Mark K
Cave Dweller 
Member since April 2012
Posts: 2,818 
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Post by Mark K on Oct 15, 2024 22:27:36 GMT -5
Some of us are in the fortunate situation where we never run out of rough. Happily I am one of those people. I get plenty of scraps from cutting and get a lot by going on trips and finding and even sometimes buying stuff. My question is whether there are a lot of people who can't make their own tumbling rough and if you all think it is worth my time to sell off some of the vast amount of tumbling rough I have piling up? At the rock show recently, there were only a few people who showed any interest in the tub of rough that I had out for sale. The majority of those who were dug out specific rocks that were special to them. No one bought more than a couple pounds.
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Post by vegasjames on Oct 15, 2024 23:30:41 GMT -5
I have had 3 sales for rough on here, 2 for mixed rough and one for candy rhyolite, in the last month. Been running a lot through the cement mixer to clean up the rough and smooth it out some. which also lets me check easier for pits, etc. When they look ready for a smaller tumbler barrel, I pull those stones, rinse them and put them in a bag ready to go.
Just picked up a bunch of Wonderstone and quartz (smokey, blue, amethyst and some white) to add to my tumbling mix. May be getting others in a few days depending on the weather.
Bottom line though is yes, there are people who want different stones for tumbling.
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mdjunkie
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since November 2023
Posts: 81
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Post by mdjunkie on Oct 16, 2024 0:23:36 GMT -5
As someone who is newer to the hobby, you guys have sold a lot of materials us newer people aren't as blessed as you guys to see much of, or very often.
So far, I have made a couple of purchases off of the marketplace pages and have been happy with what I've received. And, I would be willing to purchase more depending on what I might think would be interesting to tumble or to get for cutting (no saw yet, but in the works). I am sure there are others who feel the same, right?
Thanks,
Mike
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Post by chris1956 on Oct 16, 2024 8:42:27 GMT -5
The first couple years that I tumbled rocks, it was all material that I had gathered myself. I am happy with this but it does limit the different types of mateial I can tumble. For the last year or so, I have been dabbling in some of the offereings made by different forum members to try different materials and see what I like. I think I have only orded tumbling rough from compainies twice when I had very specific material that I wanted to tumble and give to family members. I really like getting material from forum members. Why? It gives me an opportunity to sample a wide range of material at a relatively low cost. Much of the material recently offered on the forum is in the $2 to $3 a pound range with many offerers paying for shipping. Much better than what most companies that are now charging and you often have to pay shipping. Plus it gives the sellers an opportunity as Mark K noted, to unload some of the material that they have a lot of. I don't mind that some of the offereings are from members that have commercial operations. They seem to be offereing good discounts to forum members and that is important and very appreciated. I have purchased from the forum probably 5 or 6 times. I have only been mildly disappointed once, and that was because material was advertised as cutting material, but most was probably closer to tumbling size. This was ok as it still gave me an opportunity to see the material from start to polish and there were some spectacular pieces. So yes, Mark, keep selling. I am wondering if part of the reason at a show (I don't know how big the show was) is that people don't want to carry around a lot of tumbling material around the show? The only recent shows I have attended have been in Kansas City. I don't recall hardly anyone selling tumbling material. This may have to do with a high cost of booth space at larger shows and not being able to make your money back on just tumbling material. I know I wouldn't want to pick up 10 pounds of material and carry it back to the car (usually a good hike where they have the KC show). Chris |
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