| Trading
The number of sand samples you can collect yourself can
be limited by your ability to visit locations, perhaps due
to lack of time or money or just the distances involved. One
way round this problem is to trade samples of sand with
fellow collectors in other parts of the country or in other
countries around the world.
Trading or exchanging sand samples is as simple as it
sounds, you trade samples of sand that you've collected
yourself or have in your possession with sand collected by
another collector. This is usually done using the postal
service or you may meet with a local collector in person.
The cost of packaging and postage is born by each
individual.
If you are planning to exchange sand samples the first
thing you need to do is to create a trade list. This is
essentially a catalogue of the sands you have available for
trade. It's very important to include as much information
about each sample as you can, for example:
- country of origin
- nearest town or city
- type and colour of sand
- where the sand was found
- date sample collected
- number of samples available to trade
- what you are looking to trade for
- any other relevant information
Sand is usually traded on a like for like basis, based on
the capacity of a standard 35 mm film canister - about 32 ml
of dry sand. You can use film canisters to send samples
although self-seal polythene bags are also an option. Use
the film canister to measure out your samples and don't
"short-sand" anyone, other collectors will soon
find out via the various online forums.
Packaging up your exchange samples needs to be done
carefully as your package may be travelling half way round
the world. One method is to start by making sure each
individual sample is secure and labelled correctly. These
are then placed inside two separate polythene bags and
secured with tape. This is then wrapped in cardboard before
going into a padded jiffy type bag. If you don't have a supply
of film canisters, small use self-seal bags. If using
film canisters, tape up the cap to prevent inadvertent spillage.
While I'm happy to include a page about trading sand here
in the web site, I do not trade sand myself. My personal
view is that if collecting something you should actually
physically collect it yourself in the field. Acquiring
samples by trading with others if fine if that's what you
want to do, however, I feel that it somehow lessens the
achievement of collecting yourself.
You may think that not trading sand would severely limit
my collection and I did think this myself when I first
started collecting. However, as my collection grew, I soon
came to realise that the number of samples available for
collection was not the problem, time was. I did some rough
calculations to see just how many samples I might be able to
collect here in the British Isles, this being based on what
I'd collected during the first three months of collecting -
about 400 samples from some 50 different locations, an
average of 8 samples per location. From the Commissioned
Reports on the Beaches of Scotland I knew there were 650
beaches in Scotland over 100 metres in length. Then you've
got all the beaches less than 100 metres long, together with
all the rivers, ponds, quarries, gravel pits and other sites
dotted across Scotland. At a rough guess I would estimate
there exists easily some 2000 locations where sand might be
collected and with 8 samples per site, that's a lot of
samples - somewhere in the region of 16,000 no less. And
that's not including any locations in England and Wales.
With this number of samples readily available in the British
Isles I have more than enough to keep me occupied for the
next 20 years or so. This is why I'm not interested in
trading sand. |
