Occasionally people ask us, "Exactly what is a sensible price?", and "How do you price your specimens?" These are both good questions (questions that most dealers won't answer except in the vaguest way). So here's how we keep our prices at sensible levels:
WE RECOGNIZE QUALITY
Part of my job is to recognize a fine mineral specimen when I see it.
1. I know my minerals: I hope it's not bragging to say that I have learned to recognize what minerals are present on a particular specimen. Mainly I can do this because I have a highly developed visual memory, but also because of years of experience looking at hundreds of thousands of mineral specimens. I also have learned to recognize minerals by their identifying characteristics such as color, crystal form, luster, specific gravity, etc.
2. I look for sculptural beauty: Our customers tell me I have a good eye for quality specimens. My undergraduate degree was in fine art (sculpture), and I pursued an art career for several years (until I had a family and had to find a real job). My ability to spot an aesthetic specimen has been fine-tuned through years of experience looking at fine art, and then fine minerals.
3. I know the good stuff when I see it: The combination of years of experience and an eye trained to see are valuable skills. People tend to look at an object and not remember what it actually looks like. At art school, I was taught to "see" - mainly by drawing people and things.
4. I recognize the classics: I have a keen eye not only for what a mineral is, but also where it came from. For example, once I spotted a Frizington baryte in an old collection, and the seller didn't know where it came from. Later, one of our customers was delighted to have the chance to buy this old specimen from a long-closed, classic locality for their collection.
Baryte, Frizington, Cumbria,
England
WE BUY CHEAP
You can't sell a mineral specimen at a great price if you paid too much for
it. When we get a great price for a specimen, the rewards are passed on to you:
if we buy cheap, we sell cheap. Here's how we get those extra-good deals:
1. We haggle: Obviously, you can't sell a specimen for a good price if you paid too much for it. So, we work hard to get the best deals possible. This usually involves bargaining for a low price (a.k.a. haggling) - something I love to do and have become adapt at (my haggling career began when I visited Mexico for the first time, in 1962).
2. We buy in quantity: Let's face it: big spenders have more leverage. Because we buy in large quantity, we can get much lower prices than other dealers who are only buying one or a few specimens. Think of it this way: once a seller knows we are willing and able to spend thousands of dollars on his merchandise, they are very reluctant to let us walk away, so asking prices come tumbling down very quickly!
3. We buy direct: Over the years, we have developed relationships with those quirky people from around the world known as specimen miners. When we buy from the miner, we eliminate the middle man (and also eliminate the middle man's profit).
4. We save by buying from wholesalers: It costs a small fortune to travel internationally to buy minerals direct from the miners. Luckily, we have friends who live in various countries, travel regularly to see what has been found, and then offer the best material to us. These people have developed relationships with the miners so they are given first choice of the best material, and they get great prices because they are regular, wholesale customers.
5. We research the right time to buy what's "hot": We always look at the top quality material from any new finds. But, we try to time our buying to avoid paying the mega-high prices that are sometimes attached to the privilege of being the first kid on the block with a shiny new toy.
6. We stock up on the good stuff: When we find some great mineral specimens at a low price, we stock up. Later, when we want to sell a specimen from inventory, we can sell it at a lower price than you can buy it for today. For example, spessartine garnets from China. Today we have a million-dollar inventory, so in addition to the items you see listed on the internet, we have tens of thousands more in our basement warehouse.
7. We buy old collections: We are always looking to buy mineral collections. When we purchase an entire collection, we usually get good deals - and also pick up older specimens from mines that are no longer producing, or from one-time finds of outstanding material.
WE SELL CHEAP
If we sell too cheap, we lose money and go out of business. If we price our
specimens too high, they won't sell and we go out of business. Here's how we
walk the fine line:
1. We keep markups low: To make a profit, we have to price our specimens for more than what we paid. Yes, we make a profit on every sale - but we aren't greedy! Actually, our mark up is significantly lower than almost all of the other mineral dealers who sell fine mineral specimens (an example: we've sold specimens at retail to several of the "big name" dealers, and later seen them offered with a 10 fold markup!).
2. We sell a lot of rocks: Our high sales volume allows us to offer our specimens at very attractive prices.
3. We keep overhead low: We operate our business out of our home so our overhead is low.
4. We offer attractive discounts: You can take advantage of our Multiple Purchase Discount (Buy 3 items & get 5% off, 5 for 7%, 7 for 10%, 10 for 12%), or inquire about our special discounts for purchases over $1,000, $3,000, $5,000, etc.
5. We mark down old inventory: if something has been sitting on the shelf for too long, we lower the price so it will move. You can find these special deals at www.treasuremountainmining.com in our 50% Off department.
So there you have it: these are our secrets of how we set our prices at sensible levels. In short, we recognize quality, buy cheap, and sell cheap. Like I said before: simple, but not easy.