Our History
We have been selling and dealing in Méxican opals and fire agates for the past five years, learning all of the history and getting first hand information and sometimes incredible deals direct from the miners. Over the past couple of years we have made a close personal relationship with a few honest and reliable miners, with whom we have gained their trust. And in return, they save us the best opals and fire agates they find in the mines.

We, in return, pass along the best possible deals to our clients on the internet - no rip-offs, no false claims. If we got a deal on something, we pass it along to you. The past couple of years things have been very tough on the miners and their families. In 2006 the fire agate mines in Magdalena closed and soon their opal mines might close as well. Our fire agates come exclusively from Calvillo in Aguascalientes and our fire opals from the Tequisquiapan area of Querétaro. We abide by the wishes of our mining amigos as to minimum prices to sell their products at, so not to make things harder (financially) for them than they already are. By devaluing the high quality gemstones that are already depleting rapidly today compared to the abundance, size and quality of opals that were available in the 1960's.

Buyer Beware
Unfortunately on the internet (and websites like eBay) their are dealers that not only overprice opals and outright lie to the consumer about their rarity, but they also have you to believe that opals in cantera are gems and as such they price them by the carat. Not only is this dishonest, but a horrible injustice to the consumer, the miners and the true value of the opal.

You can only price an opal in cantera by grams, to give a carat value an opal must be completely free of cantera. The same goes for fire agate, no chalcedony, nor dark dead spots without fire - a fire agate must be at least 75% fire before it can be valued by carat. Please be careful when purchasing from these types of dealers, we see them selling items at 3 to 4 times for what we sell them for. They give excuses pertaining to the high cost of living in the United States and other countries. The question you need to ask yourself is; "why am I paying for their living standards?"

Fire Agate Price Chart                                Fire Opal Price Chart  (coming soon)

Help
If you have any questions about any opals or fire agate, feel free to contact us and we will try to help you, if we can. But please remember, these stones are part of nature, no two are alike and some color variations are so rare and unusual that we may never find another one similiar again. We do keep want lists and pass them on to our pulidors (polishers) in the mines, who do keep an eye open for special stones - if they should happen to appear.

Shipping
Follow this link to our chart of complete shipping information throughout the world. We ship via Mexican Postal Service (Sepomex) and by all of the large international carriers, like: FedEx, UPS and DHL.