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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 15, 2018 19:26:45 GMT -5
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 15, 2018 19:39:33 GMT -5
I have to decide tomorrow how many of these 8" x 9" pudding stone slabs to buy at $45 each. Tough call. I have hundreds of these slabs but none this big and not many are this quality. Tommy rockjunquie fair price? When I added all the prices on each of the slabs that one rock will bring in over $500 Chuck
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Post by rockjunquie on Sept 15, 2018 19:51:30 GMT -5
Beautiful set up with lots of variety and well displayed! How did you do? Your son is your spitting image! My son finally moved out- he's only 40. LOL! Seriously, he was a lot of help to me, too. But, it's good to see him move on. The grandkids are here for only a short while longer. Then I'm home alone again and I'll be lovin' every minute. Seems like it's a no brainer to buy the slab or slabs with that much in return. You have such a good market for it. I think those are fair prices- they are big slabs. What if you buy several- think you can get a break?
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 15, 2018 20:33:25 GMT -5
Beautiful set up with lots of variety and well displayed! How did you do? Your son is your spitting image! My son finally moved out- he's only 40. LOL! Seriously, he was a lot of help to me, too. But, it's good to see him move on. The grandkids are here for only a short while longer. Then I'm home alone again and I'll be lovin' every minute. Seems like it's a no brainer to buy the slab or slabs with that much in return. You have such a good market for it. I think those are fair prices- they are big slabs. What if you buy several- think you can get a break? We did really good today. It may have been our best one day total ever. It is really funny to see how trends change from show to show and from year to year at the same show. It seems like there are times when zero cabs sell or very little jewelry but today cabs were moving and jewelry too. My tumbles are the only constant. I can always count of those to sell. I took that picture early in the day and did not have a chance to see how many were left at the end. I'll check back tomorrow. I know the seller from previous years and he has a pretty dry personality and is hard to bargain with but I might try to get him down on a couple. Chuck
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Post by wigglinrocks on Sept 15, 2018 22:22:15 GMT -5
Nice set up . Really like the pendant display rack .
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Post by Jugglerguy on Sept 15, 2018 22:31:00 GMT -5
Wow, Andrew has grown since I saw him. Your set up always looks really neat and professional. I’m glad your day went well.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,651
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Post by Tommy on Sept 15, 2018 22:57:38 GMT -5
I have to decide tomorrow how many of these 8" x 9" pudding stone slabs to buy at $45 each. Tough call. I have hundreds of these slabs but none this big and not many are this quality. Tommy rockjunquie fair price? Wow nice setup Chuck! thanks for the behind the curtain glimpse. Your son is definitely a chip off the ole block and I'm sure you are proud as I would be. Regarding value and a fair price - I have a mindset and a system that doesn't appeal to everyone and might not be highly popular here but it is what it is. My primary job at the moment is making cabochons and that won't change until I get a real job again. First of all I *never* buy display slabs - every single slab I buy is bought for cutting it up into cabochons. From that stand point it becomes an experience/math equation - I first make a quick assessment of the stability of the slab letting experience guide me on how the material typically holds up unless it's something new. Next I'm running my fat thumb around the slab placing it on every "sweet spot" and counting how many cabochons I think it will yield. From there it's simple math - how many cabs do I think the slab will yield and how much do I believe I can sell them for eventually. I don't really factor in how much of the material I already have because I'm thinking long term - I will finish the slab eventually. Looking at the picture of pudding stone slabs - using only the top center slab as an example - the lower left area us fairly devoid of the signature red blotches but from the rest of the slab I would conservatively estimate I could produce at least 12 large cabochons from that slab. You have a lot more insight into how much a pudding stone cab will bring but lets use $30 as an example price - potential yield $360 from just that one slab. I do this quickly and then decide whether to buy it or not - in this case that's a great potential return and it's a no-brainer. In a situation like this I tend to only buy one though because, A) I get bored of working on the same material for very long, and B) if I did buy four of the slabs and could produce 48 cabs I would seriously flood my own market and pretty soon the price of my glut of cabs is down to $20 and so on. So yes, based on my unscientific approach I would not hesitate to shell out $45 on that slab because I know I'm going to make a killing on it - but I would probably only buy one for the reasons I outlined.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 16, 2018 7:06:39 GMT -5
Wow, Andrew has grown since I saw him. Your set up always looks really neat and professional. I’m glad your day went well. Here's the picture you took of us last year for comparison. Crazy growth spurt. Chuck
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Post by fernwood on Sept 16, 2018 7:22:29 GMT -5
Nice display. Glad you did well.
