I haven't jumped on board in a while, I thought I might contribute to this
present thread.  I live in New Mexico, USA - a landlocked state.  This means
my shell collecting is either from trips or mail order (plus the annual
bourse at the COA convention or other shell shows).  Because I traveled
professionally (courtesy of the USAF) for 25 years, I really am not all that
crazy about doing so today.  So that leaves mail order shells and the
bourse.  In my experience:

The vast majority of shell dealers are honest folks trying to make a living
doing something they enjoy and are interested in.  I have purchased shells
from well-known dealers in the US and overseas and never, I repeat never,
had a bad experience.  I have also purchased shells from dealers I didn't
know, both in the US and overseas, and again I have had good luck except for
a single deal that went south.  The only bad experiences (two) I have had
with shell deals have been with non-professionals (i.e. individual
collectors).  The initial trade or buy was limited and I was able to step
back with little loss.  I would guess that my good experiences were better
than 99% of my shell deals.  Both of the bad deals were with folks in the
US.

If something is "too good a deal to believe," or "too good to be true," then
it is probably not believable or true and should be passed up.  Along with
this goes, "buyer beware."  If you are in the market for a nice Cypraea
leucodon, it will pay dividends to buy from someone you know, rather than
saving a hundred bucks or two on that great buy on Ebay from a stranger.

Finally, a word about bad deals that happen in the other direction.  There
is not a dealer out there who cannot tell you about sending shells to
someone and never seeing the money, or shells returned for a refund that
were not the shells originally sent, or shells falsely claimed lost or
broken.  There are trust issues on both sides.

As for pricing, we have Rice's Prices that can serve as a general guide, but
really, a shell is worth what someone is willing to pay.  If it seems like
too much, then pass it by and see what happens with time.  Conchology is
supposed to be fun, but sometimes we get so involved with acquiring a shell
we forget the fun aspect.

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA (cold and sunny)

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