Some crystal-hunting tips for the cheap

[deedlit420]

Hello again... being fifteen, w. a limited cash flow, i have some advice for those who would like to find their crystals "on the cheap"
1. Wal mart
Believe it or not, i was in the craft aisle at wal mart last week and found..... GEMSTONES!!! They had amethyst, sodalite, aventurine, hematite, tigereye, and jasper, and of course i fell in love, so i bought a couple pendants (they come in teardrops, hearts, and "fans") I sewed one of the amethyst teardrops onto my deck bag and plan upon turning my jasper heart into a pendulum. They also sell beads, and its all very affordable ($2-3).
heh heh heh.... just wait 'til the religious right finds out about this one.

2. Museum Stores.
Try checking museum stores. I was recently at the local state museum's store... and in the "fill the bag for $3" bin were quite a few fine quartz specimens... i left w. 7 nice, pendant- sized crystals.

3. Craft stores.
Also worth a look are stores like hobby lobby- they sell a fine collection of stones, and if you sign up for mailing lists, you can get nice monthly discounts.

If anyone else knows where to find discount gems, feel free to post.

[Tarot Sparrow]

Well thank you very much! I was just thinking about getting some small stones

[jlbvt]

These are good tips but... I am a big advocate of NOT shopping at wal-mart. Here are my reasons:
Wal-Mart methodically destroys its suppliers:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

Wal-Mart supports and encourages poor working conditions in factories of its overseas suppliers
http://www.asianlabour.org/archives/001627.html

Wal-mart will price certain things temporarily for less than it costs them, (take a loss on them) just to kill local business, and in this article, seems dedicated to slaughtering this 176-store competitor by opening store after store directly across the street...
http://www.freep.com/money/business/...2_20021022.htm

Wal-Mart fires its own employes arbitrarily when it sees them as a threat- They are fighting for fair labor standards!!!
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13490

http://www.ibew.org/stories/03journal/0304/page6.htm

PLEASE READ SOME OF THESE ARTICLES
Thanks
Joan

[Sulis]

Please, I beg you, before you go buying crystals just because they are cheap could you stop and think about whether these stones have been mined in an ethical and ecologically friendly way.
Many of the stone suppliers these days blast these stones out of the earth causing untold damage, their only interest is profit.
I look on the Earth as my Mother, my Goddess and as such I can`t buy into her destruction by buying crystals which have been ripped or blasted out of her.
A couple of years ago I became attuned to Reiki and discovered that my Reiki Master runs an ethical crystal business (all of the crystals which he sells have either been found or harvested without the use of explosives or invasive mining techniques) so now I can safely buy crystals knowing where they have come from. I have a wand with an amethyst tip; the amethyst was found on a beach in Cornwall.
I hate to sound as if I`m preaching and I`m sure that most of you are aware of this anyway but to those who aren`t please think or even ask your local crystal supplier where their stones come from.
A good, ethical, on-line shop for crystals is http://www.kacha-stones.com/

They are a little bit more expensive but in my opinion are well worth it.

Oh and Joan, I agree with every word you've said about Wallmart - I wouldn't shop there either.

Love

Sulis xx

[HudsonGray]

Since most stores get their stones through catalogs, it's hard to really know HOW they were mined. Unless you go to a rock/gem & mineral show (large cities have one or two a year) and buy from the people who actually went out & dug them up, a lot of it is guesswork.

I've found some stones at health food stores, so can add that to the list.

Oh, and very large rummage sales are a great place to find quartz crystals & agates.

Call the museum in your area, talk to the geology department head (yes, they like being bothered by the public, it happens so seldom!) and ask what's native to your state & where can you go to find it.

[DeLani]

Not disagreeing with ethical crystal harveting...but here are some other bargain tips:
Hobby Lobby has long strands of gemstone chip beads for EXTREMELY cheap. Like $2.99 - $5.99.
Also, Romancing the Stone stores have some of those 'fill a bag for $3 (or so)" things where they often have Tiger Eye, tumbled quartz, and agates.
Buying from geology/rockhound stores and shows are almost always way cheaper than from metaphysical/new age sources.

[Dark Inquisitor]

Go to a pet store that sells fish & aquariums. They will often have raw rocks for very much less than you would pay normally. I got 1lb pieces of rose quartz for 1.63 each.

On the whole though, shopping the internet for tumbled stones I have noticed that stone sellers are not entirely honest. A few times now I have ordered one size and got a smaller one . They knew what they were doing and just sent it anyway because they didn't have the larger size. It cost me money to return the stones , and I am still waiting for a refund from one place.

But I keep secretly hoping I will run into a grizzled old prospector with a basement hoard of gems that he has to give somebody before he dies.

[Bluemanticore]

One other place that sometimes can be helpful is jewelry stores. Some jewelers know of good places to get precious and semiprecious stones for good prices.

Just to add my opinion, I prefer to only buy stones in person just to make sure I am getting what I pay for. Buying through the mail makes me nervous.

[Kyrielle]

Some stones are easily faked. If you see cheap (or sometimes even expensive) turquoise or coral, for example, most of the time it will be dyed howlite (in the case of turquoise) or other minerals.

Much of the time, however, a company will note on its packaging that a set of beads is dyed or imitation.

If you have a local rock shop, there may be bargains there. The proprietors most likely opened the store for mineral collectors and not for those with metaphysical interests. So while a metaphysical store may recognize an Isis crystal or laser wand quartz as such, and thus increase the price because of its metaphysical value, for a rock shop, the same piece would be simply a fine specimen of quartz, so the price may be lower. But you can be sure the rock shop knows what it selling, and the owner can probably tell you the source of the stone and the mining method.

Educational toy stores will often have a display with several minerals for sale at around $0.50 to $2.00 each depending on stone and store. The quartz points are not pretty, but they do have character. Some of the other minerals offered are surprisingly nice at these bins. I have pieces of Miriam stone, zebra marble, gypsum (selenite) roses, flourite (green, blue, purple, yellow and clear), aventurine, and a couple of "mystery rocks" that I haven't put an ID to but look cool.

Kyrielle

[skytwig]

I get alot of my stones at Thrift stores, in their jewelry section. They often don't know what they have and will toss necklaces in a bag and sell them for a couple dollars.

I have gotten turquiose, amethyst, clear crystal, moldavite.... all kinds of stones and gems. I tear the necklaces apart and use them in my jewelry.

I do cleanse the jewelry when I first get home.... either I sage or Reiki them or I place them on crystal clusters for a few days.....

Also, it's a good way to get old fashioned clasps and spacers for making jewelry.....



Edited to add: Don't forget to check out the 'wild' stones (feral rocks?? ) Dig in and around where you live, hunt in creek beds.... I am always looking at the ground for good finds.... There is a resevoir nearby where I can find tons of smokey quartz and goose feathers!! Wuhoooooo!