Mineral Auctions - The On Line Mineral Auction Site

Mineral Auctions - Trinity Mineral Co - BOX 2182 Weaverville, CA 96093 USA

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The following are brief introductions to the people who will be posting minerals on my auction.
These are good folks and they have my 100% backing.

March 1997 December 2006
John Veevaert - Trinity Mineral Company

I have been an avid mineral collector - primarily a field collector since 1975. My first love was with gold but in 1977, while taking mineralogy, I discovered benitoite and there was no going back. I have had the opportunity to see just about every nook and cranny in the Mojave Desert in both California and Nevada. My education is in Geology and my undergraduate work was done at Fullerton College and Humboldt State University in Arcata California. My graduate work was also done at Humboldt State. I was gainfully employed as an exploration geologist working for two mining companies - one out of Anchorage, Alaska and one out of Reno, Nevada. After grad school I went to work for Redwood National Park for three years and then transfered to the US Forest Service as a geologist on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. I started Trinity Mineral Company in 1996 with the intent of losing money but enjoying my hobbies of computers and mineralogy so that I would pay fewer taxes. It was one of those rare situations in a person's life where they are at the right place at the right time. The Internet was in its infintile stages and I was able to get in while the "gettin' was good".

In 1997 I quit my government job at the GS-12 level and plunged head on into full time mineral dealing. My wife, Colleen (we've been married since 1985) quit her day job a year later in 1998 to join me on this adventure and we've been doing it ever since.

The two pictures above have me rather concerned about how the mineral specimen (A self collected benitoite and neptunite from 1986) is aging... hmm...

Keith Hayes (Auction Manager) & Luciana Barbosa

I know you're used to seeing just KQ Minerals here, but I've decided to try something new. Brazilian gem dealer Luciana Barbosa and I got to talking in Denver and decided that we'd have more fun working together. You're used to seeing her at shows selling gemstones (especially rare ones) for her family's business, Gemological Center. We've put together a couple new web pages: kqandlugems.com to sell gemstones and kqandluminerals.com to sell gem minerals. My own page kqminerals.com will continue to present general mineral specimens. Anyway, I think you will like the expanded offerings.

Keith has been in the mineral business since 1992. Initially, he was field collector in the quarries of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. After visiting a few local shows in Michigan, he figured out that the selection was small and the prices were way too high. He decided to visit Tucson and discovered there were lots of great pieces at reasonable prices if one is willing to do lots of looking. His focus remains on presenting attractive specimens at reasonable prices. When he is not managing the auction, he is a chemical engineer in Paducah (say what?), Kentucky.

Luciana has been in the mineral business even longer than Keith, even though many people still think she is really young (don't ask her if she is 21 yet!) She and her family have supplied fine gem stone and cutting rough at major shows for many years now. She lives in Belo Horizonte and travels frequently to the gem-producing regions of Brazil. She loves to travel and is quite talented when it comes to photography.

Rick Green - UC Minerals

UC Minerals is really a company called Uniquely Crystalline, I just liked the name UC Minerals better than my current name because it better describes what my web page is all about...You see minerals. I have been an avid collector for about fifteen years now, and have had this company for the last 11 years. Over the years, I have built up quite an inventory of specimens from around the world. I have specimens ranging from exceptional, one-of-a-kind, specimens for the collector, to reference pieces for the beginning collector. If you have any particular interests, just drop me a line and let me know. If I do not have an item in stock, it is very likely that I can find it for you.

Now, a little history about myself, I am a licensed Professional Geologist working for the Florida Geological Survey in Tallahassee, Florida. My job requires that I travel frequently, so if you cannot reach me, just leave me a message and I will have someone from my staff get in touch with you as soon as possible. I travel to both Denver and Tucson each year in order to stock up on new items from around the world. My own collecting interests tend to run towards two areas: Calcites and Tourmalines. I treat purchasing specimens for resale in a simple manner: I look at each specimen that I buy as if it were going in my own collection. Because I tend to be very picky about things like "dings", I think that you will be satisfied with any specimens which are ordered from UC Minerals.

