FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jesse Fisher]

I can not comment on other dealer's experiences, but we (UKMV) opened our doors at the Inn Suites on the afternoon of Jan. 28 and were literally mobbed by the influx of buyers, almost all dealers buying for resale. We did over one third of our total business for the show in the first three days. My only disappointment was that they didn't take everything, so we could have closed up and avoided another 10 days of hotel bills!

Interestingly, it was the better quality specimens (with, naturally, higher prices) that remained. It seems that maybe price is driving the wholesale market, with quality a secondary concern, at least at the moment. Some of the better pieces sold on later in the show as collectors began arriving in town, taking over from other dealers as the majority of buyers shopping the rooms.

[alfredo]

Jesse (several posts back) gave an excellent explanation of why the show tends to get longer and longer, and why this trend isn't going to stop anytime soon. (Rock Currier says it will stop when the early buying reaches the beginning of January, as no one will want to interrupt their year-end festivities to go to Tucson!)

Nevertheless, for those buyers like John White who fear they will miss all the bargains if they don't come early, I'd like to offer the following reassurance: What John says about early birds may well be true for weekend club shows, but Tucson is a different type of phenomenon altogether. During the 3 weeks of Tucson, many dealers are frequently receiving new material delivered during the show. (Just ask the harried hotel receptionists struggling with heavy DHL and FedEx packages.) I got two heavy boxes from Bolivia delivered to my hotel room during the show, plus two collections consigned to me by collectors arriving late. And some dealers come with a month's worth of sales material and don't have space in the room to unpack it all at once, so they're unpacking new stuff throughout the show. So there are always people with new material to look at, regardless of when you show up in Tucson.

[Jason]

Jesse your post makes perfect sense now..expecially after the holidays stock is looking low so wholesale buyers are wanting to re-up..makes sense now....I just always wondered..my sister and her family always seem to have a hard time around this time of year..they rack up those credit card bills from the holidays..good thing i don't own a credit card...LOL

[Jesse Fisher]

Credit cards are insidious things. They make it easier to purchase stuff, but in the end, I really think they only exist in order to enrich the bonus funds for already over-paid bank executives. How about a bonus for an over-worked, under-paid mine owner? Good think I'm not holding my breath on that one!

[Jason]

Nailed that one jesse..my folks always taught me that credit cards were to only br used for travel and emergencies..i figured if you don't already have the money then what makes you think you will have it later on...hmmm..but I must say those tsumeb dioptase don't come up very often..could you consider than an "emergency" purchase...lol

[John S. White]

I am particularly pleased by the comments of Jesse who seems to have really captured the reality of the whole thing. I would add, in response to Alfredo, that while every year I have this idea that I am missing out if I don't arrive early, I find myself buying throughout the entire two weeks and finding good things virtually everyday, often things that hundreds of other collectors appear to have overlooked.

Our intrepid leader Jordi did something at Tucson this year that was quite novel. He decided he would not open until Feb. 2 (Tuesday) while many (most?) other dealers at the InnSuites opened many days earlier. Many of these dealers told Jordi he was crazy to do this, but it turns out that he had the best sales on Tuesday that he has ever had and he had a very good show overall.

[Peter Megaw]

Jesse nicely summarized many of the points TGMS has made over the years: weather, lack of umbrella control over the shows, and the chase to get a larger share of the buyer dollar pool. Other than the weather, the February timing remains a mystery since the stock people buy will sit on their shelves until October in many cases...although it does give them the ability to sell the good stuff during the times when people are pickier and the remainder when folks are less discriminating as the "need" to buy gifts increases.

There is a lot of nonsense out there about show opening times, with organizers maintaining that it is an illegal restraint on trade to prevent "jump-start" sales. This is a very tenuous legal argument...TGMS has a long-standing contract with the TCC that prevents them from holding a mineral or gem related event in the facility for 30 days before or after our show (including AGTA) and this passes legal muster. The show promoters could modify their dates and hold to them if they wanted to. Not sure how longer shows benefit them since they get a flat show fee and not a cut of the daily rate (unless I am missing something).

I heartily congratulate Jordi on holding the line...of course you can do that if you are confident in the quality of your goods and the demand for same. On the other hand John won't be finding any sleepers there!

Peter

[Dawn MinetteCooper]

I have to say that I long for the REALLY old days when the entire show lasted about four days, but that is impractical the way things are now. However, I will not spend more than a week in Tucson--maybe less-- so I go over for the main show and just a short time before. I still buy minerals, and I can manage to find enough good ones to keep me happy. This constant stretching out of the various shows puts a lot of strain on the dealers and even the collectors.

[alfredo]

I suppose that whether it's an unbearable strain on the dealers and collectors, or not, depends on where one is coming from. Some people from snowy northern states, Canada and Europe just love hanging out in Tucson for 3 weeks, and perhaps even rent a house there for a month. I stay for 3 weeks, and might extend it to a month in future; it's not entirely work... more an intimate mixture of fun and work - a "working vacation", and a time to socialize with friends from all over the world, quite different from the short shows, which are just busy work and very little time for fun. The TGMS right at the end is the climax - I feel pity for those who are so business-oriented that they only come to Tucson for a short intense cherry-picking session at the beginning and then leave long before the "Main" show (TGMS) starts.