I dont know if everyone on Conch-L knows, but I collect solely
Conus.....many times I have no problem buying or finding and keeping, an
ugly cone that wouldn't be worth a dollar to someone else!

in fact, concerning cones, some of the rarer species best conditions are
somewhat dismal.....usually deep water and either trawled or whatnot, lips
broken, growth scars, etc. etc......but that is their usual pristine state!
So if it's best rating is only an F or F+, it could still be worth hundreds
of dollars.

online auction sites are fast becoming an excellent method to gather  many
varieties of shells, conus included. However, I have also noticed that
there are so many people doing it now, that things are becoming almost
"stale" to me personally.  Seems like most people offer the same things
over and over again, which is ok if there are 1500 people looking for a
nice golden cowrie to add to their collections, all at the same time.

I have also noticed that the quality of shells is going down as well. This
is sort of related to the rating conversations in here. Most of us are
aware that there is truly never a GEM shell. There are almost always
microimperfections, much like our own human bodies. Sure if there are no
imperfections seen by the human eye, we can call it GEM......nice shiny
gloss, beautiful color, great pattern if any.....lends us the thought of
getting a great shell and most of the time we do.!!

I still think the scale of 1-10 COULD work. I use the word could, loosely,
because I do not believe a majority of the shell world will follow.  I also
believe the scale we use now is ok, but lets face it, it's been abused
somewhat and I think that alone is a catalyst to what some of feel now ,
about the want to change it.

Andrew, I had no idea that you were taken ill. I've been a bit out of the
loop myself and I am glad you are on your way to good health. Maybe
sometime soon I can call you and we can chat a bit again.

Over Thanksgiving, I took a few days off work and drove down to Florida and
did a bit of collecting.  Besides collecting numerous sharks teeth ( and a
fragment of a giant shark's tooth ) I found in my little sifting basket a
nice conus spurius, obviously dead....but with decent pattern still
remaining over it's light gray shell color.  I almost want to say this
specimen may even be a fossil.....I dont know. However, my point being,
it's a great find for me it even had a fairly nice lip still even after
being battered against the rocks for ( assuming) years! I dug it up out of
about 5 inches of shell fragments and sand. It sits in my cabinet proudly
with the other conus spurius.  I got that fellow from Venice, FL.  I also
spent a day in Sanibel-Captiva.....besides some large crowds and almost
running down several bikers who did not use the crossing lanes correctly, I
found several excellent whole penshells at Bowmans Beach ( sp) , visited
the shell musuem which was EXCELLENT,  found many excellent shells at Cayo
Costa, ( I watched a huge black pig stroll down the beach, and found a 15
inch left handed whelk which I didnt keep)  and even watched some dolphins
play around our boat. Not a bad few days in semi-paradise.




~LT~

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