I appreciate a perfect shell as much as many other collectors. However, my collection is weighted heavily with "junk" shells picked from beaches and/or in recent years purchased from Internet auctions. And yes it drags down the desireability of my collection as a whole which has been said to me.
Perfection or as nearly as one can get to it has a premium value just as in any other collecting discipline thus to your query, yes I for one am interested in imperfect shells at discount.
Gerontic shells have such a fascinating history recorded in their imperfect hulls. Example: I tried for years to get an "old" Pacific trumpet triton without success and finally found one from an estate at auction. This being a mollusk that lived to very old age - its exterior eroded to the point of almost total lack of color yet the aperature still vibrant in color and finish and the shell heavy. It provides a different way of looking at the species. The sculpture and form of the shell is as striking as the color in a "perfect" specimen.

John Timmerman
Wilmington, North Carolina
USA
-------------- Original message from Guido Poppe <[log in to unmask]>: --------------


> This is a very interesting topic.
>
> A collection of perfect shells gives long lasting pleasure to look
> at. You never get bored. It is my personal experience that defect
> shells attract the look to the defect too often, and when mixed with
> perfect shells they take down the whole collection and one gets a
> messy impression and in the very long run one may get tired of this
> collection.
>
> On the other hand, it is impossible to make a quite complete
> collection of a given family without accepting imperfect shells: many
> species have never been collected in perfect condition. A collection
> of Conidae with perfect lips will only be a fraction of the complete
> family. 70 % are virtually impossible to get with perfect lips,
> without sponge holes or growth lines.
>
> My personal satisfaction giving solution is: I put only perfect
> shells on display, so I never get tired. The study material is stored
> away in a systematic way. Unless it concerns a fantastic species
> which I want to see, even imperfect.
>
> As for the markets: paying customers expect the best possible
> quality. But we think there is a market for defect shells. Possibly
> we will open a line at very cheap prices to get rid of the tons of
> stocked away material which is not perfect, but top interesting for
> the scientific collection. I would appreciate the opinion of the
> shellers here: are you interested to buy cheap defected shells ? And
> do you prefer to buy "sets" (ex: 25 Olango shells for 10 $) or
> individual pieces at 1 $ or so ?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Guido