Drool

[stardiamond]

5+ pounds of clay canyon variscite for $1595. Seller didn't want it cut but did mention the number of slabs it would produce.

[broseph82]

Yikes. In my opinion that looks really low quality and barely any green for the size of the rock.

[hummingbirdstones2]

Wow. Looks like a maggoty mess to me, too. Especially for $300/lb. 

Makes me appreciate the little box of variscite we have here a lot more.

[stardiamond]

I considered it briefly. I don't know much about Clay Canyon. I recut a cab my wife bought some years ago. I sold it on etsy and studied what was out there in order to price. What I found is the material is very expensive and there are defects. When I buy a piece of rough or a slab, I look for the yield; how many good scenes/patterns on the piece and what I could get for them. I estimated that I could get a return on my investment. On the negative side, I would need to have someone with a defibrillator on speed dial when it was in the saw. Assuming it didn't fall apart even if I could get enough cabs to more than pay for it, It would take a long time to sell them since they would generally be similar.

[hummingbirdstones2]

Yeah, Variscite and Turquoise are two things I understand the full extent of my ignorance of. I've never bought much of either for that reason.

Just had a look online, though, and found a piece of Clay Canyon (as if I'd be able to tell by looking at it) that does look interesting. It's only $1400 for 5 lbs., so maybe it's the one for you. It looks more solid, and has some really cool features in the polished face.

www.ebay.com/itm/Variscite-Polished-Specimen-Clay-Canyon-Fairfield-Utah-7-X-6-1-2-X-2-1-2-5-LB/133309752072?hash=item1f09e16308:g:1DEAAOSwTz1eJK1N

I really do like this one - just not $1400 worth.

[stardiamond]

That one is very solid. When looking at it, I ask how many interesting areas are there on the face? I imagine the Clay Canyon is not in my future or for that matter Koroit opal.

[hummingbirdstones2]

Sounds like a very pragmatic way of looking at rough purchases. For either of those two types you either have an established customer base willing to pay a fair price for the finished pieces, or you wind up with lots of nice cabs sitting around waiting for the right person to see them.

[fernwood]

Tough to determine quality. I have some what I thought was high quality variscite. Individual pieces with minimal matrix. Was told by the experts here it was not worth much. These were old stock, from the 1980's. Have about 7 pieces, in size from about 1" by 2" to a little larger. Was told they had a value of maybe $4.00 each. Not what I expected.
Experts on another web sight told me they had a value of about $100.00, as is. If they would be made into cabs, the value would increase to about $25.00/cab or higher.

These were part of a 5 gallon pail purchase and the entire pail was $10.00. Rest of pail contained a lot of high quality items from AZ/NM. I did not even see everything in pail until I got it home.

I cannot imagine making a purchase of variscite with that much waste at this price.

JMHO

[hummingbirdstones2]

Yep - anything is only worth what someone will pay for it.

Collectors are a special breed, though. Some things will sell for "crazy" prices just because of where they came from among that crowd.