sources of unusual starting material for tumbling?

You don't have where you live on your profile, so I can't suggest anything specific, but nearly all of my best materials have come from 3 basic sources-

1) members here, many are willing to do trades or sell FRBs (flat rate boxes) full of good stuff at very reasonable prices.

2) select rock shops, there are a handful within a couple hour's of the SF Bay area, and several more I always make a point of visiting when I do longer road trips, I'm a bit reluctant to buy online, I much prefer to see it touch it and feel it before I fork over my hard earned cash- not saying there aren't good places to buy stuff online, just that you are always taking something of a chance.

3) club meets/pow-wow's and gem shows, I lump them all together because you usually come across a lot of the same characters at any of these, the biggies are in the January and February down where Nevada, Arizona and California come together, (Laughlin and Quartzite, then of course Tucson) but I expect nearly everywhere in the country you can find a couple of these type of events closer to home.

African materials are always going to be pricey,with the best material being high-graded and gathered up by folks who can afford to pay the prices, while lots of domestic stuff is really nice and not so expensive, and some of it can be quite exotic in its own right.

I'd suggest starting out in the buy sell swap forum here, also check the shows and trips board, and if there is something specific you are looking for, post and see if anyone here can help you out.

Oh and you can't go too wrong getting stuff from our more reliable online outlets too, for example- the Rock Shed seems to have a lot of happy customers here, but I'd encourage you to take some time and do some research here before shopping online for rough.

For me, none of these beat a field trip to a good collecting site, nothing quite like finding the rough in its native habitat and selecting the pieces that catch your fancy in the wild, but that is a whole other side to the hobby that might not appeal to everyone as much as it does to me.

try some of the crushed rock at therockshed.com - including brecciated african and sometimes a picture jasper. there are some interesting roughs at gemcenterusa.com, and if you spend $100 there is no shipping.

also, what you do get from DeltaRockGallery will be good quality. Kim has a full time day job and family. If email has been slow, look elsewhere, but don;t be afraid to go back.

Welcome to the forum EJS,
The Buy and Sell Swap shop section has some great rock at great prices; The members have been very generous to me anyway...I'm sure each one will treat you right.

A couple of particular sources (from this forum)
You could try banjocreek at www.banjocreek.com He has material on his website and more available if you can describe what you might like( like maybe a color or pattern).

Another great source in the buy and swap scetion is desertdweller, killer material and she just bought out an old collection of impossible to get rocks

I've bought pet wood from tom (phoenix1647), real nice

csroc

You could also look for batches that Don/rollingstone has done. He not only gets the best shine, he has often done batches of a single stone, and good stones too.

forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/index.cgi?board=trtphoto&action=display&thread=21974

The above link is Ocean Jasper, but I think he has done Poppy Jasper and some others.

Generally you might consider Ohio Flint, Polish FLint, Ocean Jasper, Poppy Jasper, Maury Mt Moss Agate, African Queen Pic Jasper, Dendritic Opalite form Australia, Apache Tears, Mahagony Obsidian, African Butter Jade, Amythest Lace Agate ...

I just bought a 50 year old collection that has several tons of material.
If you let me know what you are looking for I can make you a great deal.

This offer is also open to any interested RTH members, I will be posting photos in a couple of weeks when I start moving it to Idaho.

Have a rockin day................Tony