"Great idea, Don. I can come up with a number from the various rockhound federations ... at least number of people who belong to clubs. There are probably 4 or 5 who don't belong for every one who does, but harder to count the non-joiners. Has anyone got a way to count the treasure hunters? Would be good to have a joint number, and I'll send it to the production company.
The production folks believe that the 'cash' intrigue increases viewership. I don't agree, I find it somewhat distasteful, but I'm not paying the bills,thankfully, as the bills are large. Travel isn't that high a percentage of their costs ... people and production are their highest costs, which is why they have filmed so many out-of-country locales. What floats their boat is uniqueness, so they're not likely to pick up on an agate locality in every state, tho that would be fun for us.
After the RockCandy Mountain show appeared, our trip business doubled. Our guides took informal surveys, 2/3 of our visitors had seen the show, but only 10% said they belonged to any kind of treasure-seeking organization. Only a handful of visitors expressed an interest in what their finds were worth.
Bob"