opened for us right up until the last minute but finally he had to cancel the party because the space will not be available 😳

Anyway, a part of the party, the SMMP party that Gail & Jim Spann sponsor, is moving to another spot. Due to the circumstances it should be a much smaller party, and the invitations have already been sent, so if you are not invited, sorry but they did their best and thanks to their grace and fast reaction at least their part is saved 👍

If we meet in Tucson we can talk about it and in any case you will find all kinds of information about the Tucson Show 2018 in this thread.

Jordi (on behalf of the FMF Forum)

[Jordi Fabre]

Barcelona 01/13/2018

A few days ago I received a flyer from a dealer and saw that he will exhibit in 4 different locations in Tucson 2018 and when I went to look at the website of one of these shows that I did not know I saw that the correspondent website was for sale! 😱

That made me think two things, the atomization of the Tucson Shows seems to have no end (51 Shows referred to minerals this year) and that makes it impossible to see them all even being there for three weeks.
My second consideration has been: "I need a useful guide for to be able to know what all those shows are, where they are, when they start and when they ends..."
Fortunately the always efficient Xpo Press has a very complete online guide: 2018 Tucson Gem Shows which as its motto says is "The most complete Gem Show schedule anywhere!"
Great job, they even warn about that web page for sale!

Obviously all this has brought me back to the interesting topic of The overall health of this hobby and it has made me think that maybe so much dispersion could be one of the reasons for the discouragement expressed by several FMFers in relation to their attendance to the Shows of Minerals.

More to come...
European correspondent of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®

[Don Lum]

For information on the Hotel Tucson City Center please go to:
https://www.mzexpos.com/tucson

and click on HTCC Dealers

You will see a list of all the dealers in alphabetical order with location.

From what I have read and heard about Tucson 2018 is that one large venue may have parking problems and another plumbing problems and another structural problems, the latter not being a mineral venue.

[bob kerr]

For me the show starts when Adam Wright and Erika Aheimer arrive in Tucson to open the most recent shipping containers of Crocoite from the Adelaide Mine. This past collecting season was average at best for the team but there was one notable hit - a small vug that Adam says produced the best quality crystals since the most recent mining adventure started.

The vug was (regrettably) small but the crystals were vivid red, gemmy, very lustrous with clear lustrous chisel terminations. A few photos are attached for your viewing pleasure. Only about a dozen specimens are available.

A few years ago Adam encountered what he called the Black Forest pocket which were crocoite xls fully/partially altered to manganese oxides. The delicacy of the pieces though didn't allow them to survive shipping and they all went mineral heaven. This year's shipment had a few pieces that Adam stabilized at the mine and they arrived fully intact. Not the most attractive specimens but totally unique pieces.

One more week till the real action starts.

bob

[bob kerr]

[Matt_Zukowski]

Like many of you, I received a post card in the mail advertising the 2018 WL show. The material behind the beryl on the upper right looks so metallic that i wondered if this could be a rare association with beryl. I puzzled over it for a minute or so before i realized that the metallic look is probably just a trick of lighting making something, probably mica, look metallic.

Am I the only one who spent any time puzzling over this?

What do people think (or know in the case of those who know the specimen) the metallic-looking material is?

[alfredo]

I don't know what that mineral is, Matt; like you say, the metallic luster might just be an artifact of the lighting. But I would like to point out that truly metallic minerals can occasionally appear in pegmatites. I have a lovely thumbnail "star" of twinned arsenopyrite that came out of a microcline and smoky quartz pocket in a pegmatite in Japan.

[Tobi]

[James Catmur]

Years ago, near Madrid, I found a pocket of loose arsenopyrite crystals (they had been with with laumontite, I suspect) in the La Cabrera pegmatites. They are ugly but unusual.

[Jordi Fabre]

As Tobi says well the metallic mineral at the right side upper the Beryl of the image is Cassiterite.

[bob kerr]

You can't keep a good name down. The Desert Inn days are back. What used to be the Day's Inn is now the Desert Inn.

bob

[bob kerr]

I was down at the Tucson Showplace today and ran into Luis Burillo and Jose as they were preparing some specimens for the show.

Luis dug out a few oldies - one from about 15-20 years ago from Herja - stibnite flowers with boulangerite on quartz "diamonds" (little double terminated quartzes).

The other from Panasqueira - a huge quartz point with "everything" included. "Everything" that Panasqueira produced anyway - arsenopyrite, apatite, and who knows what else.

Nice to see that there's still some old dusty stuff still around the warehouses of Tucson.

bob

[Bob Harman]

BOB and others,
I notice that they are interesting specimens, but the down side is that, according to your posting, they seem to have been sitting, gathering dust and costing the warehouse fees for 15 - 20 years. The bottom line is that they haven't sold. I suggest you put the specimens and their owner out of unsold misery and buy them at this year's show!

In a related topic to this and Tucson (including all shows) is that I have just completed a short very non-scientific anecdotal study looking at 9 mid-level Midwest dealers (dealers known to me), looking at their show attendance over the past 7 or 8 years. I looked at their all inclusive expenses including travel and at each of the shows they attended vs all their sales/income at those same shows. Several of my findings might surprise some of you. I will start a thread covering that topic within a day or two. BOB

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 01/24/2018

Just arrived to the terrorific Tucson I have been able to verify that in what refers to the HTCC-InnSuites Hotel there is no reason for the terror. The organizers have hired a free parking lot for visitors, really huge, and only 5-10 minutes walking to the Hotel. That and the large parking of the same Hotel I think will make everything similar to the previous years, if not better.
Tomorrow I will publish pictures of this new parking lot and better maps, for today here you have the photo of the small printed map offered in the lobby to the visitors by the team of the Fair.

About the Show itself, it seems that about a 1/3 of the dealers are already displaying which, as discussed before, makes the scenario very complex for the small dealers, specially considering that a large dealer, Crystals Classics, was today already in full activity at their different rooms in the HTCC-InnSuites.

More to come...
European correspondent of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®