I used to think all my rock labels were fine until a guy at the Tucson Gem Show called them 'useless'

He pointed at a box of my agates and said, 'You wrote 'red banded agate from Oregon'. That could be a hundred different spots. I need the county, the formation, the specific riverbed.' I was just putting the state and rock type. Now I spend an extra hour per trip writing down GPS coordinates and the nearest town, like 'From the Owyhee River gravels, Malheur County, OR'. It makes a huge difference for anyone trying to understand the geology. How specific do you all get with your own labels?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_julia1mo ago

Oh man, that guy had a point but lowkey sounds like a pain lol. Honestly though, what about the people who just want a cool rock and don't care about the science? I label mine super detailed now too, but I always wonder if I'm just doing it to impress other collectors and not for the regular person who buys one.

ross.angela4d ago

Yeah that's the thing, @the_julia, it feels like two totally different hobbies sometimes. Do you ever worry the super detailed labels might scare off someone who just thinks a piece is pretty? Like they see a paragraph of info and feel like they're not "in" enough to own it.

zara_hunt1mo ago

Yeah, I started doing that after a similar talk and it's actually pretty satisfying.