Dr. Alessandro Genazzani - Italian Minerals

I started collecting "rocks and stones" when I was about 10 ... you can imagine, really rocks and stones ! My mama was very "happy"... Nevertheless the love for the perfection of the shapes of the crystals was growing, So little by little I became more expert and after several years I found myself deeply involved in mineralogy, with a growing collection and a lot of friends. The problem today is that my real job is on the other side of the moon compared to my love for minerals as I am a medical doctor. I am involved in science and research at the University of Modena, Italy.

About 10 years ago I met a growing number of collectors and new friends while using Internet (among those there was John Veevaert !) and during those months the final step to create my own website was made. ItalianMinerals.com started little by little in 1997 and came on with full steam in June 1998. It is a full operating website to show and offer good rocks from Italy and other global locations to the Internet world of collectors ! My primary goal of the website is to create a condition so that my hobby helps pay for itself, at present it partly works but being an avid collector of nice specimens .... sometimes it doesn't!

Giorgio Spiga & his wife Marisa - Best Minerals

Different to most collectors and rockhounds, my attraction to minerals began when I was not any more a child but after I had finished my degree in Chemistry at the Cagliari University in 1966. Until then, my time was divided between study and Sports. At 15 years I began Greek-Roman Wrestling and three years later I was selected as a reserve in the Italian team for the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. The following year, I became the 52 kg. Italian champion and successfully fought for the first time in the national team versus Hungary. At the end of 1963, I gave up top-level wrestling because, following a training accident that year, I failed to participate in the Naples Mediterranean Games, which was a sort of passport for the following Tokyo Olympics. Back to Sardinia after eighteen months spent in Sweden and England, for scientific and professional development. In 1968 I began teaching Analytical Chemistry at the Iglesias Mining School where there was a very good mineralogical museum and a many collectors among the collegues; from then on, I started my activity as a mineral collector and rockhound. During the following twelve to fifteen years, I spent most of my weekends and vacations digging in the tail dumps of the old mines and around the vulcanites and granites in Sardinia. My professional activity absorbed all my time and energies from 1982 up to 1994 when I started again with revived enthusiasm for minerals and in 2000, with the cooperation of my son Bruno, I started www.bestminerals.com, where you can see my own collection, including a suit of 45 top class sardinian samples of my preferred mineral: Barite. Actually, for the next 2.5 years, I am heavily engrossed in the clean up of a large contaminated site in Sardinia. I hope it will be my last professional work and after it I want to dedicate all my time to my three hobbies: minerals, photography and roses.

Dave Douglass - douglassminerals.com

Unlike other dealers, I got interested in minerals as a "big kid" at age 58 in 1989 while on a trip to Brazil to do collaborative research with a colleague in Rio de Janeiro. Although I had taken a mineralogy course as an undergraduate in 1952 and liked minerals, I hadn't done anything until I saw some stuff for sale on a street corner in Rio. I bought my first piece, subsequently became an avid collector and eventually got a resale license and became a dealer I retired in 1992 from UCLA where I was a longtime professor of materials science and engineering, moved to Tucson and started doing shows. I have had a website, douglassminerals.com, for five years and am thoroughly "hooked" by the beauty of aesthetic minerals. I lead tour groups to Brazil nearly every summer to visit gem and mineral mines.

Ironically, my research work at UCLA was in high-temperature corrosion of metals and alloys during which I produced "minerals" as oxide and/or sulfide scales on metallic substrates. I am presently an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona and have been the editor of Oxidation of Metals, an international journal involving gas-solid reactions, since its inception in 1968. My research work resulted in over 140 publications. Honors include: Fellow, American Society for Metals; Chairman, Gordon Research Conference in Corrosion, 1975; ASTM "Russ Ogden" award for outstanding contributions to refractory-metal technology, 2004.

