Collector Spotlight: Will Larson

How many years have you been collecting and what started your passion?

I was born into minerals to say the least. I have been collecting minerals since I was a child. I actually can’t remember the first time I had a mineral specimen in my hands because I was that young. Probably even as a 1 year old I already had minerals in my hands. If you know anything about my family this would be pretty normal growing up as part of the Larson Family. If you are not aware of my family and our history my Father, Bill Larson, is the owner and operator of Pala International, a gemstone and mineral company specialized in not only the sale of minerals and gems but also the mining of them. Dad has done mining projects all over the world but he is most famous for the Tourmalines that he has found in San Diego County. I grew up in some of these world famous mines. The Himalaya Mine in particular is the one I spent most of my childhood in. From the ages of three to about twelve years old when we closed the mine I was able to dig pockets of tourmaline. This unique experience imprinted on me the love and passion for minerals that I carry with me to this day. I do not think I could go without them! It truly has been part of my entire life, albeit all consuming at some points. One of my first major mineral memories is removing a double tourmaline from a pocket I fit inside. My father pushed me inside the pocket and I reached around until I found something loose. I cut my finger but did not care as I had a big tourmaline in my hands that I could barley grasp. The year was 1989 and I still have this tourmaline in my collection to this day. From that day forward I was a huge mineral collector!

What's the focus of your collection and has that changed through time? Why?

I have a couple main focuses today but I will go over them and how I got there. The first I’ll discuss is my Japanese mineral collection. Then I began to collect quartz, copper and thumbnails. Before I go into more details I’ll admit that I have struggled to focus, as I truly do love all minerals that are well crystalized and easily viewable. Although I’ve never been a fan of micro mounts or rarities that are a tiny spec with an arrow pointing towards them I can appreciate other collectors enjoying their beauty and rarity. I’m going to start my story here of my collecting path from when I was 19 years old.

In 2004 I went to Japan for the first time with a classmate of mine Shoko Miyzaki and the trip really inspired me. She had family all over Japan and we did a backpack trip over 11 days mostly crashing at her family’s homes or apartments. We went from Tokyo all the way down to Fukuoka. The trip really inspired me and I fell in love with the country. I wanted to know more about Japanese minerals when I came back as I realized I never really saw much for sale at Tucson (the primary show I went to as a child). What was very interesting is that after returning from Japan I found it very hard to find any information or specimens available. I asked my father how I might be able to get some specimens or learn more about them. He found Wada’s book “Minerals of Japan” on Japanese minerals and gave it to me for my birthday. Dad also had three specimens in his collection from Japan – a blue topaz, a japan-law twin quartz and a fluorite on quartz. These three specimens became the start of my collection as I traded my father much of my Colorado mineral collection (my previous collection) for them.

My father’s friend Gene Meieran had quite a few Japanese minerals in his collection at the time and we decided to visit him before Tucson one year. Gene at the time had about 20-30 specimens from Japan that he had acquired over the years going to Japan for work as an Intel scientist. I ended up with a few of Gene’s specimens over the years and am very proud to own them. Between my father and the specimens from Gene I began to acquire what today is the core of my collection.

Maybe you as a collector can understand this but I put all of my energy into finding Japanese minerals. But because the specimens in the quality I was looking for were so rare I often would be “distracted” by other wonderful minerals and of course would break my focus. I ended up with quite a few quartz specimens and thumbnails over the years along with many other specimens that just struck my eye.

When Rika and I started dating one of our very first trips together was to the Mount Peterson/Hallelujah Junction to dig quartz scepters. We had a blast digging them and of course this lead to more quartz in the collection. This brings me to stage two of the collection were we really began to focus on collecting world wide quartz specimens since we had so much fun digging quartz and they are relatively not as expensive as other materials.