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surreality
starting to spend too much on rocks
is picking up too many rocks at the beach again
Member since January 2012
Posts: 217
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Post by surreality on Sept 16, 2018 7:47:32 GMT -5
This looks really great! And the pieces are absolutely fantastic.
I started out doing shows with my mother going back to before I was a teenager, so this made me smile a whole lot. We've been at it so long she handed it off to me a few years ago when she retired (other than our home show), and we had to train my husband to take over as helper. (We gave him a few years head start before she retired.) Best advice here: find a friend who is willing to pitch in to help for a good dinner somewhere over the course of the show or on setup or breakdown day (if it's a multi-day show) when the time comes, if you can't wrestle the kids home to help. We've had surprisingly good luck with that over the years, and it's what my mother did while I was away at college.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 16, 2018 19:09:31 GMT -5
Thanks everyone. Day two was a little slower but a great two day total. Padding the hobby budget is always nice but doing these shows is really just a fun couple days of talking about rocks to people that actual listen and care. It is like RTH live version.
Chuck
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Sept 17, 2018 16:00:48 GMT -5
Nice to see happy Dad and son. The booth stuff is cool too, but I am a family guy and that is cool!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 17, 2018 16:07:34 GMT -5
Nice to see happy Dad and son. The booth stuff is cool too, but I am a family guy and that is cool! Thanks Scott. I should mention that I would not be surprised at all if my sales are twice as much just due to the fact that my kids have always been tat my shows and they know enough about rocks to talk to customers. The older generation love seeing a kid that is interested in rocks. Chuck
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Post by miket on Sept 17, 2018 16:14:50 GMT -5
Very nice display! My son (who is 28) is actually the one who got me hooked into this, he just started this year and now we're full-blown addicts! My grandson (3 years old) likes going out, too, and spending time with them is very important to me. Especially at my ripe old age Anyway, great rocks, great display. Glad you did well!
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Post by HankRocks on Sept 17, 2018 18:19:52 GMT -5
Nice to see happy Dad and son. The booth stuff is cool too, but I am a family guy and that is cool! Thanks Scott. I should mention that I would not be surprised at all if my sales are twice as much just due to the fact that my kids have always been tat my shows and they know enough about rocks to talk to customers. The older generation love seeing a kid that is interested in rocks. Chuck Ditto on the Father Son effort, quality time for sure. Can't put a price on that. It does point out another important factor. If you are going to sell in person at a Show, bring some enthusiasm to the game. Seen way too many Vendors who just don't seem interested, "why are you bothering me", "just buy something or move on". If you don't enjoy the experience, why are you there, go sell online. Whenever I see anyone who is showing interest in any of my material, I turn on the "how are doing", "enjoying the Show", Yes I collected cut and polished all of these" . Engage that potential customer. I can tell by your displays, and by your responses here that you would be someone I would like to talk too and more than likely buy something. Good job!!
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goatgrinder
spending too much on rocks
Make mine a man cave
Member since January 2017
Posts: 368
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Post by goatgrinder on Sept 17, 2018 19:15:46 GMT -5
What show, and those petoski's look fabulous. Congratulations and make a pile of money.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Sept 17, 2018 19:39:01 GMT -5
What show, and those petoski's look fabulous. Congratulations and make a pile of money. Thanks. I was waiting for someone to comment on the Petoskey stones. Iv'e been working on those nonstop for a really long time. The show was the 2018 rockhounds dreamshow in Hartland Michigan. It is hosted by the Livingston county gem and mineral society. The show is held in a community center gymnasium but their lapidary shop is also at that location. It is the premier public lapidary shop in the state. I sure wish it were not an hour away. Chuck
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