Cypraea Mauritiana 78. 9mm, NEAR - GEM HAWAIIAN BEAUTY
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:15848485 | Country/Region of Manufacture: United States |
| Cypraea mauritiana: NEAR-GEM HAWAIIAN BEAUTY |
Another consignment sale by IslandShells323.Cypraea mauritiana 78.9mm, NEAR-GEM HAWAIIAN BEAUTY.
. I had several spots where I could find these big beauties, and all of them usually meant risking life and limb to collect them. The best time to get one was at low tide on a perfectly calm, flat day, which happened just about once a lifetime. The rest of the time, calm was a relative term, best redefined as---it wouldn't be fatal if you tried. I had one spot nex...t door to Sea Life Park that was like that. You could swim out and get to the spot where these beauties were, but still, the shell loves to hug the shoreline, so collecting them meant swimming back in to where the swells almost began to break. And while you were being swung back and forth a distance that ranged anywhere from five to ten feet by the "little" swells, you dove down and looked around the bases and sides of the huge lava boulders that the shell loved to cling to. Of course, this swinging motion that I mentioned tended to add a little bit of excitement to the entire process, since once you dove down, your main goal was not to find shells, but to avoid being thrown against the boulders by the "little" swells. A good day meant you found half a dozen in one trip, a bad day was when you found none, or worse, and every trip meant the possibility of unintentionally body-surfing into the boulder covered shore, which usually was less than ten to twenty feet away from where the shell liked to hide.... The worse day? Well, Sea Life Park was quite a drive from where I lived, so if we made the trip, I was motivated to try it if the surf wasn't rolling in. So on this particular day, it was one of those in-between kind of days---it wasn't impossible, but it wasn't exactly flat, either, if you know what I mean. Anyhow, I gave it a try, and my first warning should have been that visibility was down to five feet, a good indication that things were going to be rather rough. But, I was shell collecting, and these beauties are exhilarating to find, so, being the kind of person who doesn't know which side of the bread has the peanut butter on it, (dumb) I decided to at least take a look. . Well, that wasn't as easily done as it sounds. In fact, the swells were swinging me back and forth ten to twenty feet at a time, plus the up and down motion of the swells as they passed by was throwing me up and down two to three feet at a time, so just avoiding the boulders was a fulltime job. The visibility was terrible, every now and then an actual wave would roll in, my wife was hiding her head under the towels, it looked so bad, even the life guard was becoming alarmed as he watched the idiot snorkeling in the surf, and to top it all off, all of that motion up and down and back and forth began to make me seasick, which might be a first, since accomplishing such a thing while snorkeling is virtually impossible.. Fortunately I found one, about the size of this beauty, thus, I was spared the added embarrassment of returning empty-handed. So I called it a day as another wave crashed over me, and headed back to safety and a shore that didn't move, and as I headed back, I promised myself that I would never do this again! And all that stuff in the movies about people kissing the ground once they've escaped their peril? It's all true. So I left the beach by Sea Live Park a happier and wiser man, until the next day, when I was looking at that beauty and got to thinking about how great it would be to find another, and so...
. Just thought you'd like to know how easy they are to collect.. And this shell? It's a beauty, almost GEM, which is kind of rare, considering the environment they like to live in, but then it shouldn't be too surprising that the owners of this collection should have such a fine shell, since the collection was put together by a master, and just think, this baby will look terrific sitting on your shelf as you tell everyone about the time you went snorkeling...The perfect shell for a first-class collection.
And yes, we give combined shipping, (just ask, but even if you don't, rest assured, we will refund any extra shipping charges as soon as we receive your order.)
As for normal disclaimers, we do the best we can with photos, but color is tricky, especially since cell phone cameras automatically lean towards flesh-tone coloring, (that's why so many of the photos of shells on eBay show up with more orange than is really there, the camera changes the color, and damm if I can figure out how to stop that from happening, but I try, honest!As for feedback, as your know, sellers live and die by the feedback you leaved, (please leave fives!) so if you have a problem, just let me know! After all, I'm retired, and all messages go directly to my phone, so unless I'm out shell collecting I will get back to you pronto-like!Shell collecting! Now there's a phrase that brings smiles to your eyes, doesn't it!Anyhow, if you have read this far, you have my apologies and best wishes from those of us at IslandShells323. And don't forget, Home is where your collection is!
