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GeneralHow do you find Rock Shops?

26th May 2008 15:33 UTCHoward Messing

I travel a lot for both business and pleasure. When I do, I like to try to visit mineral dealers who have a rock shop, but they are not always so easy to find. Reading tourist information, checking out phone books, and doing a Yahoo search don't always yield results. Most of those I have visited have been recommended by someone local, but they are far and few between.

How do you find them? Most of my travel is in the US, but a fair amount is international as well.

26th May 2008 17:50 UTCA. M.

I check yahoo yellow pages (or similar search site) and enter "gems", "rocks"' "minerals" or "lapidary" as the search criteria. Of course I won't be able to get all listings, but at least if I find one place, I have a chance to expand from there. Most the time, when I visit a shop and ask if they know of another one in the area, the people direct me.

hope that helps...

27th May 2008 09:11 UTCRay Hill Expert

Usually, I google the regional or national mineral societies and get local club contacts.then I email or phone that contact and ask them if they can guide me to any good local rock or mineral shops/and or dealers of repute, for when I plan to visit, then I contact the rock shop or mineral dealer in advance and they usually are thrilled to make contact with someone from "away" and sometimes are the local contact person with expertise for places to collect locally too and all these things mean that you will get a hearty welcome, or at least you will find out if anyone will be around when you are planning to be there...and this works for pretty well any where in the world, as long as they speak my language.

27th May 2008 10:21 UTCAnonymous User

The first place you should look is right here on mindat, being the Mindat Mineral and Gem Directory - the best source on the internet for all rock, mineral, gem and lapidary products and services. From top-quality collector minerals to gemstone beads, suppliers of all kinds of mineral and gem products can be located through the directory.

http://www.mindat.org/directory.php

29th May 2008 22:34 UTCGary Weinstein

There are listings and ads in the trade magazines. There is a coast to coast book which lists shops as well as dig sites. You can contact the local chamber of commerse in advance. And the other above advice is good. Best thing to do is visit the Philadelphia area and buy me out!:>)

31st May 2008 02:05 UTCJim Bean 🌟

534 rock shops for the western states listed here:

http://www.net-comber.com/rockshops.html

Another (admittedly) incomplete listing is here:

http://www.osomin.com/SHOP1.HTM

I'd recommend calling ahead as shop status may be obsolete or incorrect.

31st May 2008 03:38 UTCJustin Zzyzx Expert

There is no good website for rock shop listings.

Yeah, you heard me...I said it.

Jim Bean's suggestions are great, but super out of date.

Heck, I was listed as a rock shop on Osomin and I don't like the way you've been eyeing my personal collection...get off my lawn!

31st May 2008 06:00 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

i live in cleveland ohio a city of about 350,000 people and there are almost no rock shops... there is one shop i know of and they are old timers focused mainly on cabbing or faceting stuff and have very little in the way of minerals.

While a place may not have a website, doesnt no tmean its not worth checking out... if the people in the town do not know about it, there likely isnt a rock shop around. It would likely be ok to assume a mining town may have a shop nearby...but who knows. Ohio does not seem to have many!

4th Jun 2008 04:13 UTCLinda Smith

Going to Beijing in October. Anyone have any ideas how to locate mineral dealers?

19th Sep 2014 04:31 UTCWalter Streng

Just do an internet search under ROCK SHOPS for your area, The fact that it is a STORE will leave out internet only businesses. Put o in your location (city or state or country, whatever works, even zip code on some search engines). This is not a common category for a lot of search engines, but try GOODLE and BING, sure to find somethingif it is out there. NYC has only a couple, so a rock shop is not always so easy to find. Check out ROCK STAR CRYSTALS if you happen to be in NYC. One of the best anywhere. You might also want to check out Metaphysical Stores. At least they will have some things, like tumbled stones and pendulums.

19th Sep 2014 19:55 UTCMatt Ciranni

Agree with Zyzzx on this one. I've noticed that a lot of all-encompasing comprehensive "lists" of rock shops will include places that no longer exist, or have relocated, whereas other rock shops that do exist will NOT be included on the list. Rock Shops do come and go pretty regularlay and it's hard to keep up. For example I recently scanned a list of rock/mineral shops in my home town (Boise) and it included a mom and pop place that has been closed since 2005, while one of our 2 main rock and crystal shops on Fairview Avenue was not listed (and neither was the shop located in Adrian, Oregon right across the state line.)

There are also different kinds of rock shops. Some deal mainly in bulk lapidary materials, and/or focus more on that aspect of the hobby, whereas others focus more on crystals and minerals, and many of the latter have more of a holistic/new age view on mineralogy than most scientifically minded collectors. (But they usually do have good stuff anyway, of course)

19th Sep 2014 21:12 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

You can also search for mineral shops on the Strahlen.org map: http://www.strahlen.org/maps/

19th Sep 2014 21:18 UTCSpencer Ivan Mather

Just google "Rock, minerals and gem stone shops", that will bring up hundreds around the world..

Spencer

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