Personal interests are many (I wonder how I ever had time to work), such as masters track and field competition (four age-group national championships - decathlon 1987, indoor pentathlon twice and 4 x 800 relay). I compete about 12 times per year in such things as the 80M hurdles, 300M hurdles, 400M run, high jump, pole vault, long jump, hammer throw, discus, shot put, and javelin. In 2003 I finished 5th in the world masters championships in Puerto Rico in the decathlon, 8th in the pole vault and 8th in the hammer throw.

I'm hooked on tournament bridge (silver life master), took up golf at age 64 (sheer frustration!!), and classical music.

My wife Liz is a PhD licensed psychologist, who assists me at some mineral shows when it doesn't conflict with her work.

Isaias Casanova - icminerals.com

I was born in a crossfire hurricane....only kidding!

Actually, I was born in Havana, Cuba in 1951 and came to the states in 1961. Lived in Miami until 1987 when I moved to Orlando. Developed an interest in minerals early and then forgot about it until 1986 during a Colorado vacation. I have been dealing in minerals since 1989 and became a full time dealer in 1998. I obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Mass Communications (Film) in 1974 from the University of South Florida, but had a 20 year career in Finance, before attacking the minerals full time. I am divorced with three girls, that are now all grown up (most of the time)!

Steve Perry at the Denver Show - Steve Perry Gems

Always hunting for great rocks! I first was introduced to gem and mineral collecting when I was five years old on the agate beaches California and Oregon. The hook was set deep when Bruce Runner (a prominent CA dealer for many, many years) gave me a benitoite specimen at the Turlock Gem and Mineral Show thirty-five years ago; and I was sure then (at seven years old) what I would be doing as a profession. After literally more than five hundred mining and collecting trips I still relish the treasure hunt. My greatest passion will always be benitoite and the minerals of San Benito County, though my interest includes all varieties of gemstones and gem crystals..


Charlie Sahlman - Lexcel Minerals Guitar lessons didn't pan out, but you could still say I was "born to rock!" That's because I have developed a huge passion for another form of rock - mineral collecting! I actually come from a family of collectors. Some of earliest memories were for looking for old bottles in abandoned trash cans in Key West and Tampa and shelling on the beaches of Amelia Island, Key West and Key Biscayne. I'll never forget how, when I was 11 or 12, my mother took my brother and me to Franklin, North Carolina to mine for rubies and sapphires. We also spent some time in the mud off Ballast Point in Tampa looking for agatized coral. These experiences, plus seeing some specimens my mother picked up in North Carolina, planted the seeds for my fascination within mineral collecting. My interest in mineral collecting really crystallized (pun intended) when I was in my mid 20s. At that time I began collecting seriously and after a while (1975) decided to open a mineral and jewelry store called Gallery of Gems in Boca Raton, Florida. I had many good years with the store but always had a desire to expand my pursuits within mineral collecting. I started Lexcel Minerals five years ago and have been dealing in minerals and gems under this business since at many shows around the United States. I attend as many shows around the world as I can each year selling and buying mineralogical treasures. I love how this allows me to interact with both new and old collectors. It truly makes it all worthwhile when I see the joy on my customer's faces after I have fixed them up with the specimen of the dreams. Today I am excited to bring the highest quality specimen to avid collectors through my expanded offerings via the Internet. My taste in minerals is eclectic so there will always be a wide variety of offerings and species. Through my collecting experiences, I now realize that they connect to some of my most deeply held interests such as my love for aesthetics, nature, hiking and the outdoors. In fact, many aspects of role as a mineral dealer I also liken to aspects of hunting and fishing.

Giovanni & the rest of Webmineral Shop - Webmineralshop.com

We are a group of friends from Italy with the hobby of mineral collecting , here is a picture of us at the famous Hofbrau house during the last Munich Show in 2004 from left to right: Giuseppe, Giovanni, Carlo, and Gianfranco.

