[2006]
 Lots of finished goods and trinkets from China, India, and Africa.  More like a bazaar or flea market feel to the outside vendors and some parts of the inside of the big tent.  I did find a Michigan dealer in one of the motel rooms who had more trays of "free-form" cabs than I could count.  He told me that he had been going to Quartzsite for over 30 years buying rough from everywhere imaginable(here again in 2006).  A lot of the rock from some of his earlier purchases can no longer be found as the material has played out or the mines have been closed.  He does all of the slabing and cabbing himself.  Lots of unusual and pretty material but expensive even at wholesale prices.  He did have about 15 trays of $5 cabs (12 @$48) to choose from but these were not nearly as nice(common) as the $15/cab trays of exotic material.   It looked like he cut and polished the $5 cabs as the backs of these cabs were unpolished and some even had dop stick marks still viable.  When you try to pay yourself a living wage, dealers who do their own cabbing cannot compete on price with the Chinese dealers who use cheap labor or automated equipment on the same kind of rough.  Of course, the trick here is in knowing what material is no longer available or what is new and unusual!

I get the impression that this particular G&LW show is going down hill at a little faster pace than in previous years.