And that is why I love being a rockhound and gemologist: it's like knowing a language that anyone can access but not everyone takes the time to study the Rosetta Stone long enough to be able to translate the language. Which I hope doesn't sound condescending, because there was a time when I thought " a rock is just a rock, big whoopity doo".

Dude, I don't mean to be a butt, but I bet you have something very similar For instance, I had a friend in the UK who recently told me "We don't have anything like the estate sales that you guys have" Yeah, they do I looked up real estate auctions by her, and found dozens of companies, with dozens of listings. Maybe an auction wasn't happening that particular day, but they had them. Granted, the scenarios I've described are rare, you can't just pick the very first listing you see and expect to find a secret chamber in someone's chicken coop that contains the Holy grail, Excalibur, the jewel of the Nile, and the Heart of the Ocean. But I've been going to these things since I've been old enough to hold a hot dog, and rarely have I come home without some little treasure that someone else has overlooked.