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Tobi
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 4248
Location: Germany
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 Posted: Oct 25, 2017 10:09 Post subject: Re: Collecting focuses and how they can change |
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| Don Lum wrote: | | Being addicted to collecting minerals is like being a guest at the Hotel California. You can check out but you can never leave ;-) |
| Jesse Fisher wrote: | | Or maybe "you can stab it with that steely knife, but you just can't kill the beast!" |
Guys, you really made me laugh! Let us not forget that the hobby of collecting minerals is such a lovely place ... such a lovely face ;-)
| Jesse Fisher wrote: | Fluorite on Sphalerite
Denton Mine, Goose Creek Mine group, Harris Creek Sub-District, Hardin County, Illinois, USA
12x10x8 cm
One of the earliest fluorites in the collection, acquired in 1985 for the astronomical sum of $25 USD. |
Jesse, I offer you twenty-SIX $, please tell me your bank account details so that I can transfer the money. My postal address is ... ;-) |
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Peter Megaw
Site Admin
Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 973
Location: Tucson, Arizona
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| Posted: Oct 25, 2017 11:28 Post subject: Re: Collecting focuses and how they can change |
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This is getting deep...please bring me my wine
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Siempre Adelante! |
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James Catmur
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 1470
Location: Cambridge
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| Posted: Oct 25, 2017 13:36 Post subject: Re: Collecting focuses and how they can change |
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There is that wonderful song about mineral collecting:
Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict |
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Don Lum
Joined: 03 Sep 2012
Posts: 2919
Location: Arkansas
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| Posted: Oct 25, 2017 18:55 Post subject: Re: Collecting focuses and how they can change |
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| Peter Megaw wrote: | | This is getting deep...please bring me my wine |
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hogwild |
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Peter Lemkin
Joined: 18 Nov 2016
Posts: 403
Location: Prague
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| Posted: Oct 26, 2017 12:10 Post subject: Re: Collecting focuses and how they can change |
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| Jesse Fisher wrote: | | Or maybe "you can stab it with that steely knife, but you just can't kill the beast!" |
Ah, yes, the 'old' prices...I remember them well. Since, the prices have mostly skyrocketed. While this makes my collection more valuable, since I can't stand to part with them it does me no good and only makes obtaining new specimens that much harder....
My collection started when I was about eight years old about 50-50 with self collected and donated by parents friends. I never stopped and knew I was addicted from the start. I don't know about others, but it is easier to maintain the best pieces when they have to be purchased or traded, but when you have worked all day or all week or for many weeks at some location every piece that passed the first sort seems too dear to do anything but keep once it gets home and in the collection. The self-collected ones bring back all the memories of the day collected - from the cuts through the snake you had to avoid, to the rain, to almost breaking my back with a pack full of rocks back to the car, to cleaning them at the campfire, to proudly looking at that beauty which had never before seen light now looking so beautiful in the light.
Just yesterday I was telling some friend I was thinking of spending xxx$ on a mineral from her country. She looked at me like I was a madman and said I was a madman and any sane person would rather 'collect' the money than have a stone instead'. Well, obviously she is the mad person, as this was a classic Ukranian heliodore! I guess that is why I joined this forum...as the rest of you have the same weakness and love of nice minerals as I do. Too many of the 'others' just don't get it...but if they did....then think of what prices would be...so maybe it is better that only a percentage of us are a bit strange in this way. Though, I'd have it no other way, and don't want to be 'cured'. This habit-forming hobby is for life. It's very HEAVY! ;-) |
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David
Joined: 01 Nov 2011
Posts: 101
Location: Bucharest
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| Posted: Jan 07, 2018 15:59 Post subject: Re: Collecting focuses and how they can change |
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| Luck is a game changer :) once in a while l come across amazing specimens and I fall in love. But there's room in my heart for lots of minerals. I can't wait to see what the future will bring. I usually collect without premeditation :) |
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Don Lum
Joined: 03 Sep 2012
Posts: 2919
Location: Arkansas
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Andreas Gerstenberg
Joined: 04 Mar 2010
Posts: 336
Location: Chemnitz
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| Posted: Jan 20, 2018 02:00 Post subject: Re: Collecting focuses and how they can change |
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That's a nice topic. Of course, in the beginning I used to collect everything including agate slabs and stuff like that. Somehow at the age of ten or eleven, I focused on German minerals. Again I started to collect everything I was able to effort.
So, I built a huge reference collection, but with no special focus. Later on I liked to complete certain localities such as Hagendorf, Clara mine, and other classics. However, what counted for me in those days were numbers, not quality. I became a systematic collector.
Maybe 10-15 years ago I started to radically downsize my collection. Looked at each single piece and asked myself, do you really need this? In many cases the answer was No! I sold sometimes 40 specimens to get a single good one. At this time I switched away from systematics, but I kept the micros until that day.
Today my focus lies more and more on classics with old labels. However, the label thing started years ago. A historic sample always meant a lot more to me than any colourful fluorite. That's why my collection bursts with ''ugly'', but very rare locality specimens. The last two or three years I find myself buying colourful cabinet specimens with fluorite, baryte and others. Maybe a new focus is about to come.
Cheers
Andreas |
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Oliver B
Joined: 30 Jul 2018
Posts: 27
Location: Columbus, Ohio
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| Posted: Jul 31, 2018 14:09 Post subject: Re: Collecting focuses and how they can change |
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| Tobi, I have just started collecting again after many years of struggling as a young adult. I noticed that my current obsession is Fluorite, after that I don't have a strong favorite other mineral. I tend to enjoy crystal structures that display organization. It is so fascinating that something within the earth can produce straight lines and geometrical organization beyond belief. I am only 26 now but I strongly value finding all my own specimens and hope to take many trips to collect more in my surrounding states. The cubic crystal structure of fluorite is what has me hooked currently, and I can't wait to see what's next! |
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Tobi
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 4248
Location: Germany
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