There's an interesting thing about collecting rocks/crystals....
And it's when you need to decide if the price is worth it for the rock.
Because like....if you end up in a tourist trap. Where all the visitors come to the state to shop when they're in town....things are going to be marked up as a bit more expensive. Because the tourists don't always know better.
They're buying the experience as well as the items really.
But then there's people like me....who go to gem fairs....where I know that I can get that $10 rock for $3. That $20 rock for $6.
And it then becomes a question of .... is the rock worth it for that price....when I know I could potentially get it at the next gem fair for a much better price.
And really....my decisions today mostly came down to availability.
Like. Are these rocks that I SEE at the Gem Fairs I visit at home? Yes or no?
If yes. Then less likely to go for them when they're at tourist prices.
If No? Then I'm more likely to go for it because even though I don't quite like the price and know that I could get it elsewhere for less.... I haven't recently SEEN them anywhere else for LESS to GET.
I visited two rock shops today.
One...had the entire store half off.
Which was great! Because it brought most of their products back down to Gem Fair prices and therefore meant that I felt more comfortable getting more rocks from them.
Even though I do tend to wonder when stores...even at the gem fairs...do their entire setups at Half Off or other such sells....if they marked the prices up before hand...so that the rocks are actually selling at their normal prices but because they increased the prices before starting the 'sale' everyone buys the products because they think they're getting a 'good' deal.
Hard to tell....Like yes I got the rocks for Gem Fair prices....and knowing that everyone needs to make a bit of a profit I can get having a bit of a mark up on their rocks. So I know in regular stores my typical $5 rock may be double if not triple that.
Plus who knows how tariffs are affecting prices. Like I noticed at the gem fair this past weekend that some items had increased in price a bit. So I'm sure tariffs are affecting things.
Regardless.
Got more rocks at the half off store, most of them stones I haven't seen in a while or had been looking for at the Gem Fair but didn't find this past weekend.
The other rock shop in the area was probably considered your more 'high end' one. Selling the fancy expensive jewelry...and charging $5 carvings at twice to 4 times the price.
So I was less inclined to buy things there...even though I saw a ton of carvings I hadn't seen before and wanted to get...the prices were high enough that I was like "maaaybe I'll wait and see if I could get them at the next gem fair."
But there were a couple of other stones that I'd been softly looking for but haven't seen.
One was brought up just last weekend when I briefly encountered a coworker at the Gem Fair and they mentioned that they'd been looking for "Desert Rose" but hadn't seen in and asked if I'd seen any.
And like I knew what the stone looked like. But hadn't actively seen it at the Gem Fair...
It didn't mean it wasn't there as it's a more raw stone and I tend to gloss over those as I prefer the more polished and carved stones.
But it did seem like it had been a while since I'd seen them at the Gem Fair.
But at this rock shop I found a whole box filled with them.
So of course I had to get a couple for my coworker as they weren't that pricey all things considered and it was something they'd been looking for.
The other is a stone I've been kinda softly keeping an eye out for but haven't really seen at the Gem Fairs recently either.
And that's Green Goldstone.
Which as a manmade stone....the manmade stones aren't always as popular at the fairs....
but Goldstone in particular...when it is around...tends to be in its base Orangish Goldstone shade.
Or occasionally in that purplyblueish stage.
Green Goldstone? Not so much.
And while the palmstone I was looking at was about twice the price as I thought it should be....I haven't SEEN it at the Gem Fairs recently and I don't know WHEN I'll see it again.
So again, even though I didn't like the price. I did want the stone. So I went through with it and bought the Green Goldstone.
Because it's one I haven't seen in a while and I wanted it.
So yah.
It's interesting....at what point is the price worth it?
At what point do you go "Yes it's more money than I want to spend but I NEED IT because I don't SEE it."
I mean the opposite happened at the first store in some ways...where I ended up getting doubles of a couple of stones when I may have only gotten one because the price was half off. So I could get 2 for the price of one really.
So yah. When do you buy? And when do you hang back?
It was an interesting dilemma for sure today that I face in those two rock shops.
Especially considering that most of my rock shopping has only been at the gem fairs for the past little bit.
Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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