We all started collecting minerals from 25 to 10 years ago and we have our own collections. We started the first version of the webmineralshop site early in 1997 and finally got the site on the web in 2002. Our primary goal was to create a condition whereby our hobby would pay for itself so as to improve our own collection, allow us to do research and collecting trips, various mineral shows and so on.

We aren't full time dealers but we do it in our free time so that now it's a second job. We attend all the main shows in Italy and Europe were it's always a pleasure to meet our web-customers and doing business with other dealers. Three years ago our group founded the Genova Mineral Show as it organizers. It is a growing show in Italy.

Thanks to John to give us the opportunity to be part of the new mineral-auctions site.

Tom Loomis - DakotaMatix.com

Thirty-seven years after picking up my first rock in my friends driveway in south suburban Chicago, I find myself still picking up rocks. This time I'm out west in South Dakota. That's right, not many rocks in Chicago, just good pizza and hot dogs. I call this my "out-of-control hobby" or Dakota Matrix Minerals, which went online in 1999. At that time I was working for the largest producing silver mine in the country and driving an hour and half one way everyday to the Coeur-Rochester mine in Nevada. It was a lovely place, but my wife, Vicki, and I yearned for the Black Hills and back we went to start Dakota Matrix full-time at the turn of the century. I dragged Vicki around with me from Deadwood to Tucson to Mexico and Nevada and so we are glad to be "home" in the Black Hills. And here we are, with not many collectors in sight but thousands of mines to choose from (darn the bad luck!).

Black Hills mineralogy is my passion and I am devoted to it. We began mining the Tip Top mine in 2005 to recover more of those rare beauties (not uglies). You may remember my Sincosite article (MR 1999 V. 30 N. 3), that was truly the pinnacle of my field collecting and propelled me into dealership. Most recently, you may have seen my publications in MATRIX Magazine. There were two volumes devoted to South Dakota minerals (2002, V. 10, N. 2 and 3). That was a lot of fun and I will forever be in debt to the late Jay Lininger, publisher and editor. I'm a graduate of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City with a BS in geological engineering. My work experience includes coal, gold and silver mining from Mine Engineer to Superintendent of Engineering. It was all fun, and I miss mining but not the spreadsheets and corporate games. Vicki works as an X-Ray technologist, and I am the stay at home husband working the web with my little dog "Kara".

On the web, we specialize in South Dakota phosphates. Outside of that, we sell just about anything but keep it mostly to the unique, old or hard to find. I like diversity and don't cater to the collecting elite. We sell low-end to high-end, rare species to micromounts, micro-bags, and plain old representative minerals. We like to foster beginner collections, while building more advanced collections. Give us a ring, drop me an email or visit us on the web. I'm happy and honored to be involved with Mineral Auctions.com, especially with such a group of dealers as this.

Scott Werschky - Miner's Lunchbox

No, Miner's Lunchbox is not a delicatessen or bistro! It came about as an attempt at politically incorrect humor. After all, where does one first find good minerals? In the miner's lunchbox of course, (much to the chagrin of the mine management)!

I have a long-standing fascination with minerals. My first remembrance of mineral collecting came from a Boy Scouts camping trip up at Crystal Park, Colorado back in the 1960's. The scout leader was digging a hole for the privy, and pulled out a great smoky quartz group! The excitement of that find has never left me, and I still look forward to every collecting and buying trip with the same anticipation and sense of discovery. I think this also had a profound impact on my professional career, and steered me to pursue exploration geology. After studying at the University of Colorado for both undergraduate and graduate school, I worked in precious metals exploration from Alaska down to Chile. In 1996, the company I was working for decided to get out of the exploration business, and let all of us geologists go. I took the opportunity (with the help of a nice severance package) to start a full time mineral business. It was a natural step to change my avocation into a vocation. I've never enjoyed work more, and it almost seems like being retired except for the 70 and 80-hour weeks! Now, if I could just figure out how to take a good photograph, life would be really sweet.