Cypraea mauritiana 78.9mm, NEAR-GEM HAWAIIAN BEAUTY.
. I had several spots where I could find these big beauties, and all of them usually meant risking life and limb to collect them. The best time to get one was at low tide on a perfectly calm, flat day, which happened just about once a lifetime. The rest of the time, calm was a relative term, best redefined as---it wouldn't be fatal if you tried. I had one spot nex...t door to Sea Life Park that was like that. You could swim out and get to the spot where these beauties were, but still, the shell loves to hug the shoreline, so collecting them meant swimming back in to where the swells almost began to break. And while you were being swung back and forth a distance that ranged anywhere from five to ten feet by the "little" swells, you dove down and looked around the bases and sides of the huge lava boulders that the shell loved to cling to. Of course, this swinging motion that I mentioned tended to add a little bit of excitement to the entire process, since once you dove down, your main goal was not to find shells, but to avoid being thrown against the boulders by the "little" swells. A good day meant you found half a dozen in one trip, a bad day was when you found none, or worse, and every trip meant the possibility of unintentionally body-surfing into the boulder covered shore, which usually was less than ten to twenty feet away from where the shell liked to hide.... The worse day? Well, Sea Life Park was quite a drive from where I lived, so if we made the trip, I was motivated to try it if the surf wasn't rolling in. So on this particular day, it was one of those in-between kind of days---it wasn't impossible, but it wasn't exactly flat, either, if you know what I mean. Anyhow, I gave it a try, and my first warning should have been that visibility was down to five feet, a good indication that things were going to be rather rough. But, I was shell collecting, and these beauties are exhilarating to find, so, being the kind of person who doesn't know which side of the bread has the peanut butter on it, (dumb) I decided to at least take a look. . Well, that wasn't as easily done as it sounds. In fact, the swells were swinging me back and forth ten to twenty feet at a time, plus the up and down motion of the swells as they passed by was throwing me up and down two to three feet at a time, so just avoiding the boulders was a fulltime job. The visibility was terrible, every now and then an actual wave would roll in, my wife was hiding her head under the towels, it looked so bad, even the life guard was becoming alarmed as he watched the idiot snorkeling in the surf, and to top it all off, all of that motion up and down and back and forth began to make me seasick, which might be a first, since accomplishing such a thing while snorkeling is virtually impossible.. Fortunately I found one, about the size of this beauty, thus, I was spared the added embarrassment of returning empty-handed. So I called it a day as another wave crashed over me, and headed back to safety and a shore that didn't move, and as I headed back, I promised myself that I would never do this again! And all that stuff in the movies about people kissing the ground once they've escaped their peril? It's all true. So I left the beach by Sea Live Park a happier and wiser man, until the next day, when I was looking at that beauty and got to thinking about how great it would be to find another, and so...
. Just thought you'd like to know how easy they are to collect.. And this shell? It's a beauty, almost GEM, which is kind of rare, considering the environment they like to live in, but then it shouldn't be too surprising that the owners of this collection should have such a fine shell, since the collection was put together by a master, and just think, this baby will look terrific sitting on your shelf as you tell everyone about the time you went snorkeling...The perfect shell for a first-class collection.
And yes, we give combined shipping, (just ask, but even if you don't, rest assured, we will refund any extra shipping charges as soon as we receive your order.)
As for normal disclaimers, we do the best we can with photos, but color is tricky, especially since cell phone cameras automatically lean towards flesh-tone coloring, (that's why so many of the photos of shells on eBay show up with more orange than is really there, the camera changes the color, and damm if I can figure out how to stop that from happening, but I try, honest!As for feedback, as your know, sellers live and die by the feedback you leaved, (please leave fives!) so if you have a problem, just let me know! After all, I'm retired, and all messages go directly to my phone, so unless I'm out shell collecting I will get back to you pronto-like!Shell collecting! Now there's a phrase that brings smiles to your eyes, doesn't it!Anyhow, if you have read this far, you have my apologies and best wishes from those of us at IslandShells323. And don't forget, Home is where your collection is!
Cypraea mauritiana 78.9mm, NEAR-GEM HAWAIIAN BEAUTY.
