Johann Zenz, in AGATES II, referred to me as ‘the well known U.S. agate trader, Thom Lane’. I’m not sure how well known I am or how it sounded in the original German, but I liked the sound of the phrase and that is how TheAgateTrader.com got its name. My role has a lot to do with getting our material, doing lapidary work and staying in touch with our customers. My partner Fabiola is our photographer. She designed and implemented our website and she does a great deal more. Our work is interwoven, she knows a lot about stones and we work closely on our various projects. We work out of our home in Tucson, Arizona.                                                                                                                                                                  

I began collecting rocks when I was nine and around that time my sister Deborah gave me my first agate, a ‘Laker’ that she had found herself. I cut my first cab in a neighbor’s garage in San Jose, California, when I was twelve. I began mining crystal minerals when I was in High School and built a fine collection. I mined Benitoite and the mercury minerals such as Eglestonite.  Dana’s system of mineralogy led me to these and to many other locations near San Jose. I found a nice piece of Poppy Jasper in a dry wash in the course of a BB gun fight.

Around 1970 I quit a respectable computer job and began making my living cutting cabochons. My search for my favorite rough, Morrisonite, took me to Quartzsite and the Tucson Show, and to the summer rockhound shows in Oregon as well. Soon I met Gene Mueller and Jake Jacobitz and this led me to mining with Gene, first at the Morrisonite Mine and later in Mexico. I came across a lot of interesting materials at the shows and I began to build a collection of fine agate and jasper slabs and specimens. This collection is the main source for the U.S. and Mexican material on this website.