Where to Buy Rough and Sell Slabs?

I should've added Quartzite as a source as we went there this year. I'm too lazy to go to shows or flea markets (in my civilian world before I retired, I ran international trade shows for a major Defense contractor. I've had all the shows I can handle!).

You can try ebay, but IMO the market for polished slabs is not on ebay. People there (mostly, in the lapidary rough ares; there are other in the specimen area)are buying material to cut. I know I will pay a tiny bit more for a polished slab because it is proven. But I am not going to display the slab and I will not pay anything near the value of the extra time you took to polish.)

You can try selling polished slabs in the section where people sell minerals and finished pieces. But do not have a sense of that market. It is either rough slabs or finished cabs. Not a lot of market in between. IMO.

Your very best bet is some small local shows or rock swaps (aka tailgate) where you can set out polished slabs and "the public" might buy them to display, and might pay more than lapidaries pay for rough slabs.

You should check out rough at Natures Treasures in Austin.

Take pics of the slabs you're selling. Post them on here for a week or so to give our members first crack at them. Post what doesn't sell in that time on ebay.

Yah... what's wrong with selling them here first??

I also would rather buy unpolished slabs to cab.

Absolutely nothing. I have noticed, however, that many people here sell FRBs at VERY low prices. While I do want to lower my inventory, I don't want to given them away which is near what many people here do. I feel that I have a lot of time especially, and money invested and that I should expect a fair price in return. What that price is, I'm unsure, but for example, a small flat rate box of 10 or more slabs for $20-30 including shipping is like giving it away. Speaking of which, I DO give some slabs away to friends and those I meet on forums who are looking for a particular type of slab. I also trade slabs for rough, although it's sometimes hard to figure out what's fair. I had a case recently where a friend sent me five nice pieces of rough and I sent him about 10 really nice slabs in return. I was very happy with what I got from him and he seemed to like what he got. As to apples to apples, I have no idea if the trade was "fair" but we both were satisfied.

I guess I like the eBay idea of selling in that you can sell for what the market will bear. Here, you have to assign a particular price to some volume of rocks rather than individual pieces, although there is nothing that stops you from doing that.

Looking back at what I wrote, it appears that I'm looking to do nothing more than make money and that isn't accurate. It's just that I was raised with the principle that if something has some kind of value, be willing to pay for it if that is what you want.

How about one side unpolished?

No the one unpolished side does not help. LOL.

My point was not that polished was any sort of problem, heck I pointed out that it had the benefit of proving the stone ability to take a polish. My point was about price. I don't want to pay for time it took to polish when I am going to trim up the slab and redo the polish. Only somebody planning to display the slab would pay for polish. I concede that the one-side-only polish does address any concerns about pit filling or resin treatments. (But I would actually pay more for good material that had small fractures treated with a good quality resin - saves me the step. I am not resin phobic.)

If you want to sell the polished slabs in the lapidary materials section for just a hair above what similar unpolished slabs are selling for, you might have an edge. But you are then selling material, not your time. That mostly goes out the window.

I just went an looked, and there is an ebay section called "Display Specimens" under "Crystals & Minerals" under "Collectables, Rocks & Fossils". You should list the better ones there. I see many in that section are cross-listed in lapidary materials too. Keep in mind you will be competing with slabs that were chosen for polish because they were better than average.



You mentioned that many of the slabs were of average quality. For this I infer you polished them as part of you hobby, and they had extra meaning to you because you had cut them. I further infer that someones polishing material to sell at a show would have chose to spend their time polishing a more exceptional (i.e., more sale-able) slabs.

You might pick out some of the nicer ones, the ones that someone other than the slabber might want to display. These might do OK on ebay in the section I mentioned. But, it seems to be these are the very ones you would most likely want to keep.

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I do agree that many sales here just try to recoop cost and do not consider time. Members giving other members deals, hobbyists (who do not have to recoop their time) unloading material ... etc. I think this is why listing here is free, because it is seen as a win-win benefit to all. It is also why someone coming here just to sell, and trying to get full retail is often called out as a jerk.

You might list things here for about 10% less than what you would list them for on ebay. This passes on the ebay fee difference to members as a nice gesture. If they don't sell, because the market here for polished average slabs is small, then move them to ebay. You will already have the pics taken.

The bottom line is that you have polished a lot of material that ordinarily would not have been polished, or which could have been polished overseas for pennies. Now you want to sell not only the material but a fair price for you time. In that regard, except for the occasional lucky sale, I think you are screwed. There is no business model sense to what you want to accomplish. Get what you can for the nicer ones you do not want to keep, sell the rest cheap now, (or your estate can sell it even cheaper in the future.)

I agree with you about sharing and I do it myself on occasion. However, if one desires to profit from the sale of "X", this forum is generally not the place to do it. I don't think the forum is designed for that although there are some that do. I'm a rank hobbyist and do this to please myself and my family. Others here do this for a business or are much more professional about it than I am. Good for them and I support what they do. AND I have no problem with that. As I mentioned earlier, if anyone wants something from me, I'm always willing to help. Many times I do it for free, including shipping. Other times it is a routine trade. I don't plan to use this forum as a place to sell for profit. I'm still in the learning process about this hobby and have a LOOOOONG way to go before I understand even 1/2 of what may of you do. So until then, I will just rely of you folks to make suggestions and recommendations about what I should and shouldn't do.

Does that clear things up?