Estate Sale Finds (oh yeah, kinda long w/ pics)
Jan 10, 2015 15:23:39 GMT -5
Fossilman, Pat, and 6 more like this
Post by captbob on Jan 10, 2015 15:23:39 GMT -5
My Saturday morning adventure -
Keith, kap was kind enough to post a thread in the Buy/Sell section of the forum pointing out an estate sale to be held in my area with the following as part of the craigslist ad - "and for the rock hounds buckets of crystals, geodes, coral from all over the country,". The sale was for a household items and clothing for a recently deceased relative - who happened to collect mineral specimens.
That was enough to get my attention. Sale was about 20 miles north of me, so why the heck not go. Being a Floridian, the fact that the temperature was in the 50s might be a reason, but not quite good enough. I had 3 layers on this morning to head up there! The older lady of the couple holding the sale was dressed for the ski slopes of any mountain resort. (I was kinda jealous)
Well, there were buckets - 10ish - of corals and Florida calcites. Nothing I would consider bringing home.
Buckets of nice sized Florida calcites, probably from the LeCanto area a bit north of Tampa. And, looking like some pretty good keepers -at one time. *sigh* All the pieces in these buckets stacked one on top of another. Completely Ruined!! (well, someone not having my collection might have liked them)
I'm a big Florida calcite collector... Broke my heart.
Had to be another 5+ buckets of Florida coral. All crap. Wouldn't spread that stuff around plants in my yard.
Might have been a piece or two worth having at the bottom of some of the buckets, but by that time, my hands were too cold to dig past half way in each bucket to find out.
Let me back up to my first arriving to the sale...
I walk up in the yard and the older guy (my new soon to be shadow) and I greeted each other. We each bit¢h about the cold temps for a sufficient amount of time and then I say that I saw his ad on craigslist and was interested in seeing what mineral specimens he may have.
He heads me in the right direction - which was kinda obvious due to all the buckets and Tupperware type bins of rocks on a table.
I was immediately attracted to a large, fair grade of agatized coral. Maybe the size of a cantaloupe. Remember the "fair grade" part. So I comment on the piece and he says something along the lines of "we had a geologist come look all this over and he said this piece is worth a hundred bucks". Geologist my butt! But, I simply told him that it was a nice piece and moved on down the table.
I CAN be nice (civil) - it's not my nature, but I have my moments.
Well, from there I quickly scan the bins on the table and take note of some items of interest, but head straight to the buckets. As I said, that was a huge waste of time, but it allowed me to get acquainted with my new BFF. (He collects trains. Which, I probably would have really enjoyed seeing were the sale at his house. Maybe, his house would have been heated!
I spent quite a bit of time searching the buckets, still hopeful of wonderful finds within. It was not to be.
Lots of small talk and chit chat during this time (and hand rubbing to try to warm them up enough to function). We Floridians don't do well below 60°. Kinda like reptiles. But, we can run circles around puddles of melted Yankees on the sidewalk on a hot summer day - so it kinda evens out.
There was NO ONE else at the sale this whole time. Probably closing on an hour I had been there so far. I did suggest the gentleman go inside and warm up and I would let him know when I needed him, but he seemed to want to stick around. I'm not sure if it was his interest in my engaging conversation (on how darn cold it was) or that he thought I was going to make 30 trips back and forth to my truck with all his buckets and bins of mineralogical delights. I'm hoping it was my witty banter.
Back at the table, I started to browse through the bins and boxes and began pulling items out to place aside in "my pile". He got a bit more involved at that point. Maybe the temperature had soared to 55° and he was thawing out a bit?
So, over the course of another 45 minutes to an hour, I managed to go through everything and then go back with slightly lower standards and review it all again. I believe he was really getting fond of my company by that point. All in all, about two hours and I wad ready to go with my little pile, okay 3 Tupperware bins, of stuff.
