Glossary to Shell Dealer's Technical Terms
| what you read on the pricelist.... | ... may basically mean... |
|---|---|
| from an old collection | beached |
| from an old lady | the data is faked, the shell is crap |
| gem | anything not beachworn |
| fine + | broken or at least sort of rugged |
| gem for the species | at least 75% of the shell is there |
| interesting | good chance you'll find out what this shell actually was |
| natural history specimen | the holes haven't been fixed |
| bargain | get the hell out of here |
| pre-melanistic | basically has colour |
| not as heavy as they might get | juvenile |
| a winner | won many underwater fights that certainly left their traces |
| classic form | looks somehow xeroxed |
| almost world record size | still inbetween the bold |
| new stock | just oiled my old ones over, or: comes in a fresh bag |
| rare locality | found that on the map |
| dark | has colour |
| heavy specimen | dried mud inside makes thing heavy |
| choice | that's how they came |
| animal preserved | stinky and sticky |
| fresh | stinky (see also "animal preserved") |
| fresh dead | something like "fine for the species" |
| hard to get | hard to get rid of |
| interesting pattern | growth lines all over |
| healed chip at anterior | anterior chipped off but shell could survive (see "gem of the species") |
| rarely on lists | see "hard to get" |
| classic rarity | faded |
| literally gem | has the letters "gem" in its name (e.g. gemmosa) |
| for experts | common stuff at five times its value |
| deep water form | without colour, and/or juvenile |
| from the trawlers | beaten up |
| beginners bargain | kick in the rear price |
| fresh colour | soaked with oil |
| funny shape | see "from the Trawlers" |
| beginning melanism | standard colour before they become "classic" |
| good size | comes in a big bag |
| fragile | broken |
| large monsters | comes in a big box with lots of styrofoam |
| Only one | no refund |
| special | a combination of "new stock" and "good size" |
| newly named | overpriced |
| by native fishermen | dragged them out of one of those baskets |
| rare | had to actually pay for these |
| displays well | a hole in one side |
| great dorsal aspect | a hole on the base |
| good value | good repair |
| good | pretty bad |
| representative | ugly but probably the thing, I guess |
| the real thing | looks like the real broken thing in that book (e.g. ostergaardi in Burgess, 1985) |
| never before offered | made up the name before anyone else did |
| unbelievable | unbelievable |
| incomparable | unrecognizable |
| delicate | gets lost in the mail or won't be found in its bag |
| barely noticable | no glasses needed to see that |
| giant | doesn't fit in the small bags, or: bigger than mine |
| dwarf | not small enough |
| cute | too small |
| freak | stuff that normally gets thrown away (see "natural history specimen") |
| new locality | it wasn't on my old map |
| crabbed | crapped (see: "freak") |
| new variety | doesn't look the way it should |
| the actual nominate form | anything to sell these |
| hard to describe | I could not find them in the book either |
| new species | today's rarity, tomorrow's "actual nominate form" |
| not exactly gem | broken |
| sub-rostrate | just normal |
| endemic | from Hawaii (a definition given by C.M. Burgess) |
| c/f... | I wished it was... |
| almost gem | anything except gem |
| Connoisseur's choice | excellent fixing job |
| Connoisseur's choice | did Monsieur Connoisseur really choose that crap? |
| bizarre beauty | thousands of tiny drillholes |
| smooth lip | smoothed lip |
| natural defect | see "freak" |
| f+/gem | somewhat defective |
| cloudy pattern | partly washed-off pattern |
| ex pisce | either dull or polished |
| possible hybrid with... | resembles... |
| basic data | wrong name, no data |
| exceptional | correct name |
| from an old collection (II) | has a number painted on or/and glue in aperture |
| slight erosion | barely recognizable |
| unique | only one left in stock |
| recently described | described after World War II |
| almost unobtainable | we found a reef full of these, but we sell them one at a time |
| very rare | reports that these are actually common are only available locally |
| from Hawaii | Lost the data but range includes Hawaii |
| selected | all that was left |
| best one we've seen | ONLY one we've seen |
| minor growth scar | cracked |
| granulated | coral still stuck on it |
| extremely variable | all ugly |
| does not detract from beauty | data slip in Braille |
| gem of the first water | should have been left in the water |
| typical | boring |
| does not detract | defect is only thing you will see |
| delicious | seriously overgraded second we desperately want to dump |
| microdefects | Still visible from outer space |
| rare in this condition | I wasn't drunk when I graded this |
| Not illustrated in Lorenz | ... I'm a lot brighter than him |
