Well I just spent far more than I budgeted at the local show - there was no slabs or rough there, but plenty of fossils, mineral specimens and then a guy who cut all his own cabochons...
He had a bargain bin. I figured his bargain bin would be chipped cabs, stuff with fractures - NOPE! Basically when his supply of say one mineral that is cabbed gets low, he takes the remainder and marks them down and puts them in the bargain bin. I got fairly large Chrysocolla cabs for $10 each. I have a few Jasper ones of unknown origins as well. One was marked $6!!!
Some of the Chrysocolla has areas of banding that looks like azurite and malachite. It's amazing stuff.
He had thousands of cabs on the regular sales racks. Gorgeous stones. I bought a cab of Apache Gold, Pietersite, and dragonblood Jasper as well.
From another booth I got double terminated Tibetan quartz crystals and other druzy or crystalline pieces of minerals to wire-wrap. One of the last booths I went to I got a double sided tongue shaped cab of rutilated quartz. Yeah I'm happy!
Now I just live like a pauper for the next couple weeks....
