A guide to buying rocks and minerals on eBay



There are a number of techniques which may help you avoid disappointment. I've used these techniques myself with success in the past:

1) When you see a specimen described with adjectives which are always subjective, like "gigantic", or "incredible", or "top-quality", ask yourself "relative to what?". In fact the phrase "relative to what?" is one you might want to mentally add to almost all adjectives used to describe minerals.....

2) When you see the phrase "museum-quality" (or something similarly grand), ask yourself "in whose opinion?" or, "in whose museum?". I have seen specimens offered on eBay and websites which in my opinion are far better than those I've seen in some very fine museums, but are they really "museum-quality", or just my idea of what that phrase means? I've also seen numerous specimens on eBay described as "museum-quality" which are in my opinion not worth the cost of shipping them to my residence. The question "in whose opinion?" (it may be only the seller's!) is one you might want to mentally ask about most descriptive statements.

3) When you see a specimen described as "rare", or "seldom seen", do yourself a favor: search for the mineral name and/or its source on the web or even on eBay itself - you might be surprised to find many more examples of the supposedly "rare" specimen. In fact, whenever you're planning to plunk down your hard-earned cash for a specimen, take a moment to see if anything similar is out there on eBay; you may find several comparable specimens at bargain prices closing within a few days or even moments of your intended purchase! Since each mineral specimen is unique, you may still want the one you first spotted, but at least you're now making an informed decision....

4) Take a good look at the mineral specimen photo(s), then ask yourself "can I tell what this specimen will look like in my hand?". Is the specimen pictured the one you will receive, or merely a representative example? Apply the numeric measurements given in the description, and note whether the image on your computer screen is larger (most are!) or smaller than the measurements. In fact, numerical measurements (even approximate) are almost always the only thing you can be sure of in a description; nothing is as disappointing as getting a "hand-size" specimen which disappears between your thumb and forefinger, or finding that your modestly-sized cabinet would actually hold another 500 of the "cabinet-size" specimen you just bought. The camera angle can fool you also; a specimen held out at arm's length in front of the camera will look huge compared to the hand holding it, regardless of its actual size.... If the weight of the specimen is given, make sure you factor in the units: one kilogram (kg.) = 2.2 pounds (lb.) , 1 lb. = 16 ounces (oz.), 1 oz. = 28.4 grams (g.), 1 g. = 5 carats (ct.), 1 ct. = 3.1 grains (gr). I'll let you do the rest of the math....

5) Take another look at the photo(s), then think of how the specimen will look when displayed by you under your lighting conditions. White light minerals such as crystalline Elmwood Sphalerite or the deep purple Mexican Fluorites are examples of specimens which look quite different under strong directed photographic lighting, ordinary room lighting, or daylight. Pictures taken under ultraviolet (UV) lamps are particularly notorious for being far better (or worse) than the reality when you get them into your display; many factors affect the brightness and color of fluorescent minerals, including distance from the lamp to the specimen, wattage of the ultraviolet lamp, surface characteristics of the specimen, ambient light level, and so on. Perhaps the most important factor is the wavelength of the UV lamp; most shortwave UV fluorescents either fluoresce weakly or not at all under a longwave UV lamp. Two longwave UV lamps may even differ in wavelength enough to produce very different results on the same specimen.

6) Finally, because digital photos can be made brighter or darker, more or less colorful, changed to any shade of the rainbow, made larger or smaller, sharper or blurrier, all with the simple click of a mouse, making a decision to buy a specimen from a photo should be tempered by your knowledge of the seller, either through personal prior experience or through eBay's feedback system. While most reputable sellers will accept a return of a specimen which doesn't meet your expectations, you may still wind up paying for shipping - possibly both ways!