Ross Lillie - NorthStar Minerals
Nothing but southern Illinois fluorite!
Springfield Show 1994.

My name is Ross Lillie and I'm a Midwesterner from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I live in the Detroit area now but I'm still a Green Bay Packer fan and 'cheesehead' at heart.

My interest in minerals really began with fluorescent specimens from Franklin that I saw at a local rock shop in Milwaukee. I was about 10 years old at the time I just got hooked on the fantastic colors that came from those very mundane looking rocks. I also collected fossils from the Door County area that you could find everywhere along the 'rock fences' that farmers made when they cleared the fields.

I went to music school at the University of Wisconsin for a couple of years where I majored in piano performance and composition. I switched majors to geology and transferred to Michigan Tech in the Keweenaw Peninsula. It was the Seaman Mineral Museum that re-kindled my interest in minerals again. I used to study in the museum and take breaks looking at all of the fantastic coppers that were on display and I would fantasize about collecting my own. I was totally hooked. The mines were all closed when I was there, 1975-1979, but it didn't stop us from getting underground. We were notorious for digging out the shafts and stopes that were closed by the mine inspector. Wed spend almost every weekend digging out the mines, going underground, and then barring a new hole to surface. After we made a new, 'private' entrance wed call the County mine inspector and have the old hole bulldozed. It was an excellent system and at one time we had some 12 mines to collect in, some of which were still dry 13 levels (1300 feet). To this day I still have 'private' entrances to some of the mines.

We only got caught once, at the New Allouez #3, and they put us in cells in the original Eagle River jail that was built in the mid-1800s. The walls were about 1 foot thick and I have fond memories of the sherrif's wife cooking us spaghetti and sliding it through a trap door in the wall.

I graduated in 1979 with the B.S. degree in Geology and went to work in the fluorite mines of southern Illinois as an exploration geologist. I supervised four core drills for the next five years and I found an ore body that was actually mined when I was there: the north-end of the Denton Mine. For various reasons, I quit in 1984 and moved back to the Copper Country of Michigan. I started a full-time mineral business in 1984 and never looked back. Being self-employed has its benefits - especially job security.

Kevin Conroy - KC Minerals

I started collecting rocks when I was 6 years old. We had a creek less than 50 yards from our house, and it actually had some decent things for a beginner to pick up. After a few years of VERY casual collecting, I started attending rock club meetings when I was 9. I was hooked! Well, now it's 40+ years later and along the way I've picked up a B.S. in geology, some decent (and according to my wife some ugly) minerals, and loads of friends who also enjoy collecting minerals. I only deal in minerals part time, but maybe in a few years when I retire from my real job I'll make minerals more of a full time thing.

Sara Giller - Crystal Vine

My love of minerals started when I was a child and I used to collect marcasites, pyrites and fossils on the South coast of England. It became more serious years later when I was on holiday in Israel in 1981 and I came across my first mineral shop. It had large agate slices all sawn from the same boulders, which were fantastically displayed in sophisticated brightly lit glass cabinets, which I had never seen before. Only being a student at the time, I could only afford a small slice, which sparked my interest in minerals again, and was the first piece in my collection.

I graduated in 1984 and became a full time teacher, teaching mainly special needs children and then went part time in 1991 to work with children who had emotional and behavioural difficulties. Around 1994 I started to sell minerals part time as a hobby until 2000 when I really had expended all my energy in the field of education and decided to go full time as a mineral dealer. What a shock. Not to have to get up at 7 in the morning and work for someone else. This was the best move I ever made - to have my bills paid doing something I love doing.

Since then, I have travel to Tucson and Denver in America, and France and Germany in Europe to search for the most interesting and finest quality pieces that I can afford, expanding my collection at the same time buying some amazing pieces to sell to other collectors. I have also made and met many wonderful people.
I am proud to say that Crystal Vine has adapted to changing climates and my passion for opals has grown too, especially for the wonderful Ethiopian opals which I am now a major seller of in the UK.