I asked what he thought ...... OH, I forgot something. At the start of my visit, (I think this was right after I laughed out loud when he said the piece of agatized coral was $100) he had said that he was not going to give this stuff away, because "he could get a $5,000 tax deduction if he were to donate it to a local university"! Gotta admit that brought a smile to my face when he said that. Gotta give him credit for trying.
Anyway, I asked for a price on my pile. To which he replied, "I guess one fifty would be okay". I smiled and told him that would be fine and thank you very much. With a quick scan back over the table, I said let me see if I can bump it up to $200 here real quick. He smiled. So, I added the biggish geode and a couple more pieces of crap pet wood to the bins and handed him a pair of Franklins. I thought he might hug me.
Overall, I am glad that I set my alarm clock for the first time in over a year and was awake for a sunrise without having stayed up through the night to see it. Coulda been warmer...
The booty... ('bout freakin' time huh?) Have no clue what a few things here are, but thought they needed to be saved.
The take it to $200 geode, some amazonite I'm thinkin' and the pink thing may be a calcite(?) no clue on the orange with black thingies in it is.
a stalagmite thing, some rough obsidian, a chunk of youngite, a calcite and an idonno bt. rt.
some corals (not from the buckets) and sand calcite things
galena & pyrites
worm wood, a septarian, more wood & stuff (I'm getting tired of typing)
more stuff - what's the round disc looking thing? The black slabblet has an Alaskan sequoia pet wood tag (?)
calcites top, copper bottom, piece of rhodochrosite, bottom left pink thing - tag says Cinnabar
malachite/azurite, calcite, wood, pretty sure the green is amazonite
stuff - youngite again - is top left another youngite? I dunno...
repeats
this I honestly don't know. green pieces all through the rock grey/black parts of rock shiny
That seashell stuff - don't remember the name, begins with a T
a pic of some of the Dallasite from bcrockhound that I'm working on - just cuz it was on the camera already.
That's it.
oh... I forgot to mention that while I was there, the sale guy said that the Largo Rock & Gem show was also today. Damn... So I went there too. Got some rough & slabs. Small show, with people overly proud of their rocks. But, the show was heated!
Thanks again Keith!
I needa nap...
Keith, kap was kind enough to post a thread in the Buy/Sell section of the forum pointing out an estate sale to be held in my area with the following as part of the craigslist ad - "and for the rock hounds buckets of crystals, geodes, coral from all over the country,". The sale was for a household items and clothing for a recently deceased relative - who happened to collect mineral specimens.
That was enough to get my attention. Sale was about 20 miles north of me, so why the heck not go. Being a Floridian, the fact that the temperature was in the 50s might be a reason, but not quite good enough. I had 3 layers on this morning to head up there! The older lady of the couple holding the sale was dressed for the ski slopes of any mountain resort. (I was kinda jealous)
Well, there were buckets - 10ish - of corals and Florida calcites. Nothing I would consider bringing home.
Buckets of nice sized Florida calcites, probably from the LeCanto area a bit north of Tampa. And, looking like some pretty good keepers -at one time. *sigh* All the pieces in these buckets stacked one on top of another. Completely Ruined!! (well, someone not having my collection might have liked them)
I'm a big Florida calcite collector... Broke my heart.
Had to be another 5+ buckets of Florida coral. All crap. Wouldn't spread that stuff around plants in my yard.
Might have been a piece or two worth having at the bottom of some of the buckets, but by that time, my hands were too cold to dig past half way in each bucket to find out.
Let me back up to my first arriving to the sale...
I walk up in the yard and the older guy (my new soon to be shadow) and I greeted each other. We each bit¢h about the cold temps for a sufficient amount of time and then I say that I saw his ad on craigslist and was interested in seeing what mineral specimens he may have.
He heads me in the right direction - which was kinda obvious due to all the buckets and Tupperware type bins of rocks on a table.
