Recollections of mineral collecting and dealing in India

"I'm Mujahid Makki," he said.

"I've heard a good deal about you already. And about your father and brother," I said, offering him a handshake. "I'm Rustam Kothavala. And one of my central purposes in coming to Poona was to find you and make your acquaintance." I was grinning with delight. "I've been wondering how I was going to locate you."

The young man grinned back. "I've been trying to find you too." That circumstantial meeting at Pashan Quarry No. 2 began a mutual collaboration in marketing green apophyllite that continued until quarrying was shut down by government edict in 1989.

THE MAKING OF A MINERAL DEALER IN AMERICA

It's self-evident that one cannot establish a successful mineral dealing business without securing a reliable, continuing source of mineral specimens that are desired by the mineral collecting community. But that is only half of what's essential. The other essential task-and in my view the much dicier one-is to establish a presence which collectors are aware of, attracted to, and trust.

Even a cursory survey of Tucson, Arizona, during the first two weeks of February each year forces an awareness of the tens of thousands of outsiders who descend on the city.

An untutored newcomer encounters a milling, motley horde of wheeler-dealers, some appearing respectably ensconced in endless arrays of booths or motel rooms, others hawking on the streets or freelancing out of briefcases and even just bags, each attempting to peddle something, anything, even vaguely related to rocks, minerals, or gems. Add to that the tens of thousands who might be genuine or potential buyers, mixed indistinguishably with gawkers and unidentifiable fingersmiths. The great majority of sellers purvey something that some segment of the public would like to purchase, if it's priced right. But amidst this vast, competitive throng of sellers and physically exhausted buyers, all with limits on their time and budgets, what magical ingredients could conceivably enable an utterly raw, untested, aspiring mineral dealer, even if he has desirable mineral specimens, to be even acknowledged, let alone discovered or searched out, during the melee of show time? Granted, that was in 1973, when the show crowds were just a fraction of what they are now. Even so, the magical ingredients, then as now, were, first, experienced mentors and actively engaged well-wishers; second, incomparable specimens; and third, incredible luck!

Soon after I returned from my mineral gathering trip to India in the fall of 1972, every mineral aficionado who saw my specimens in Cambridge, Massachusetts, repeated the mantra: "You've got to take these to Tucson!" accompanied by extravagant tales of how the best American collectors would draw blood and empty their wallets in order to snag a piece that they considered really choice. Since none of them had seen specimens like mine before, my East Coast well-wishers could only offer guesses about the prices that these specimens might fetch. To me, the figures they hazarded had the ring of drug-induced fantasies. Could a mineral specimen really command a price of a thousand dollars and more? I was unwilling or unable to suspend my disbelief.