ThomasT
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2022
Posts: 616
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Post by ThomasT on Mar 19, 2024 20:19:08 GMT -5
@hefty , you may consider that the beauty of the stone in your creations mustn't necessarily come from some provenance name of a type of stone... you can sometimes find and work very beautiful stones at very low dollar bill production costs and the buyer will appreciate the beauty of the piece without some storied name.
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rockbrain
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2022
Posts: 3,172
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Post by rockbrain on Mar 19, 2024 22:04:22 GMT -5
I really need to order another +$100 bucket of oil. When it gets here I would also give a considerably lower price for slabs for anyone who wanted to muck out my saw.  |
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Post by MsAli on Mar 20, 2024 7:38:25 GMT -5
I really need to order another +$100 bucket of oil. When it gets here I would also give a considerably lower price for slabs for anyone who wanted to muck out my saw.  Then they can come do ours  |
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Post by chris1956 on Mar 20, 2024 8:47:06 GMT -5
I really need to order another +$100 bucket of oil. When it gets here I would also give a considerably lower price for slabs for anyone who wanted to muck out my saw. Didn't you get one of those oil cleaner things? Or is that somebody else I am thinking about?  |
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rockbrain
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2022
Posts: 3,172
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Post by rockbrain on Mar 20, 2024 8:53:33 GMT -5
The Everclean was someone else. I'm wishing I had one.
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Post by chris1956 on Mar 20, 2024 8:56:31 GMT -5
The Everclean was someone else. I'm wishing I had one. Me too. |
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dshanpnw
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2020
Posts: 1,158
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Post by dshanpnw on Mar 20, 2024 9:03:44 GMT -5
Sometimes I think slab prices are way over priced too. I'm really glad to hear what everyone else has to say. Does a seller's prices come down if they really need the money or do they keep their prices high if it really doesn't matter to them if it sells or not? I haven't bought any slabs online yet, but I window shop on FB and Etsy almost everyday. So far I have only bought at shows and I look for the dealer with the lowest prices. I'm still pretty new to cabbing, slabbing, and buying slabs and I haven't sold anything yet. I don't have enough of anything to start selling. Keep those saws clean.
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herb
spending too much on rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 475
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Post by herb on Mar 20, 2024 10:28:28 GMT -5
Fine, don't drop the price. But how much do you add to the price for slabbing it up? Let's say a $100 rock and you make 5 slabs. $40 per slab? That's probably a dollar a minute for almost zero effort. 40 a slab sounds kind of high, but there are costs other than time to consider. Depending on the size of the saw, a replacement blade can be hundreds of dollars. If all goes well you can spread that cost over alot of slabs, but the rough could also slip and trash your blade. There are other long term costs as well for things like bearings, clutches, motors, threaded rods, belts, etc. Not to mention the original cost of the saw which can be 500 to several thousand dollars. Also not all rough is created equal. You might get 5 nice slabs out of one piece of $100 rough, but the next piece of $100 rough could fall apart, have soft/unusable parts, or just not have a nice pattern (like a picture jasper with large areas of no picture) |
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ThomasT
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2022
Posts: 616
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Post by ThomasT on Mar 20, 2024 10:40:39 GMT -5
The Everclean on our 24" HP saves us a lot of time and oil. We dump the oil out of the smaller saws in there and recycle it too.
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Post by catmandewe on Mar 20, 2024 11:40:53 GMT -5
I have bulk slabs for $15 a pound and bulk slabs for $6 a lb. They all come from old estates and the price difference is the difference in cost for me to acquire them.
If I cut my own slabs from rough, I figure out the cost per pound in rough, slab it all up and weigh the slabs and double the cost. It works out fair because I lose 1/4 to 1/3 the weight into the oil sludge and the rest is time and cutting cost.
Willow Creek comes out to $40 per pound in slab form, it makes it a hard sell but it is what it is.
Namibian Pietersite works out to 80 cents per gram for slabs. Lots of people say that is too expensive, but I really cant sell it for less unless I want to lose money.
Tony
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Post by roy on Mar 20, 2024 11:43:00 GMT -5
I feel like there was a thread about this pretty recently but I couldn't find it, well there's probably a few of them. Anyway I just wanted to vent more about slab prices. Seems like $50 is average these days, which makes me wonder why the heck? Are people buying slab saws and planning their retirement through them? I don't understand how clamping a rock in a vise and pressing a button deserves doubling the value? I'm genuinely curious. If you're a slab seller - what markup do you shoot for? 100%? I get it, there's shipping, time spent shopping at shows, time spent running the saw, dud investments. But holy cow if you're making a living off slabbing, how does anyone down the line make a living? I feel like the cabber or end-stage artist is investing the most time in the whole process from quarry to jewelry, yet I feel like they have the tightest margins. If I charge minimum wage for the time invested in a set cabochon, it'd be hundreds of dollars. Obviously there's no market for that. Not to mention the room full of equipment that I need to invest in that is probably more expensive than the slab saw. Maybe I'm wrong, but I guess I just wish slab sellers were a little more honest or humble about what it cost them. its really based o the cost of the material you also have to take into account on dead loss meaning thin blade you loose a slab every 4-5 cuts then i mark up usally about 45-50% some stuff i list in my auctions are below my cost even |
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,723 
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 20, 2024 12:03:12 GMT -5
I usually sell at $8 - $12 a slab with common material, the material that I think isn't worth my time, I sell by the pound with slabs. (great for tumbling or other projects).. My material that's harder to find, I'll trade with my hounding buddies for something I want, no cash involved and we are both happy..
