>        Well, i guess i must be a REALLY small dealer- if i sold $2000 of
>Pectens in 2 days, i'd be dancing on the moon!!!
>        At any rate, Conus tops my list of most-sales familes by a LONG shot,
>followed by those shiny Cyp-things, and then Pectens, which i have a
>special fondness for (since, like the cones, one can make the most
>Outrageous variation sets out of them!!).  Muricidae  and Marginellidae
>are the toughest families to sell, as they seem to attract fewer than
>their fair share of new collectors (which is tough to understand for the
>former, at least for me!!).  I find, contrary to the observations of
>many, that when i can get good chitons, they vanish extremely quickly.
>Likewise with Trochidae.  One of the surprising families is Turridae -
>the largest and most "challenging" (although many other words have been
>used to describe it!!) family of molluscs: These sell surprisingly
>steadily for me, although good sources are ***very*** difficult to find!!
>        Some families seem to sell in little semi-random "spurts" for me -
>Volutidae and Ovulidae come to mind: i always like to keep a good
>variety in stock, but sales do not seem to reflect the effort i put into
>getting interesting material!!
>        It would be quite interesting to hear how other dealers fare,
>regarding
>which familes sell the best for them - Brian?  Guido?  PAul?
>Cheers,
>Ross M.
 
Very strange to say, but we know exactly what went were for several years.
Everything sells well, it is true that collectors have a tendency to buy
what they do not have, and shells not present in the present collections go
best, but on the other hand they are slowed down because the price is set
higher, so they do not sell more than the others at last.
From the most obscure family to the most famous ones, everything goes.
The fabulous thing in shell collecting is that everybody can find its own
way of collecting. We have collectors of three species of scallops only.
Then there are the ones that want one shell from each family. We even have
a collector looking for all the shells described by Linnaeus. Another one
has 700 harps and ignores the existence of other families. Then you have
the people that want one of each. There are the ones that put the labels in
the garbage immediately. Then you get the ones not buying without labels.
You get the ones that only buy poor quality because it is cheaper, and the
ones that only buy the most expensive ones because this corresponds to the
best quality. Then you get the girl buying 100 oliva to decorate a mirror.
And the other one, buying a complete set of slit shells to decorate a shelf
in her bathroom.
 
Shells are not too big, not too expensive, super varied, easy to conserve
etc... that everybody can create its own world.
 
Guido
 
Guido
 
 
 
 
 
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