Sand Trading

Bay of Islands, Paihia, New Zealand | Photo by Leo Kenney

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There will be sand trading sessions each day of the event. 

On Thursday and Friday, we plan to return to the venue by ~3:30 PM for afternoon trading sessions. The trading room times on Saturday and Sunday will be announced as the rest of the event program evolves. The trading room will be inside the Nature Center, immediately adjacent to the large primary meeting room.

Think of it as a self-serve sand buffet!
There will be tables set up in the trading area and each attendee will have a space to set out a portion of their pre-packaged sand packages, which you can restock as the supply is depleted. We ask folks to pre-package trade sands as soon they can before arrival. We wish to minimize (if not eliminate) the transfer of sand inside the Nature Center.  If the weather accommodates, bulk sands can be packaged in the outside pavilion. 

You can bring as many pre-packaged bags as you wish.  The size and quantity you trade is up to you, but the standard trading size is 30 ml (about 2 tablespoons) which is generally packaged into resealable 2" by 3" or 2.5" by 3" bags. Less than 30 ml is OK, especially for truly special samples, but most consider that amount to be the standard. 

Various bags of sand samples labeled with locations and coordinates, including Turtle Cove in Guam and Condado Beach in Puerto Rico.

Sand Buffet at SandFest 2022 | Photo by Jelle Talma

Five labeled bags of sand from different locations, each with distinct labels and coordinates. Bag A: Tolleston Dunes, Indiana. Bag B: City of North East, Pennsylvania. Bag C: Main Beach, Phippsburg, Farrel E. Jones. Bag D: Mickler’s Landing, Ponte Vedra, Florida. Bag E: Otter Point Beach, Nesika Oregon. A ruler is shown at the bottom for scale.

Examples of 30 ml Sand Sample Bags | Photo by Fred Haynes

Sand Buffet Trading Rules

Accurate and complete labeling on the sand packages is essential.  

At a minimum, labels should include your name and the location of the sand (with GPS coordinates if possible). The type of sand (beach, river, glacial, etc.), perhaps noting interesting mineralogy or biogenic components, is good also. Please, no anonymous sand!  

Do not exceed the space allotted to you. There should be space under the table to store additional sand samples that can be moved onto the table as needed. Sand samples under the table are unavailable until their owner moves them onto the buffet table, and no closed boxes can be opened.

Shipping Sand to SandFest

For those traveling (particularly by air), we will provide an address where sand can be shipped.  We will make sure it gets to the venue from there.