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realrockhound
Cave Dweller
Chucking leaverite at tweekers
Member since June 2020
Posts: 4,495
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Post by realrockhound on Mar 20, 2024 13:53:46 GMT -5
I usually sell at $8 - $12 a slab with common material, the material that I think isn't worth my time, I sell by the pound with slabs. (great for tumbling or other projects).. My material that's harder to find, I'll trade with my hounding buddies for something I want, no cash involved and we are both happy.. That last part. Same!! I like me some trading. |
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rockbrain
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2022
Posts: 3,172
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Post by rockbrain on Mar 20, 2024 14:39:16 GMT -5
Fine, don't drop the price. But how much do you add to the price for slabbing it up? Let's say a $100 rock and you make 5 slabs. $40 per slab? That's probably a dollar a minute for almost zero effort. 40 a slab sounds kind of high, but there are costs other than time to consider. Depending on the size of the saw, a replacement blade can be hundreds of dollars. If all goes well you can spread that cost over alot of slabs, but the rough could also slip and trash your blade. There are other long term costs as well for things like bearings, clutches, motors, threaded rods, belts, etc. Not to mention the original cost of the saw which can be 500 to several thousand dollars. Also not all rough is created equal. You might get 5 nice slabs out of one piece of $100 rough, but the next piece of $100 rough could fall apart, have soft/unusable parts, or just not have a nice pattern (like a picture jasper with large areas of no picture) Plus the real estate that your saw takes up. I don't want to figure all my cost. I bought a 4x4 for hounding, drove almost 600 miles to Burro Creek...... |
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Mark K
Cave Dweller
Member since April 2012
Posts: 2,818
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Post by Mark K on Mar 20, 2024 14:53:59 GMT -5
...and hit the jackpot.
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Post by miket on Mar 20, 2024 20:01:29 GMT -5
I buy slabs for different reasons.
I might just like the material, I may have been inspired by a cab on here, or whatever.
The way I see it, though, is say I spend $30 on a slab that I can make 3 pendants out of and sell each pendant for $60 each then I did ok.
I mostly just do it because I enjoy it, selling my wrapped pendants is just a bonus.
😁
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 494
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Post by hplcman on Apr 1, 2024 16:48:50 GMT -5
I wonder about some of this. I have read plenty of accounts of some pretty rocks being found somewhere and people are excited about it until someone comes along with a backhoe and removes all of it. It seems like that is a bit of a common theme. I don't know how I feel about that. I guess if someone owns the land or has mineral rights or a claim or something that's fine and makes sense. But sometimes the impression I get is it's a public space and someone just robs it blind. I don't know a lot about how any of that works, but it seems strange and sad to me, and I wonder how that affects the cost of some slabs?
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 1, 2024 18:26:24 GMT -5
Also keep in mind the cost of traveling to obtain the material if not purchasing rough from a dealer. That is time, and with the cost of gas these days this has to be factored in.
Even rough from dealers is going to go up as fuel prices increase as it costs them more to ship.
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realrockhound
Cave Dweller
Chucking leaverite at tweekers
Member since June 2020
Posts: 4,495
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Post by realrockhound on Apr 1, 2024 19:31:50 GMT -5
I wonder about some of this. I have read plenty of accounts of some pretty rocks being found somewhere and people are excited about it until someone comes along with a backhoe and removes all of it. It seems like that is a bit of a common theme. I don't know how I feel about that. I guess if someone owns the land or has mineral rights or a claim or something that's fine and makes sense. But sometimes the impression I get is it's a public space and someone just robs it blind. I don't know a lot about how any of that works, but it seems strange and sad to me, and I wonder how that affects the cost of some slabs? Have personally experienced this. Too many damn people now days just out to make a profit. No love for the material itself. |
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ThomasT
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2022
Posts: 616
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Post by ThomasT on Apr 1, 2024 19:59:33 GMT -5
The millions of years old rock from the ground is there to have, once you own the title or the mineral rights... all rock, minerals and metal ore.
Property cost and property taxes and extraction costs are part of the equation... the demand for the extracted material sets the value.
For example, Rubies are valuable... beyond the known extraction costs.
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