As Rika and I deepened our relationship and I saw her passion for minerals grow I had her join me working the Tucson Mineral Show. One year she and I spent hours pouring through flats and flats of thumbnails at the TGMS show in Dave Bunks booth I think it was 2013 but I cant remember. This is truly the beginning of our thumbnail collection. We started small and most of the thumbnails were fun cute things that we liked and could afford at the time. Over time though we gradually moved our priority to thumbnails. Rika and I built a great friendship with our friend Kyle Kevorkian who I’m sure many of you know as a passionate thumbnail collector. Between Kyle’s friendship and the timing of many great thumbnail collections coming to the market we really focused on growing this section of the collection. When Ralph Clark decided to sell his collection in Denver of 2018 and this year Rich Olsen selling his collection in Tucson 2020 we added many world class thumbnails to our collection. As they say timing is everything.

What do you like to do outside of mineral collecting? (hobbies, job, music taste, etc).

Outside of Mineral collecting I am an avid gamer. I have played or play Magic the Gathering, Path of Exile, World of Warcraft, Animal Crossing, Pokémon Go, etc. etc.! I also love music and listen to a wide variety from Rock, Jazz, Hip Hop, Metal, J-pop, to weird obscure bands from countries I’ve visited. You’d be surprised at some of my playlists I’m sure. I also really enjoy Comics, Manga and anime. I have watched most shows on crunchyroll.com if you are familiar with the website it is the Netflix of anime. But I’ll talk a bit more in depth about Magic the Gathering because that is my second most passionate hobby I partake in. Magic the Gathering (MtG) if you are unfamiliar is the worlds first Trading Card Game. Many games like Yugioh and Pokemon were created after and have heavy influences from MtG, I began to collect and open packs of MtG sometime in 1994 or 1995. My parents traveled a lot for work and I’d drag them to a sports card store to buy packs of MtG. Wizards of the Coast (WotC) the parent company that owns MtG used to have retail stores and I remember making my Mom go to a WotC store as a young child to buy me packs at the UTC shopping mall. She thought it was weird and probably thought I would outgrow it but here I am today still into it. At the begging I was only collecting and enjoyed the artwork, as I did not know how to play the game yet. I of course also liked opening the packs to see what cool cards I would get, nothing better than “cracking packs.” Later after learning how to play the game from my friend Jason Engel and his father, who taught me the rules of the game, I played a lot of Magic both in middle school and high school. I continued until my collection was stolen sadly in 2004. After that I took a break from MtG and focused on minerals because I was too sad my stuff was stolen. I took a few years break but I did end up rebuying my favorite deck that was stolen in 2007 but I didn’t get back to playing until late 2008 or early 2009 after graduating university. Soon after I found out that you could collect the original artwork for MtG cards. MtG original artwork is a painting that WotC commissions an illustrative artist to make a painting for a card. Many of the cards are done digitally today but some are still hand painted. Based on the contract with WotC the artist are allowed to sell most originals after the release of the cards so the artist can make extra money on top of the commission fee they receive. As a player I did not know this and thought WotC kept everything in their vault or something. One day when I was on ebay searching for some cards I wanted I saw an original artwork for sale. The rest is history and I have amassed quite a large collection of MtG original art now and even turned it into a side business buying and trading for pieces I want.

Is there anyone who has inspired you in this field? Do you look up to the collection of someone in particular?

My father is my biggest inspiration in mineral collecting there is almost nothing he hasn’t done or seen I feel! Not only does he have a world-class mineral collection but he also has done so much for marketing the industry and promoting fine mineral specimen collecting and preservation. One example of preserving mineral specimens that I’m proud of my father for is gem crystals. Many gem crystals have been cut over the years because of their internal gem value but Dad was willing to pay the price to keep them uncut if he could and has many in his collection. He is a gem and mineral guy and most collectors do not have cross knowledge or like both, its either one or the other. I myself am not into most gemstones but every once in a while I see something I love, like a killer opal.

I have learned most of my mineral knowledge from my father and even as a soon to be 75 year old, Dad still has more passion for minerals than many people I know. For him minerals are a number one priority, more than vacations, nice meals, or the many other things he could spend money on, he almost always chooses mineral specimens.

I second person I’d like to mention is Gene Meieran, I look up to him as a collector, he has owned and still owns some of the finest mineral specimens I have ever seen. He has an amazing collection and spending time with him has always been a pleasure. For many years at TGMS Dad and Gene put in a joint case of fine minerals in. Being contrarians it normally is the opposite of whatever the show theme is. As time went on and I went from watching them set up to now being allowed to set up the case for them for the last few years I’ve felt like I learned a lot. Handling and working with Gene’s minerals is a true pleasure.

