FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

jaysminerals · Joined: 28 Jun 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bavaria

Hello everybody
I do not know if it would be fine if I post in Jordis post, so I open up a new topic for visitor reports.
First of all, I have to appologize, becaue I have forgotten to take fotos. I know this sucks. So all I can report here are words and show some pieces I bought (which I quickly shot at home - sorry for not the best quality).
This came because I was busy looking for pieces for my collection. And if you only have the time of one day munich is quite hard to get through.

And I just can report my impression and this is probably not the one of a "high prize region professional" collector. Nervertheless I will try to get some information posted her.
My focus is trying to get pieces that have a great price/happiness

Well it is India special so there are lot of dealers from India offering Cavansite, Pentagonite and Apophyllite. For me it was quite hard to deal with them, because I felt they always start with a price way out of reality and so it is hard. There is a lot of different dealers so there are lots of pieces. Nevertheless prices are not to cheap. I guess this is also due to the high prizes a dealer has to pay just to be able to present his minerals. A good piece in the size of large miniature with several cavansites probably starts in the region of about 200.-. Prizes are open for larger pieces.
Pentagonites pretty much the same. Of course there are also pieces that show some damage so you might be able to get something below 100.-.
Apophyllite was shown in a lot of pieces also with I think high prizes. Probably the dealers expect people to buy because of the India exposition. There was (from that what I saw) only one dealer who had lots of nice miniature pieces in different and reasonable prize categories. But my budget was already blown.

So far to the India part. This is the pentagonite I bought. A miniature in the region of 5cm with a little damage but therefore only in the middle of the two digits area.

jaysminerals · Joined: 28 Jun 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bavaria

Then it is always a pleasure to go through the international pavillion. Although there are offered phantastic pieces someone might get the impression that prizes go up the less pieces are offered in the cases. So this region is great if you have a big wallet for great pieces.There have been offered lots of Pyromorphites. Most of them completely covered matrix. They started in the area of about 200.- (thumbnail to very small miniature) and then quickly go up into 4 digits.

I guess it is the challenge for a low prize collector to find similar pieces at the other dealers outside the pavillion.
I more like pieces with matrix and so I went for this one. I paid about half the price mentioned above.

jaysminerals · Joined: 28 Jun 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bavaria

Around the pavillon there are located several dealers who also offer high quality pieces but for that what I think with nice prize/quality relation.

Here first of all Jordis booth has to be mentioned. Phantastic set up and lots of different pieces and species to choose from.
He had a nice lot of Vanadinite besides the Barytes he offers. From that what I saw with lots of other Vanadinites dealers I felt he had the best offer you get for your money.
I already had bought a piece from a dealer from Morocco before I came to his booth. But dealing with Morocco dealers is pretty much the same like with dealers from India. High starting prize and then endless dealing to get down to an alright prize. Here you find the Vana I bought because of the nice Baryte matrix below. Hard dealing I can tell.
So if you want to spend your money Jordis place is probably one where you will find something nice for your collection and do not have to deal about half an hour to get a fair price.

Around that region is also located Juergen Tron and Juergen Margraf. Both offer great pieces from Rogerly. With nice blue color in daylight and green in artificial light. Nice pieces are in the reagion between 500 and 1000 and above. But if you do not have one in your collection and you can afford go there. Juergen Tron also had nice Demantoid from Madagascar at fair prizes (I had no budget left) but I was able to get this small but perfect Fluorite Miniature he took out of his collection. For a great prize he also offered Fluorite from a recent newfind from Frohnau (I decided to go for the one shown below). He also had many different pieces with nice quality/prize relation. Juergen Margraf also has a phantastic setup. Looking like presenting a collection you can spend your money for lots of different things. He had some great Topaz from Thomas Range as a new find. Nice stibnites and lots of other beautiful things. Go there and enjoy.

jaysminerals · Joined: 28 Jun 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bavaria

There is also Watzl Minerals located around that section. They offer phantastic Epidotes from the Knappenwand. New finds from this year as well from old collections. But as you can expect prizes are not low for those pieces. But have they ever been for Knappenwand pieces? No. So they are probably low compared to other times. But you will probably have to spend your whole or at least a large part of your budget if you want to go for a nice piece. At the Hofer brothers (Alpine Section and currently operating at the Knappenwand) I saw not really much at their booth.
If you like Rhodos you are also right at Watzls place. They have several pieces with Rhodochrosite from Peru starting in the small budget area up to more. Nice matrix pieces. The also have two nice single Rhodos from N'chwaning and three fantastic pieces from the Sweethome Mine. But as you know you will have to open your wallet a little bit if you collect this sort of minerals.

Since Epidote is one of my favorite minerals but I already have Knappenwand pieces I bought this Epidote from Pakistan at some other dealer.

jaysminerals · Joined: 28 Jun 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bavaria

Another booth you should go and have a look is the one of Luis Burillo. He offers a great variety of different species. He has purple fluorite from the recent and rare new find in Ojuela. Hubnerite with nice combination with quartz. Demantoid from Madagascar. He also has Baryte and Rhodonite from Peru. I was able to get these two lovely pieces from there. A nice intergrown Baryte looking phantastic and also this nice Rhodonite.
Go there and you might find something for your collection. They also have a very friendly female interpreter who helps you if you want to deal on the prizes.

jaysminerals · Joined: 28 Jun 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bavaria

Then you also can find Dioptase from different locations all over the place. Nevertheless it is quite hard today to find pieces from Tsumeb with a nice contrasting white matrix and deep green crystals. Most of the pieces are green all over.

Here is just something I would like to mention if you have a piece at home you do not really happy with anymore. There are dealers who are open to treat (you can look that up at the mineralientage webpage). I took one of those pieces with me from my collection and was able to treat it (I had to ad some more money) and get this fine miniature with several crystals and almost free of damage. Sorry they are almpst impossbile to photograph if you are in a hurry.

jaysminerals · Joined: 28 Jun 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bavaria

Well here I come to an end of my report. I am sorry again that I was not taking pictures at the show. There are probably others who will be able to add some. I thought this report might be helpful for the one or the other who will got tomorrow or on Sunday. As stated this is what I saw today. Other people will see different things. Just to get an impression.

Last things to mention. There are also new finds of smoky quartz and pink fluorite from the Mont Blanc. I was able to get these thumbnail and miniature (as a refernce sample) pieces here. If you want larger pieces, you will have to open up your wallet. You find them in the Alpine collectors area. The thumbnail was probably the best thing I bought today compared to the prize. A bargain at 6.- Euros.

Then there is Peter Wittur still offering lots of his great new find from Serifos from this summer with Andradite, Hedenbergite and Prasem. Something you might like.

If you look for Green Fluorite from Riemvasmaak South Africa, there are several dealers around offering those pieces. Nevertheless I was not able to find a nice miniature with white contrasting matrix. The majority of the pieces are large sized withough matrix or not really nice crystals on matrix. Maybe I have overlooked something. In the last years that was an exciting new find. This year I feel there is lots of pieces on the market.

Another thing I realized is that one dealer from China offering fluorite was gone in the afternoon. A dealer told me the fluorites had been handmade and so they were fake. He had been removed. Nevertheless there are lots of dealers offering nice fluorite specimens from China.

This is all for now and I wonder what other people will think about this years munich show.