Is it better to collect local rocks you find yourself or buy specimens from other regions?

I grabbed a chunk of basalt from a creek bed near my house last weekend instead of ordering a polished amethyst from Brazil online, and now I'm wondering if I'm missing out on variety or just saving money on shipping - what do you all lean toward for your personal collections?

2 comments

2 Comments

lee_butler7h ago

Last summer I spent three whole hours trying to get this one lump of quartz out of a hillside near my aunt's place in Missouri. Ended up with a chunk the size of my fist that's got this weird rusty orange stain running through it. My buddy Dave who buys his rocks from some dealer in Arizona just laughed and said it looked like a dirty ice cube. But there's something about knowing exactly where that thing came from, you know? I can point to the exact spot on the map where I dug it out. Can't do that with a box that showed up on my porch.

sama806h ago

Yeah, that's the thing about buying stuff vs finding it yourself.