Today there was a auction in Nampa Idaho at the corner of Franklin and Cherry. I was quite excited about this as the stuff that was to be auctioned off was years of somebodies rock hounding memories, thats right about 50 years worth of collecting. I arrived a little early about 9:15 to see what was available and man there were boxes, buckets and anything else that you could put a rock into.
 
 
After just glancing over the material I spotted a box of Bruneau Jasper, Succor Creek Thundereggs, Owyhee Picture Jasper, Snake Skin Agate, and Grave Yard Point Plume Agate.
 

 
Most of the material could be found locally in the Owyhee Mountains around in Southwestern Idaho, more specifically Owyhee County or just over the boarder in Eastern Oregon. There were also numerous Jasper slabs and some beautiful cabochons as well. Last but not least there was a huge Highland Park Lapidary Saw I think it had to be in the 30 inch range.
 
 
The auction started at 10:00 a.m. and I was right up at the table to maybe obtain some of these rocks. Well out of the gates people were bidding these rocks to outrageous prices. I mean who in there right mind would spend $20 dollars on a sandwich bag full of tumbled Petrified Wood? I guess these people would and they were spending hundreds of dollars on these rocks. Way to rich for my blood, so I stepped back and watched the organized chaos unfold in front of me.
 
 
So needless to say I did not bring a single rock home from this event. I did find out that people pay adsorbent amounts of money for rocks that are less than 50 miles from the location of this auction. The one good thing about all of the money that was being spent is that 50% of all rock sales were being donated to the Owyhee Gem and Mineral Society which I am a member of and hopefully the club will use these funds for some equipment.