Tucson Trip Review – Day 1

Leaving the deep freeze of south Texas, arriving only to find Tucson is just as frigid in weather! It didn’t keep us from our mission; to hunt through shows, vendors and dig through boxes and tons of product hand picking all our new inventory stock for the coming year. We bundled up and hit the indoor shows first, hoping that in the next few days the weather would lighten up (we were granted our wish!) and get a little warmer to attend some of the outdoor shows. Here’s the first review of our trip to Tucson, the shows we attended and some of our finds.

As a reminder our disclosure/disclaimer: As a reviewer of the products, shows or vendors attended in Tucson is solely that of our experiences and opinions. We were in no way compensated or paid to review or provide feedback, comment or opinions for the Tucson shows we attended. With that out of the way, here’s our review of our recent Tucson trip.

Day 1: Due to high winds and freezing temperatures, we opted for indoor shows and started the day after arrival at JOGS International Gem & Jewelry Show (JOGS). This show has in the past always been a venue representing minerals, rocks, beads, jewelry products and finished products from all over the work; specifically their well known Amber vendors, which appeared (to me) to be a little thin in vendors than in past years. The area of Southwestern jewelry also seemed to be a little thin in the vendors, but big on finished jewelry.

Pros: If you are in the market for finished jewelry, there was plenty of it from all over, mostly overseas. The quality varied from vendor to vendor as well as pricing; you could find some products for less than $100 up to over $1000’s. If cost is no object, then sterling silver at many vendors was just the ticket; but buyer beware that the sterling silver is an overlay and not solid, I had a hard time finding the required .925 mark on most of the jewelry, though the vendors claimed it to be sterling silver. Overall, there are lots of selection but mostly in the finished jewelry products; leaving anyone who is looking for raw materials a little in the wind. This year did have a few more vendors offering displays, boxes, etc. which was nice to see.

Cons: Way too much finished jewelry (although this show usually has a lot), not enough in the way of raw materials for minerals, fossils, natural stones, or beading stock. There lacked the many large and interesting displays such as the famous meteorite from last year that this show is also known for. Some of the vendors appeared to be either packed together so close that we didn’t even get to some because we couldn’t; or strung out too much that one didn’t know where it stopped and another began. There wasn’t enough variety and too many overseas vendors offering less than quality products across the board.

Overall: JOGS is a good place to start but is quickly becoming ‘just another show’ in the arena of overseas vendors with inferior products. The cost of goods was higher than last year and many vendors were not willing to give discounts unless the buyer was purchasing in large volumes, both monetary and stock. Navigating the hall mazes we did manage to find several great finds here at JOGS; a sterling silver ring with a center stone of Mexican Fire Opal with very brilliant red, large ceramic Mexican beads, several faceted and non-faceted odd shaped pendants, quite a few of the pewter spacers and metal beads….just to name a few of the things we picked up here. I’ll continue to watch this show, but I don’t know whether or not I will keep in to my ‘must see’ list of shows in the future, since it was missing several of my big vendors that I do business.

We had several hours left in the day and decided to head over and check out Gem Mall. This is a huge wholesale only show with 2 very large tents full of vendors and their products. We only got through the first tent, so I’ll be reviewing this one later on this week as an entire show.

Stay tuned for more reviews of our Tucson trip and Adventure!!