2008 Nipomo Gem & Mineral Show

Prologue

The 2008 Nipomo Show was my second time around doing that show.
Last year was a very good experience for me and I made good money so I was very optimistic going into it this year. I was also more prepared and had upgraded not only my inventory including a good amount of lapidary rough but I also had a better display arrangement. Once again my business collaborator Mike Lyons shared our booth and brought his glass display set and his wonderful jewelry and gemstones, jade in particular.

Day One

We arrived at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Nipomo on Thursday afternoon around 2 PM-ish. This gave us just enough time get the skeleton of our booth set up, to wit the tables and displays put in in place how they would go and the flats of material adjacent to where we'd set things out in the morning. This process went surprisingly smoothly and quickly.
We even had time to take turns walking around the show visiting other dealer's booths which is always fun.
It's nice to visit those dealers whom we've befriended and touch base with them and admire the neat things they have brought to the show and in some cases wheel and deal a bit.

Such was the case with dealer Tom DeMaris who remembered to bring the 21.8 ounce Canyon Diablo (Berringer Crater/Meteor Crater) meteorite I agreed to purchase from him at the April Bakersfield show we both worked this year.
It was nice being able to finally take receipt of it although he was not able to get it out on this day as it was still tucked away in a box.

In addition to Tom and his wife, it was great visiting with our friends Gary and Janice as well as Keith Olivas and Ernie DeFever along with Andy DeBoer and his wife.
I am a little miffed with Dale Harwood as for the first time I never heard him tell me "The more you buy the more you save!" so I didn't buy anything from him.
Actually, I didn't but it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with how little money I made.

This year we participated in the barbecue at the end of the day for the dealers and Orcutt Mineral Society members which was a wonderful experience.
That was in contrast to last year when we decided we didn't want to wait in line but get on home.

After dinner I ambled back to our booth and found a good deal of activity at my new lapidary rough bins. Apparently, a cluster of dealers found some cool things amongst my slabs which came from the inventory of an older, local couple who were members of the now-defunct Estero Bay Club and who used to sell at shows around the Central Coast but are now deceased.
I made a good deal of money from those dealers in cash and trade picking up some nice slabs of marcasitic Nipomo agate from Ernie DeFever, who was back in the show this year for the first time in a number of years. I trusted the dealers to give me good value as most were my friends/acquaintances not to mention good people but one dealer I was less familiar with did screw me out of about $50 in value I'm told.
Oh well, live and learn: I didn't know what my inventory was worth as I'm new to dealing with lapidary rough.

Day Two

We had to get to the show early on this day as we still needed to put most of the inventory out so we got to the show a couple of hours early which means about 8 A.M.
We got done around 10:30-ish but it didn't matter we weren't quite done at opening as the day started slow until things picked up a bit later in the morning.

While we were setting up we heard lots of sirens and an inky black column of smoke rose from the neighborhood to the west about a mile or so across the field next door. One could even hear explosions as tires on the burning travel trailer popped as did perhaps its propane tank.
Thankfully nobody was inside it at the time and it was nice to know that due to my scanner I had with me. Unfortunately, the batteries ran out before the fire was done but by then we already knew the particulars.
The prevailing winds at the time took the toxic smoke and its pungent fumes right over the show venue. Soon thereafter charred pieces of insulation and other material from the burning/burned travel trailer began falling out of the sky and down onto the church grounds, in some cases right into some dealers booth, including our own.
Some of these pieces were surprisingly large in size.


Unfortunately, the burning travel trailer was the high point of the day as sales were okay for a Friday but not overwhelmingly great. However, given what we managed despite it being a workday we were still optimistic Saturday would be great.
I did pick up that meteorite from Tom DeMaris along with a beautiful specimen of fluorite with chalcopyrite and calcite and perhaps a wee bit of dolomite.
It was a gorgeous specimen I planned to add to my collection.
However, Santa Lucia Rockhounds President Gene Bilyeu got sight of it and fell in love with it and inquired if he could purchase it for his wife Barbara. Given how I feel about that couple I was more than glad to sell it to him for that purpose and for not much over what I bought from Tom DeMaris as he got a buddy deal from me.
At the end of the day around closing time some friends of mine, Blythe and Dan Slaten dropped by to see me as they headed north to my house to visit for the weekend.

Day Three

On this morning we were able to leave a bit later as we were already set up for the show which was nice given how tired we were. We also were entertaining the Slatens which meant two adults, two children, and a dog so we were busy.

Once we got to the show we were able to quickly fire up our booth and await the unrelenting hordes of buyers shoveling money into our booth that we hoped were on their way.

No dice. Not even close.

This day, which was a Saturday, usually the best day of any show, was worse for me than the Friday or Sunday of this year's show.
What made up for it was the visitors to our booth.

The aforementioned Slatens dropped by to see our booth in full glory as did a couple of wonderful young children whom used to be my neighbors in Atascadero and are both now full-fledged rockhounds despite being younger than ten years old whom their grandfather brought to the show. He also brought one of them to another show of ours, I believe this year's June Cayucos Show.
We also received a lot of other children as visitors whom we treated to a lot of freebie material but also even sold a few low-priced items to.

Most of this activity was early on and by afternoon we were in the doldrums.
At least misery loves company: most dealers I talked to complained of the slowness on Saturday and with the show overall with just a few exceptions.
I can't blame myself as I had upgraded my inventory over last year and was very ready for the show. The club can't be blamed as they did an excellent job promoting the show which found mention on television, radio, and in the newspaper.
Clearly, it was the economy, stupid!

Consequently, we needed comforting after the show that day.
Since we're saving ourselves for marriage comfort-sex was out of the question and since we were too poor to comfort-eat we went comfort-rockhounding for Nipomo agate in the adjacent fields and creeks along with fellow-dealer and Salinas Valley Gem & Mineral Club President Ernie DeFever.

What got this started was talking to our friend and fellow-dealer Keith Olivas who told us he had hunted for agate in the fields next door the day before and even showed us his finds.

That got us thinking that we could do the same but even go further with it which we did.

The two of us headed out to the west and checked the field next door to the west and followed the nearby creek southwest but found only small amounts of agate, but in the process picked up Ernie who joined as on our more serious expedition all the way across the field to the west and into the primary creek bottom at the far end. There we found abundance of Nipomo beanfield agate some with sagenite but most without and none were marcasitic, unfortunately.
Still, it was great fun and we found some really nice pieces, even finding some carnelian.

Following that we headed straight home, exhausted but feeling a lot better than before.
We missed dinner with the Slatens, unfortunately, but it was worth it as any respectable rockhound would feel. ;-)

Day Four

Given how yesterday went and that this was a Sunday morning and we were tired from the show and had been hosting house guests we were in no hurry getting down to our booth on Sunday morning. The Slatens headed home on this morning and followed us down until we pulled off US101 at North Thompson Avenue to take less crowded and more relaxing way into Nipomo.

The morning started slow as one might expect but things did pick up and Sunday exceeded my expectations although it didn't come close to making up for Saturday's shortcomings as we ended up making half as much money as year's show. Don't get me wrong, I loved doing the show and look forward to doing it again next year when I hope the economy is better as it does seem fairly obvious the economy is the primary culprit here.

Near closing time a lady and her man showed up and dropped several hundred dollars at our booth, some spent on Mike's stuff and some on ours but by far and away our best customer of the show and yet the transaction wasn't even finalized until after show had officially closed.
It was very nice to end the show on such a positive note.

Following that we quickly broke down our booth and put everything away with little regard to organization and headed home where we crashed (metaphorically-speaking).