I was honoured to be asked to join John's auction site and hope that what I offer will be of interest to you and compliment the wonderful range on offer here

Andrei Rykoff - AA Rock Shop.Com

I was born a rockhound. As far back as I can remember I've always loved rocks. Some friends even say I have rocks for brains. Some friends .LOL By training and profession, I'm a forester. I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley (Go Bears!) in 1980 and currently work for the US Forest Service in Northwestern Oregon (near Portland). Actually, I'm the District Ranger for the Clackamas River Ranger District on the Mount Hood National Forest. It's a great job; one that I love. Where else can you get paid to work out in the woods and stumble across an occasional rock? As much as I love my day job, I love mineral collecting just as much.

As I've increased my knowledge of mineralogy, my tastes and collecting habits have changed (for the better I hope). Up until a few years back, I was a general collector but have "refined" my tastes to focus specifically on one species: Rhodochrosite. My goal is to eventually have (what I would hope to be) a world class Rhodo collection. I admit it; I'm a Rhodo head and am proud of it. Over the past number of years, I've been slowly collecting Rhodochrosite specimens from all over the world and have many a favorite piece.

A few years back I was presented with an offer that I could' t pass up. Up until then, I was just an avid collector, but after purchasing a substantial collection of worldwide specimens, I decided to become a mineral dealer as well. Hey, what better way to support my Rhodochrosite habit! In any case, I enjoy sharing really cool rocks at affordable prices with my customers. I look forward to many more years of collecting and finding those "special" rocks for my family of customers.

I love rocks and I hope you do too!

Emanuele Marini - Demineralia.Com

Everything with minerals started because of my mother. She took me for the first time to dig in an old mine dump at the age of 10...it was the beginning of a disaster!! Since then I started collecting all kind of minerals. Every time I was back from a digging day, I was bringing home dozens of kilos of rocks. In just a few years there was no more space for minerals at home! For many years I have been going to Sardinia Island for the holidays. I was so attracted to the minerals world, however, that in a period of 3 weeks on the island I went at the sea-side just maybe one or two times, spending all the rest of the time in mines, on mine dumps, etc., always looking for minerals!

One day my mother and I decided to make some "order" (organization) in our stuff. I was really attracted from the beauty of colorful minerals, the perfection of the crystals. I was not so happy to select just a few specimens from all my stock, but I had to do it. Otherwise I would have to find a place under a nice bridge to live!

Well, I became a small dealer for selling my self collected stuff and I used the money from my specimens for buying new ones for my collection. But there was a little problem - I was always attracted by the finest and most expensive specimens!! So, I started buying small lots of specimens to select one or two for my own collection and then would resell the other to help finance the collection.

Up to now is has worked well!! I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people at mineral shows, to develop many interesting contacts and I also had the opportunity to try a new enjoying experience, open a web site for selling specimens on the web! It took some months of hard work, but finally I did it.

Now my main activity is not to sell minerals as I am a student in the University of Milan. I will soon be graduating with a degree in "ORE GEOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL MINERALS". I will still try to sell specimens for always the same purpose - to get new specimens for my own collection! After graduation maybe I can develop my little mineral-company in a full-time job, or maybe not...who knows! The important thing for me now is to enjoy my self going to collect in the field and collecting nice minerals and try to be a dealer...

John Teague - VolunteerGems

I started collecting rocks and minerals at about age 8 after reading a series of stories in my third grade "reader" about a group of kids that were collecting uv minerals in an abandoned mine (I'm sure OSHA would have something to say about that now!). I still have the first rock I collected, a rather nice quartz geode from my grandmother's flower garden in LaFollette, Tennessee. One of the stories we read described geodes and I remembered the one, that we called a rock cannon ball, in her garden! After she said I could have it, I "opened" it with a hammer. I still have all the pieces in the metal fruitcake tin that she gave me to go along with the geode.

