11. "Laws" of Collecting
Or, Murphy's Law of MineralsBy: Wendell E. Wilson
Everyone knows Murphy's Law..."If anything can go wrong it will." I offer here a few observations relative to collecting.
1. Specimens become more expensive faster than you become more affluent.
2. A specimen being trimmed tends to break through the largest crystal.
3. Untrained observers always wish to touch the most fragile specimen.
4. The one specimen you like best in a collection is the one with the owner is least inclined to part with.
5. Every specimen is dinged; the dings are just smaller on some.
6. In the field, the best crystals are always found on the largest, hardest rock.
7. In the field, the greatest discoveries are always made the day before you arrive, or the day after you leave.
8. During hard times, mineral dealers keep alive by selling to each other.
9. The best specimens on a dealer's mailing list will already be sold by the time you receive the list.
10. Specimens and money tend to repel each other.
Corollary #1. The specimen you have been waiting years to buy becomes available when you have the least money.
Corollary #2. When you have extra money to spend on specimens, nothing worthwhile will be available.
Corollary #3. Specimens of a given type will stop appreciating, and will begin to depreciate, as soon as you buy one.
Corollary #4. When you wish to sell a specimen, no one will have the money available to buy it from you.
11. If you immediately buy a specimen from a new discovery, better ones will shortly be found and sold for less. If you delay in buying, no more will ever be found, and prices will immediately rise drastically.
12. If you wish to sell a specimen, no one wants it. If you wish to keep it, everyone wants it.
Corollary #1. If you buy a specimen from a dealer he will continue to tell you how marvelous it is until the moment you offer to sell it back to him.
13. A repaired specimen is worth less only when owned by someone else.
14. Mineral localities remain open as long as mineral collectors do not visit them.
15. A specimen which you are contemplating buying will remain unsold until JUST BEFORE you decide to buy it (regardless of how long you delay), at which time it will be bought by someone else.Originally published in The Mineralogical Record Volume 10, Number four, July-August 1979
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