Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

With so many gem shows going on in Tucson this time of the year, it’s easy to lose track of which show, what, where and when. It’s my second time in Tucson and my first time attending the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show that lasted from February 11 – 14.
I love this show, with so much cool stuff to see and good deals to buy! My only wish is that they charge only a nominal admission fee instead of $ 13 ($ 11 if you print out the coupon and you need one for each person!) A $ 5 admission would be ideal… $ 13 is a bit too much on top of all the money you’ll spend buying cool rocks.
There is a nice education program for kids where geology undergrad students would explain geology and rocks to the youngsters who also get to take home with 12 specimens of their choice in an egg carton! They have Quartz, rose gypsum, etc. It definitely sparks kids’ interests in science and rocks!
The show has a variety of booths but they can pretty much be categorized in such: middle-​end jewelry ($ 100‑1000), low-​end jewelry (below $ 100), jewelry supplies, loose fashioned stones and specimens that are Smithsonian-​worthy charging astronomical prices for the top 1%; you belong to the top 1% if you can spare 80K for a slab of rock for display instead of buying a car or using it as a down payment for your house. See photos for the specimens. There aren’t really any rough stones there though for cutters.
I was able to get some jewelry below $ 50 and some loose stones for cheap! The area has at least 300 vendors and a couple more inside the stadium next to the exhibition hall.
Don’t worry about getting hungry either. A row of food trucks serving Mexican, Chinese, Greek food, etc. await you as you exit the hall through the side doors. Follow the smell.
Parking is free but it’s not a bad idea to park in the garage for $ 5 a day to avoid the Arizonan heat.
Great time here! 5 hours of nonstop shopping!

All of Tucson is a gem show at the beginning of February. It is quite a site. You can get some good deals here as well. Some shows are wholesale only, this one was open to the public. Well worth checking out.

This is a yearly event in late January/​early February. It is HUGE and there are sites all over town. If you have a business license you can get into the restricted tents where you can purchase wholesale-​some vendors require a minimum amount but few do. People come from all over the world to show their wares or to buy. It is advisable to pick up a catalog for a map. I have found the sites along the freeway or at Tucson Electric Park to have the best prices for non-​wholesale and some people will bargain with you. The last 4 days the Tucson Convention Center is full of vendors and retail prices are to be expected. you have to pay to get in but there are always some interesting displays along with the vendors. Prices are generally very good at the gem show. You can get raw gems or finished jewelry. At a shop in Alaska, they told me I’d get the best price for their wares at the gem show in Tucson. Some places are very crowded and it is overwhelming. Another feature is that they offer classes about jewelry at some of the sites as well. The website is
which gives dates for the show at the convention center but can give you an idea of what to expect.

The TCC portion of our city’s annual gem show comes near the end (over the last weekend). By then I’m usually all spent out but still go when I can because of the incredible displays! I have been to the smithsonian museum’s mineral wing and they have nothing on some of the stones you can see here. If you truly love crystals and gems, this is a nice day spent appreciating the beautiful gifts nature has given us.
I avoid the rooms full of mass marketed merchandise. Being a hand crafted jewelry artisan, I never liked the manufactured stuff and by the end of the gem show we are all SICK of seeing it. I have never won any door prize at this show even though I have gone for several years now and check my little ticket every hour or so when they call out the latest winner. The prices at the TCC show are higher than at other locations you can visit during our city’s 2 week gem show. This is not the place to go for bargains. Its the place to go if you want to see museum quality crystals (like emeralds the size of golf balls or a perfectly clear gemmy aquamarine crystal the size of a large desk lamp). The displays make this show for me and even at the end of 2 weeks worth of staring at rocks, it still makes my heart sing!

I had a great time attending the TG&M show. I am a nerd for gems and rocks, but you do not have to be to enjoy the show. If you enjoy finding unique and creative jewelry, there are PLENTY of options. The whole town actually takes part in the show as well. We came on the last weekend of the show. It was good because inside the convention center you could get some good deals on treasure. It was bad because outside of the convetion center, everyone was packing up before noon on Sunday. I look forward to going next year.

Bigger isn’t always better, and the Gem and Mineral Show proves it. My friend Chad took me up and down the frontage road adjacent to I10, so as far as navigation goes, it was really easy to figure out where to go because we simply walked in a straight line! It was near impossible to find anything specific though. Maybe that’s not the point? I really wanted to find an Israeli booth selling custom jewelry but the maps posted everywhere are useless and the guidebook is bananas! How do you read that thing? Regardless we did enjoy walking around and taking it all in. I even saw Jamie M from Zocalo and 2^nd Saturdays. We laughed that after years in AZ it was both of our first times at the event. All in all I think it’s great for the city, it brings in quite a pretty penny. I do wish it was organized a bit better though and I wish finding things was a touch clearer. Maybe Unilocal can help!