How much is that worth?

If you’ve ever talked about mineral specimens or showed an interesting one to someone who is not a collector, you may have heard this question.  The answer is simple, really, although there are several variables to consider.

The bottom line, not only for minerals, but for any commodity, really, is that something is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Many items in our society sell for what I personally consider ridiculous prices (but, as my wife is wont to tell me, I’m a “cheap bastard”), but if someone else is willing to pay that amount, that’s what they’re worth.

In minerals, several things factor into the ‘worth’ or price that a specimen will fetch. The more attractive something is, obviously that increases its desirability. But, more than that, in the mineral ‘world’, the rarity and the provenance (origin) of a particular specimen has a lot to do with the value. If a mine or locale is closed or defunct, that will increase the value of specimens from that locale.

The ‘history’ of a specimen can also figure into the value; who has previously owned it and when. Let me give you an example. A couple of years ago, the Philadelphia Museum of Natural History sold off a large portion of its mineral collection. Many of these specimens had been at the museum for quite a long time, understandably.  I had the good fortune to view some of the collection when Collector’s Edge in Golden, Colorado was reselling the portion that they had purchased. All specimens were very nicely packaged and displayed with the old Museum labels intact.  In spite of that fact that many of these specimens were what I would categorize as ‘spectacularly unspectacular’, the history, and the old-time label, lent to them a ‘value’, a price tag, that they would not achieve otherwise.

When specimens are sold at auction, the ‘heat of the moment’ can also raise their desirability and value. We are all familiar with the term “bidding war”, and these kinds of things can raise the value (at least in the short-term) quite a bit.  Another example:  We, several years ago (before BandLMinerals.com, when we were just starting out as sellers on eBay), purchased a ‘flat’ of blue Stoneham, CO Barite crystals from the aforementioned Collector’s Edge, in their wholesale locale at the Tucson show in February.  The flat was just a bunch of mud-caked, just as they came from the ground, crystals. It was hard to tell what was there, really, but we took a chance on the flat (it was only $60), and after taking it home and washing away all the mud, got about 30 nice crystals, with intact terminations, that we deemed ‘saleable’.  (Probably about half of what was in the box.) Overall, a pretty smokin’ deal, I thought.  We started selling them on eBay, mostly starting the auctions at $9.99.  Many of them actually sold for the opening price, or just a few bids higher, but we had one auction, for a nice crystal but nothing special, where two fellows got into a bidding war, and the crystal ended up selling for $94.  Was it “worth” that much???