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]

[Bob Carnein]

Hah! Considering the hyperdrive state of the mineral business, maybe Enterprise is the appropriate term. (OK, I know it's warp drive....)

[BlueCapProductions]

Peter, I truly appreciate your $.02 on the interviewees. If you look at the line-up for Episode 1, we only have one dealer. It's the same for Episode 2. Our intent is to ABSOLUTELY involve the dealers but we do not want this to de-evolve into a Mineral Dealer Panel preaching to the public. We've gone to GREAT lengths to involve a spectrum of individuals - a dealer, a collector, a curator, a show promoter and a mineral media person (it's starting to sound like the ending to The Breakfast Club). We were actually surprised at how difficult it was to put together good panels where we felt the energy would flow constructively for the good of the community. I don't expect it to get any easier moving forward.

For now, we only have three Episodes a year scheduled to record - two in Tucson and one in Denver. As you can imagine, scheduling all these people during these shows is a huge task that requires secondary and tertiary choices for each participant.

So, as we're cutting our teeth, we felt it would be easier to have these first two episodes both address the same topic. Moving forward, we want to have a variety of different topics to address at each recording which would naturally affect who we would want on the panel.

Unlike the What's Hot... series, this podcast will not be exclusively focused on the top-end dealers talking about the hottest minerals on the market. At times there may just be stories the participants share like they would during a casual dinner conversation. God knows, there are enough great stories out there and video isn't always the most efficient way to record those due to costs and post-production time.

That being said, many of the top end dealers have been in the game a long time and have a certain perspective on the collecting world that is quite valuable. Also, because of the dollars involved these days, these top end dealers really have the ability to shift the market faster than anyone else. Take exhibit cases and lighting for example. Even in the short period of time I've been involved in the mineral-collecting world (11 years), there's been a HUGE shift in what we see at the shows. That's very significant and these dealers who have made this the new standard for hi-end shows have thoughts about this that we need to hear.

But I do agree with you that everyone is worthy of sharing their voice. That's why I really want to push on these forums. I'm elated at the discussions we've already had - and the series hasn't even launched yet!!!

And, as you will hear in the podcast, we WELCOME everyone to give us feedback. Via the forum or via email. We are asking people to submit ideas on future topics directly to us for us to consider. We're hoping that this truly becomes a catalyst for deeper discussions among EVERYONE in the field.

[Tony L. Potucek]

Good day, Bryan,
You have your work cut out for you, and I encourage your taking on the task ahead of you. Like Kevin, I look at this task with a bit of a jaundiced eye, so as to speak. I believe for you to gather a true picture of the whole sphere of mineral collecting, you will really need to drill down and include discussions with the masses, all the way down to kids off the street who share a fascination for minerals and take their $5 to the local rock and gem show to make the big purchase(s). And I am not talking about the lucky few youngsters who have some well heeled backing which have been publicized prominently in the junior mineral collecting world. My jaundiced eyeball already has noticed that your first panel did not include one normal Joe/Josephine collector. Everyone on the discussion panel tends to inhabit the higher end of the financial spectrum of shows. Not much involvement there in the mineral collecting trenches--the folks who troll even the bead shows looking for a specimen to add to their collections which will not cost 10% or more of their annual salary. So, please consider carefully who will be discussing the current state of the collecting world so the entire spectrum is included. And thanks again for this enterprise (pun intended) which you have embarked upon, my friend.

[Philippe Durand]

as an average to low budget collector, I totaly agree with Tony Potucek ;
I do not recognize myself with the top collectors.

this said, I will read or watch the breakfasts with the greatest interest :)

[Mike Chontofalsky]

Tony and Philippe....I think you describe 90% plus collectors. i am too looking forward to the podcast. Any recommendations on a good app for my Android smart phone so that I can tune in?