Dipping Our Toes Into Tuscon: How to Rock Your First Trip to the Tucson Gem Show
How we embraced our delayed store opening as a chance to experience the biggest gem show in the nation. Read on for tips on how you can go too…
Winging it at the Tuscon Gem Show 2025
The Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase is basically Disney World for crystal lovers, mineral collectors, and jewelry makers. The entire city is peppered with over 40 impressively large shows that seem to be everywhere you look. From hosting convention centers to hotels to massive tent cities along the highway and beyond, each show has its own personality, dates, hours and parking.
This is what we learned in a fat weekend by venturing out to see how it all worked. And this is how two crystal girlies make lemonade out of lemons when two hurricanes delayed our store opening.
🌵 A Little History: How Tucson Became Gem Central
The Tucson Gem Show began in 1955 with a small event in an elementary school hosted by the Tucson Gem & Mineral Society. Its popularity grew quickly, attracting vendors and collectors from all over the world. Satellite gem shows began popping up around the city scheduled before, during and after the OG show. Today, its entirety has created the largest gem show in the U.S., renowned for its diverse selection and welcoming atmosphere. It is no wonder that it had been on our vision boards for years.
✈️**1. Just Go!**
Everyone everywhere recommends planning ahead but we say the best way is to just go! Yes, you should have an idea of the basics and yes, planning ahead gives you the peace of knowing you have a nice place to stay or that the rental car agency will not give you an enormous pick up truck because they are out of cars- but there were still places (and trucks) to book two weeks out. We booked for the last weekend of most pre-shows so it would not be too lulu.
The Tucson Gem Show isn’t one event—it’s a city-wide takeover. Even though the airport is about 15 minutes from the action, we do recommend renting a car. And if you are a wholesaler, grab your Reseller's Certificates and business cards and go.
💵 **2. Have Cash & Be Ready to Haggle**
Some shows have paid parking and only accept cash. We paid $10-$15 to park at some of the shows.
Many vendors accept cards, but some only accept checks or cash. Cash often gets you a better deal and if you are a wholesaler, speak up! Don’t be afraid to negotiate—haggling is part of the experience! Start with a polite, “What's your best price on this?" and see what happens.
There are ATMs at most sites and sellers often accept Zelle but Zelle will only let you send $1,000 max per day, per person (even if you have several accounts) and ATMs (and banks) have limits on withdrawals. The ATM at 22nd Street only allowed for up to a $200 withdrawal per day.
🧳 **3. Pack the Essentials**
Supportive close-toed shoes are a must- many of the lots and shows are dusty. Tucson in February can be chilly in the morning and warm by afternoon. Layer up and wear your most comfortable shoes—you’ll be walking a lot.
A sturdy tote or rolling bag- something on wheels! We definitely missed our rolling wagon. We did bring a rolling suitcase with us to the shows but it was not helpful for carrying delicate flats of specimens that you do not want to tip!
🎪 **4. Show Days**
Bring water when you venture out. There are food truck courts but it is nice to go with your own big bottle of water. Tuscon is a great place to go if you want to get dehydrated.
Bring cash! Cash is KING.
Bring a gemstone flashlight to really see all aspects of your stones and always check for chips and nicks.
Bring wipes for hands- Some shows have nice trailer bathrooms with water, others have port-a-potties.
Bring a tape measure, if you plan to ship boxes. Very helpful in knowing what size you need.
Bring business cards and Resale Certificates if you have them. It is helpful for vendors when they are filling out your invoices to have your info.
Bring a sweatshirt and/or dinner appropriate attire. Get ready to be shopping ALL DAY and have something to wear if it gets chilly or if you want to grab a bite on the way out. You may also want to plan ahead with reservations as restaurants are much busier this time of year!
📦 **5. Shipping Goodies Back Home**
The UPS store is super busy. There are shipping sites right at the shows to send your finds back home. You can take advantage of this or find your own way, like we did.
We saved every single wrapping material we got, used every roll of toilet paper (including the toilet paper roll itself), used every paper bag, plastic bags and even cardboard drink trays became packing materials. We ordered a bubble wrap roll with FRAGILE stickers and two tape guns (just do not call them that when you are going through TSA) from Amazon Prime and had it delivered to our Airbnb. We did find out that they generally do not like you receiving mail at an Airbnb but there are nearby Amazon lockers you can use. We picked up small boxes at Walgreens and then later went to Walmart for bigger ones. Shipping boxes and materials are pretty popular out there and they even had a huge aisle display.
We did not use USPS this time around but they do have flat rate boxes that are free to pick up at the post office. You only pay when you use them but please note, there are weight limits even with those and rocks can weigh A LOT.
Either way, leave enough time to wait on line to mail your packages because everyone else will be doing the same thing.
🤝 **6. Network & Collect Contacts**
Some of the best finds come from vendors you build relationships with. Collect business cards and follow their social media. You can most definitely feel the vibe of a vendor when you enter their space, ask how their pricing works and experience their merch. Although you are sometimes asked to not photograph items at shows, only one vendor snapped at us for taking a pic. We found ourselves not liking her stuff very much after that :-/
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**Final Thought:**
Whether you’re going for the crystals, the fossils, or the vibes, the Tucson Gem Show is an unforgettable experience. Just remember to have fun, stay hydrated, and leave room in your suitcase for your finds—because you *will* buy more than you planned. All crystals that we did not ship, went in our carry-on. In the past, TSA has unwrapped large crystals to investigate what they were but we have a feeling that the Tuscon TSA has seen many-a-rock. We did bubble wrap our pieces and used rubber bands instead of tape, in case they wanted to open them and all of our finds made it back to Florida just fine.
Want to see what we got? Follow us on Facebook & Insta or come visit us on a Sunday at the Corey Ave Sunday Market. You can also sign up to follow our store opening news and stay tuned for our next online re-stock!! 💎✨