I was immediately attracted to a large, fair grade of agatized coral. Maybe the size of a cantaloupe. Remember the "fair grade" part. So I comment on the piece and he says something along the lines of "we had a geologist come look all this over and he said this piece is worth a hundred bucks". Geologist my butt! But, I simply told him that it was a nice piece and moved on down the table. I CAN be nice (civil) - it's not my nature, but I have my moments.
Well, from there I quickly scan the bins on the table and take note of some items of interest, but head straight to the buckets. As I said, that was a huge waste of time, but it allowed me to get acquainted with my new BFF. (He collects trains. Which, I probably would have really enjoyed seeing were the sale at his house. Maybe, his house would have been heated!
I spent quite a bit of time searching the buckets, still hopeful of wonderful finds within. It was not to be.
Lots of small talk and chit chat during this time (and hand rubbing to try to warm them up enough to function). We Floridians don't do well below 60°. Kinda like reptiles. But, we can run circles around puddles of melted Yankees on the sidewalk on a hot summer day - so it kinda evens out.
There was NO ONE else at the sale this whole time. Probably closing on an hour I had been there so far. I did suggest the gentleman go inside and warm up and I would let him know when I needed him, but he seemed to want to stick around. I'm not sure if it was his interest in my engaging conversation (on how darn cold it was) or that he thought I was going to make 30 trips back and forth to my truck with all his buckets and bins of mineralogical delights. I'm hoping it was my witty banter.
Back at the table, I started to browse through the bins and boxes and began pulling items out to place aside in "my pile". He got a bit more involved at that point. Maybe the temperature had soared to 55° and he was thawing out a bit?
So, over the course of another 45 minutes to an hour, I managed to go through everything and then go back with slightly lower standards and review it all again. I believe he was really getting fond of my company by that point. All in all, about two hours and I wad ready to go with my little pile, okay 3 Tupperware bins, of stuff.
I asked what he thought ...... OH, I forgot something. At the start of my visit, (I think this was right after I laughed out loud when he said the piece of agatized coral was $100) he had said that he was not going to give this stuff away, because "he could get a $5,000 tax deduction if he were to donate it to a local university"! Gotta admit that brought a smile to my face when he said that. Gotta give him credit for trying.
Anyway, I asked for a price on my pile. To which he replied, "I guess one fifty would be okay". I smiled and told him that would be fine and thank you very much. With a quick scan back over the table, I said let me see if I can bump it up to $200 here real quick. He smiled. So, I added the biggish geode and a couple more pieces of crap pet wood to the bins and handed him a pair of Franklins. I thought he might hug me.
Overall, I am glad that I set my alarm clock for the first time in over a year and was awake for a sunrise without having stayed up through the night to see it. Coulda been warmer...
The booty... ('bout freakin' time huh?) Have no clue what a few things here are, but thought they needed to be saved.
The take it to $200 geode, some amazonite I'm thinkin' and the pink thing may be a calcite(?) no clue on the orange with black thingies in it is.
a stalagmite thing, some rough obsidian, a chunk of youngite, a calcite and an idonno bt. rt.
some corals (not from the buckets) and sand calcite things
galena & pyrites
worm wood, a septarian, more wood & stuff (I'm getting tired of typing)
more stuff - what's the round disc looking thing? The black slabblet has an Alaskan sequoia pet wood tag (?)
calcites top, copper bottom, piece of rhodochrosite, bottom left pink thing - tag says Cinnabar
malachite/azurite, calcite, wood, pretty sure the green is amazonite
stuff - youngite again - is top left another youngite? I dunno...
repeats
this I honestly don't know. green pieces all through the rock grey/black parts of rock shiny
That seashell stuff - don't remember the name, begins with a T
a pic of some of the Dallasite from bcrockhound that I'm working on - just cuz it was on the camera already.
That's it.
oh... I forgot to mention that while I was there, the sale guy said that the Largo Rock & Gem show was also today. Damn... So I went there too. Got some rough & slabs. Small show, with people overly proud of their rocks. But, the show was heated!
Thanks again Keith!
I needa nap...