My undergraduate degree is in chemistry from the University of Tennessee (UT Volunteers, if you're wondering about my business name!) and my Masters is in Environmental Science education. In my "real life", I teach Chemistry and Physics.

I started Volunteer Gems about 1992 to try to make my hobby (obsession?) help pay for itself. I do several shows each year, mainly in the southeast US. The near future calls for me to expand my website, www.VolunteerGems.com, to include minerals, fossils, and meteorites for sale. We plan on offering fossils and meteorites in upcoming auctions and on our website.

Some of you may remember my auction offerings from a couple of years ago. After taking some time off from the auction scene, John Veevaert has been kind enough to give me the opportunity to be a part of this auction group once again. John and Keith Hayes have been most understanding and supportive in my endeavors, both in my business and personal life. Many thanks guys!

The Crystal Miners

On the left is the wife of Ingo Löffler, Annett, in the middle Ingo, and on the right, Peter Maurer. Together, Ingo and myself, have over 50 years of mineral experience. Ingo´s special interest is the kingdom of Calcite and my interest are good quality specimens worldwide, especially from Brazil, Mexico, Cornwall, Czech Republic, Romania, and Germany.

Diana & Mike Hopkins - Mad Mineralz Mike's Story:
Shortly after my father was transferred to Ft. Huachuca Arizona in the mid 1970's, he soon became smitten by regional tales of gold. We'd make the short drive to Gleeson and to the old silver mines behind Tombstone in search of treasure. I was thirteen at the time and it was here that I experienced my first forays into mineral collecting. I spent a lot of time puttering around on the dumps and picking up copper minerals. On one adventure, we found a large vug lined with small stubby quartz points that was large enough for both of us to stand inside. Our collecting adventures mostly yielded Azurite and Malachite which decorated my room and our yard.

Seventeen years later, married and living in Kansas, I noticed Diana had minerals in storage that she had acquired while living in Arizona. An Illinois Fluorite, a large dog tooth Calcite from Chihuahua, Quartz from the Huachucas, and Calcite from Bisbee. She told me if I really wanted to see minerals, we'd need to attend the next Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. WOW! I was hooked.

Diana's Story:
I first became interested in minerals as a result of my third grade science class. I was fascinated by the natural occurring processes and the minerals that were formed as a byproduct of these processes. Encouraging me, my mother brought me to my first mineral show where I purchased my first minerals for the science class project. Even back then I was attracted to specimens that were unique and aesthetic.

Knowing I wanted to live in Arizona before I was even in kindergarten, I managed to secure a guaranteed duty station at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona the late 70's. Bisbee in at that time was still somewhat of an artist mecca, and when I wasn't hiking the Huachuca Mountains, I was exploring Bisbee. Hanging out in Bisbee back then was a treasure hunt for me; what a great location to feed my appreciation for aesthetic mineral specimens. Ditto for the Tucson Show.

We've since combined our interest in minerals, Diana keeps an eye out for the uniquely aesthetic specimens, and Mike identifies and catalogues our finds. The challenge of capturing the details of each specimen for display on the website is a labor of love for Mike. Our decision to offer minerals for sale came about as a way to share our enthusiasm for minerals with others who are interested in building a collection. As Mike states, "the decision to start selling minerals came about as a way for me to admire a hundred or so minerals at a time on a rotating basis!"

Arnaldo Pini - Best Mineral

Since I was a little guy, I have always loved everything about nature. In particular I was fascinated by the minerals, maybe from the first visit to Natural History Museum in Milan, wich has one of the best mineral collection of Italy.

The real beginning of my minerals "career" is when I was about 16, when I went with a friend of mine searching for minerals: we didn't find anything interesting that time, but after it I wanted to start collecting minerals! But, as you know, it is not a cheap hobby... So I begun selling minerals to find money to increase my collection. After about a year of selling, I opened my own website and start buying and selling online.
And then...here I am!

