The Denver Show, half-way through

Won’t have any pictures of the show, sorry, I stupidly left my camera at home. That’s what happens when you leave for the airport before 6:00 AM.
There are more venues than ever, or at least some are getting bigger. The main venue for minerals specimens, the Holiday Inn (officially the Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show), is exactly what I expected, exactly what it’s been for years. 2+ floors plus the outside tents, packed solid with a great variety of minerals from every corner of the Earth. Truly a mineral collectors dream.

The newest show, the Denver Coliseum Show, which just started last year, was much larger than it’s first year. A good mix of mineral specimens, fossils, lapidary and jewelry/gem stones. Actually, the parking lot (the Miners Co-op) has as many dealers as the inside does.

Denver Expo 2010, the National Western Complex show across the Interstate from the coliseum, is primarily beads, lapidary and polished material, very few mineral specimens.

Across the road from the Holiday Inn on 48th is the “Great American Gem Show & Sale”. It is basically what it has been ever we started coming to Denver in Sept., an eclectic mix of mineral specimens, gems, jewelry, beads, lapidary, and metaphysical items. One thing that I noted today made me wonder about the hotel owners: 2 of the 3 elevators were out of order, and the stairways were filled with materials from the rooms – box springs and the like. One of the 3 stairwells was signed as “do not use”, another led to the back of the outside food stand, so that if you came out the stairs you had to walk around the food vendors, (right through where they were working). Is there no fire marshall in Denver?

There is also a bead show, which I can’t write about since I won’t be visiting it, and, of course, the “Main” show, the Denver Gem and Mineral Club Show at the Merchandise Mart. The main show starts on Friday, and so I’ll be commenting on it later.

There are, as always, a couple of local vendors who open their warehouses during the show.
Collectors Edge out in Golden was, as it always is, full of a variety of mineral specimens. Most of their stock was for sale by the flat, but as always, they have a nice variety of individual specimens for sale. These people really do it right; the specimens are excellently prepared, everything is prominently labelled and priced, the place is organized and clean, and the staff are knowledgable and friendly. Definitely worth the short drive (took us 20 minutes) from Denver out to Golden.

Dave Bunk, as he always does, had his warehouse open, with everything keystone priced. As per usual, there was a wide variety of specimens, also as usual, no discernable organization, so that if you were looking for something in particular, it was necessary to go through every single flat. Still, we found a few beauties, including one for my personal collection – A pic or two coming when I get home.

This is the time of year that I love having a mineral business; shopping and buying is the BEST! For an avid mineral enthusiast, the chance to see the best mineral specimens from everywhere in the world in all in one area is not to be missed. I’ve heard it said that the fall Denver show is now the 4th largest in the world, behind Tucson, Munich, and Sainte Marie in France. I believe it, every year we get here earlier, and still it’s started before we get here…..

This and that… (a new find, an upcoming show, etc.)

Although this blog is not designed to shamelessy plug our website and mineral business, just have to mention how much I’m anticipating next Saturday’s (Sept. 11) small show/sale in Tucson, which I talked about in earlier posts. It will be the first time that Lisa and I have ever set up at a show, up to now we’ve been strictly internet sales. Should be lots of fun, a great learning experience, and hopefully we’ll make a couple of bucks, too. If you’re around Tucson, come see us and say Hi.

Something else that I’m excited about is a new, very small find of gemmy Mimetite on unusual arsenate minerals (currently being investigated to determine exactly what they are) that I was lucky enough to get a few pieces of. Pics below… The good Dr. Origlieri is planning on showing this material to the MinRec people up in Denver, so there may be a story about this new discovery in a few weeks.

I’m going to end this post by saying “YAY” that the California legislature was wise enough to table SB 624, the bill to remove Serpentine as the state rock. So great to see that scientific fact won out over the fearmongers. Good job, Justin Zzyzx, and everyone else who fought and won against this travesty of a bill.