Welcome to the forum on Specimen Valuation which was formerly called Money Grubbers. On other forums we do not discuss how much a specimen might be worth, but here we can discuss to our hearts content just how much something costs, or our estimated values of things. Many people in the Mindat community feel that there is something a little unsavory about discussing values and financial matters on Mindat. Most societies realize that there are seamy and not so noble components to our personalities and create escape valves for these non-noble impulses. In many societies this takes the form of so called Red Light Districts. At any rate, here we can indulge in the flesh pots of commerce and discuss freely the cost and value of specimens. .
Keep in mind that the values placed on specimens and other related objects here are strictly the opinion of those contributing to the bulletin board and in no way reflect any opinion in the matter by Mindat in general. Also keep in mind that it is difficult and sometimes impossible to assess the value of a specimen only from a photograph. It is often difficult to see or properly assess damage from a photograph. Also colors have a strange way of morphing and changing when taking a picture and uploading it to a website and then viewing it on a monitor with God only knows what settings.
If you want the people here (many of them are very knowledgeable) to give their opinion on what your specimen may be worth, you must attach a photo of the specimen to your post. The image must be sharp and not blurry. If there is any doubt about this, send the image first to yourself to make sure the specimen is in focus. Also please do not make your specimen wet with water or oil when taking the photograph. Also please take the picture in direct sunlight. This will ensure true colors that will usually be better than the colors that can be had if you take the picture with other types of illumination like a tungsten light bulb. Often so much of a specimens value is in its color. Also, please make sure that the entire specimen is included in the image, not just a close up of a part of it. Please keep in mind that among knowledgeable collectors and dealers there can be a considerable difference in the value estimates of the same specimen. The values differences can be as much or more than a factor of ten. I doubt that there is not one knowledgeable collector or dealer who has been off on occasion by a factor of ten when looking at the price tag and making a mistake in the number of zeros in the price.
Also it will help if you give us an idea of what kind of valuation you might want. Do you want a wholesale price, one at which the specimen is likely to sell quickly or a retail price which would represent about the maximum that a collector might pay for it or which one might use for tax write off purposes. Also keep in mind that every auction has examples where two or more collectors get in a bidding war over a specimen and the specimen will sell for many times the estimated price. In recent mineral auctions, very few specimens have sold for more than the estimated price range, and that in most cases they sell for twenty percent less than the estimated price range or do not sell at all. And that the price you receive at an auction sale will usually be about 25% less than the hammer price.
We find that not a few people come here asking for the price of gem materials, sometimes cut and polished stones. This is a mineralogical web site and our members know a lot about specimen and only a few are expert in cut and polished materials, though we do have some. So keep in mind that when we give a value on gemstones and gem materials, it is mostly from the viewpoint of its value as a specimen and not a lot of consideration is given to its gem value. If you wish an estimate of a minerals gem value you can get it here but we strongly advise you search elsewhere for it. Gem values go not easily translate into specimen value. A sister site called Gemdat may soon have a forum where you may be able to get more reliable values for gemstones.
Rock Currier
Crystals not Pistols
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2013 11:02PM by Rock Currier.
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