Triceratops at the Co-op
A few blocks north of downtown are several smaller shows, including 1820 Oracle Wholesale Show, Norcross-Madagascar Gallery, Mineral and Fossil Co-op, and Mineral and Fossil Marketplace, and the Main Avenue Mineral and Fossil Show.These shows are often in parking lots and kind of run together in my mind. We saw several tents selling the same north African fossils, not really of interest to me as a jewelry maker. There were lots of septarian nodules, real fossils and fake fossils (hard for me to tell the difference sometimes) and large fossil plates of trilobites and cephalopods, ammonites, and lots of mineral specimens. These are not my favorite things, so I move pretty quickly through these shows.
Nice security barriers.
Are they real or are they fake..DUH! Bandit Show
I guess it's in the eye of beholder. We did not buy this.
Buy Dino crap by the tray. Co-op
I noticed this T-Rex was posed EXACTLY like the one attacking the vehicle in Jurassic Park. Co-Op
Shelves at the Mineral & Fossil Co-Op bulging with Fossils.
More fossils at the Co-Op, Left front is a wine holder.
You do not realize just how big a Megalodon was until you see a recreated mouth. Co-Op
These were just abnormal, but Funny. Arizona Mineral & Fossil Marketplace.
Rock Bass at Kino (Electric Park)
This is how Chrysoprase is found in Austrailia. Nice seams in matrix. Electric Park.
The Main Avenue Mineral and Fossil show had several major vendors from Australia, China, the US and some other countries. They all seemed to be packing up and were motivated to sell so they would not have to haul and store! There were quality specimens, cutting material, and lots of minerals and fossils. Vendors were a bit tired after 2 weeks of selling.
I expect this Hemimorphite will make great cabs.
I only bought one piece of hemimorphite from a Chinese vendor because I seemed to have a nice look to it.
The Mineral and Fossil Co-op is open year round in a permanent building full of showrooms and dealers of high quality. Many of them deal with museums and sell to discriminating fossil buyers. A few of the dealers are wholesale only. We visit this every year to see the great fossil specimens for sale. A few spare dollars will buy you an aggressive looking T-rex for your front yard, and a great petrified wood table for your living room, or a great fish or palm fossil plate for the front hall.
After a cooling break we returned to the Kino Sports Complex again to look for things we might have missed, or possible bargains. Today folks were very busy here with the local people out for weekend fun. Again we noticed that vendors were responding to the 85 degree temperatures, some liked it, but everyone is surprised by it. (Today was record setting high temperature, sorry for all you folks in the rest of the country). I bought one lone rock, talked to an equipment salesperson, and enjoyed seeing the small piles left at some tents. We also wilted after a bit and returned to our air conditioned RV.