Where do you see yourself as a collector in 5,10 or 20 years?

I have always liked looking out into the future. I’ve been a planner my whole life, where do I want to be in 10 years, where do I want to be in 20 years? So this question really resonated with me. Of course we can never know where our future is taking us, but that’s half the fun of looking forward and hoping to get where you want to go. Currently one of my big goals as a collector is to expand my display area and have more minerals viewable. I’d hope in ten years to be able to have this dream accomplished. I would like to have a world class mineral collection and be able to share it with friends as they come to visit. Currently we have three showcases set up in our house so off to a good start. In twenty years I hope to be able to have located some of the specimens I’ve missed over the years that disappeared into collections. Patience is key in collecting and I’ve had to wait up to 15 years for a specimen to come onto the market (thank you Rich Olsen for selling it to me!). In twenty years I’ll be in my mid fifties. It’s hard for me to even imagine that right now. It seems so distant but when I was fifteen my mid thirties seemed impossibly far away...and here we are now. I’m hoping by my mid fifties as a collector I have found a good place to slow down. Although slowing down is probably not possible with my apatite for specimens being so insatiable. I’m not likely to slow down anytime soon. I’d like taking more time enjoying the specimens and spending less time on the grind in order to obtain them.

If you could give any advice to someone new to the hobby, what would it be?

If you are reading this and you are new to mineral collecting or thinking about getting into it I’d like to give you some advice I wish I had, despite all the instruction I’d been given growing up in a mineral family!

I think one of the most important things for a collector is patience. Its one of the hardest things to have because there are so many great minerals being offered all the time and just buying what you want is very satisfying. Having a focus can really help with this and I think its why my Japanese mineral collection has come so far. By being focused I could just say no to many of the other minerals I was being offered. Then when a good Japanese mineral came available I was either able to purchase it or work out a time payment plan so that I could obtain it. If I had bought a random specimen or something before I would perhaps miss that opportunity.

The other set of advice I’d like to give is that collecting is very personal and what you like and what the market currently likes are not always the same. This only really matters when it comes to price because if you buy what you like at a high price it can be really hard to recover the funds. If you are never planning to resell and you consider this money burned then it doesn’t really matter. I personally have found this with my copper collection as I paid some very high prices for pieces I thought were worth it but the market wont even touch them at a bit of a loss. Luckily I’ve decided to keep them now so its not a problem for me but if I had needed to get that money quickly for an emergency I would have been in for quite a loss of value.

Collecting based on a location or a size can be the very rewarding albeit out of fashion now. I think many people don’t know how to choose a direction with collecting and many collections end up looking similar. Not that there is anything wrong with that and for investing purposes perhaps is the best. But if you are a bit of a hipster like me and want to have a more unique or weird collection I’d suggest doing a ton of research before jumping in. With the resources we have today either on mindat or just on google you can really learn a lot about locations or specimens of certain restrictions. Invest in that research by either getting as many mineralogical records or rocks and minerals as you can. At the end of the day the collection should be something that brings you joy! So enjoy it!

What Specific aspect of the hobby would you like to learn more about?

Collecting not only brings us together over a shared passion but also gives us something to look forward to. With all that in mind I would like to be able to expand on the history of mineral collecting, as I know it dates back to hundreds of years. I’d also like to learn more about the mineralogy aspects of collecting minerals. I have a very bad science background, as I’m formally educated with a bachelor’s degree political science and history with a minor in Japanese language and paid little attention to chemistry in high school. I can honestly say I don’t often know as much as I should about the science behind the minerals that I love. I’ve been meaning to put more time into that aspect. Although I don’t think it necessary to really know the history or the chemistry while collect it is another important aspect of the hobby I don’t think I should ignore. I’ve spent the majority of my time learning what specimens are from where and what the “best” samples are from those locations. As a collector this knowledge is paramount to collecting as it heightens pattern recognition. You are able to identify breaks in patterns, which helps identifying rarities fakes etc. Adding the more science background would only further help me in identifying things and understand what is possible and not possible from certain locations.