When my studies let me do it (I'm a first level graduated geologist, I'm doing the 5th and last year at University)
I still like to go searching minerals both in Alps and in Sardinia, where I go every Summer on holiday. So, if you come near Milan, send me an e-mail, we can go searching together!

Rick Kennedy - Earth's Treasures

I've been a collector ever since I was able to pick anything up with my hands. I've collected everything from stamps and coins to bottle caps. Minerals and rare gemstones became my passion for several reasons: their natural beauty, the fact that I could never learn everything about the hobby and the adventures involved in collecting these beauties in the field.

I received my BS degree in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1994, seven years after finishing my course work (It is a long story!). I started Earth's Treasures in 1985 as a part time buisiness while I was still in school and continued it as a part time business while I worked managing a small business for one of my mineral collecting partners. In March of 2006, I left that world for good and became a full time mineral and rare gemstone dealer and have never been so happy!

Personally, I collect "rough and cut" suites of rare gem minerals, but my passion will always be for Benitoite, and I proudly flaunt my status as the poster boy for the Benitoite Mine Run sales that John and Steve did a few years ago, my 5.06 carat flawless cut Benitoite is indeed the "Jewel" of my collection.

Bill Logan - Spectrum Minerals

My life as a collector started at age 8. Living in Florida, my attention turned to fossils and shells. When I went to college in mineral-rich North Carolina, I discovered many new things, such as seasons and snow, but I mainly I discovered minerals. Here one could easily prospect for amethyst, garnets, rubies, emeralds and even gold. My knowledge was rudimentary and I relied on the guidance of others for many years, knowing little of what I was collecting except that they were pretty. A long hiatus ensued as I followed my educational pursuits. I received an MD from Duke University and subsequently an additional Masters degree in dermatologic research through a Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.

I then returned to North Carolina and renewed my interest in minerals. I voraciously devoured Sinkakas' Mineralogy for Amateurs, discovering the extent of what I did not know. My main interest then, as now, was the breathtaking colors and the mysterious, spellbinding crystals. I joined the Charlotte Gem and Mineral Club in 1974, finding members with much more expertise in collecting whose collective experience I followed, collecting locally off and on for many years. For a while I did some lapidary work, chiefly competitive carving. I remained entranced by the gemmy colors of my, retrospectively, meager collection of mineral specimens. Perhaps this led to my obtaining certification in diamond appraisal from the GIA, which I have never used.

All of this was put aside for years when my life completely revolved around my wife and children. During this time, I ceased field collecting, except on family trips, and was content with very casually expanding my collection from the local club show. This interlude took another couple of decades.

For all the concern that the Internet has diminished attendance at club shows, resulting in fewer young collectors, my experience has been quite the opposite. Although my age resulted in my missing the cut in the technology revolution, it was the Internet that re-ignited my love of minerals as I became exposed to the jaw-dropping beauty of superb mineral specimens from around the world. It became obvious that my casual approach had resulted in a very provincial knowledge and experience. I was hooked!

For the last 10 years or so, I have aggressively expanded my collection, guided more by a personal preference for spectacular color and brilliance, as well as some indefinable predilection, best termed "aesthetics", rather than any particular rarity or unique crystals. This is due mostly to ignorance, still never having taken a single course in the earth sciences. Fortunately, this results in a continuing fascination with all there is that I don't know and an endless opportunity to learn.

Now, nearly 60 years later, newly retired after 40 years of practice, the kids are gone (the wife is still here) and my collection has expanded past even the basement. So I started my business, Spectrum Minerals, named for my love of color. I continue to collect and learn, but now have added the thrill of setting up (which is really hard work!) at 4-5 shows a year plus manning the Website as well as my severely limited technological skills will allow.

So, my qualifications are simply that of a collector, much like you, and I offer cherry-picked mineral specimens which have caught my eye for reasons of dramatic color or other qualities derived from my vision of aesthetics. Beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder, but these are mineral specimens which I like, and I sincerely hope that you will like them too.

Take the time and visit their websites.
Thanks!