Bryan Swoboda: YouTube channel of BlueCap Productions

The 2023 Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Show happened to be the final show Jordi Fabre would ever exhibit as a dealer. From the earliest days of BlueCap Productions, Jordi was established as an extremely knowledgable and honest dealer. Through the years, Jordi grew to become not only a trusted confidant to myself, but a good friend as well. His knowledge of minerals was only surpassed by his genuine passion to share that knowledge. His numerous What's Hot... interviews (Tucson, Ste.Marie and Munich) were always carefully planned out by him to deliver different topics of knowledge and education to our audience all while keeping that almost Mona Lisa-esque, sly smily on his face which was a reflection of his playful side. To this day, Jordi is the ONLY guest to have ever worn a Santa hat during a Mineral Talks LIVE interview.
Perhaps my most endearing memory of Jordi is my recent chance to work with him, and Carles Manresa, in our promotion of the mim Museum in Beirut, Lebanon. All three of us happened to be visiting the museum in December 2022. We spent many hours going through the collection with Museum Founder Salim Eddé when we came upon the idea of trying to identify as many Best of Species specimens as we could find. When we hit 50, we decide that was good enough. Over drinks at our hotel that evening, Jordi and I started spitballing ideas on maybe writing an article about this someday.
Just for fun, Jordi, Carles and I started working on the article when we all got back to our homes - communicating extensively through emails and WhatsApp messages. In the Nov/Dec 2023 issue of Rocks & Minerals magazine, Marie Huizing was kind enough to run our article as their cover story (thank you again Marie!!!) with 50 glorious photos of the specimens we had identified with Salim. It was everything we talked about over drinks the year before in Beirut however, because of the length of the photo captions, those captions naturally had to be edited down to fit the magazine. Luckily, BlueCap Productions was producing the 2024 Mineral City Show Guide and so we re-ran the fifty photos with their complete, original captions. Combined, these two publications ended up being the home for our entire, unedited article (plus Salim Eddé was kind enough to write the Forward to the Show Guide article).
When I sent Jordi - now six months retired from the mineral world - a PDF of the Show Guide so he could see the fullness of the article, he responded with:
"Dear Bryan, You made my day! I'm so happy!!!"
[hugging face emoji] [hugging face emoji] [hugging face emoji] [hugging face emoji]

And that's how I'll always remember Jordi - [my hugging face emoji]

M.A. 08/29/2023
Dear Jordi
Thanks for your update. I’m sorry to hear that you are winding down your mineral business and wish you the very best for the future. Thanks for providing an excellent source of top quality mineral specimens over the years. Many of the best pieces in my collection were bought from you.

M.S. 08/29/2023
I am so sorry to hear this Jordi, but since I am even older than you, I totally understand. It has been a great pleasure doing business with you I just wish our paths had crossed earlier. May I wish you all the best in what I think will be a semi- retirement since minerals are in your blood.

It is good that Dan is taking over I have found him to be fair and good to deal with no dark side to him.

I wish you a retirement full of peace and contentment and thank you for your excellent service.

S.G. 08/29/2023
Best of luck on your retirement! I have enjoyed your collection of all the great minerals.

P.R. 08/29/2023
Hello Jordi, I am quite shocked to read that you are stopping mineral specimens trading actvities! On the other hand, I understand that you have kept a very high standard for 52 years which is a record, Congratulations!!

J.M. 08/29/2023
Molt bon dia Jordi,

Aprofito el teu e-correu general per felicitarte per la contribució excepcional que tot el teu equip, i molt especialment tu de manera exemplar, heu fet al meravellós món del col.leccionisme i la mineralogia. Aixeco doncs una copa del millor cava (virtual) en honor vostre!

Una forta abraçada,

J. 08/29/2023
Wow, Jordi, what a journey! I've enjoyed all of your offerings throughout the years and have had the pleasure of taking home a few pieces for myself. Thank you for all you've offered and contributed to the hobby. I look forward to the final installment and wish you all the joy you can handle as your path takes a turn.

Best,
John

W.H.D. 08/29/2023
:) I will miss you. I do read all of your updates. And we have never forgotten your kindness in arranging to meet Carles and see the collections in Barcelona. He is so kind. You have always been considered a careful (labels and mineral tests), reliable, very honest and reasonably priced dealer, among the best and the best to do business with.
Best of luck — a loss to the community.

M.O. 08/29/2023
I just wanted to thank you for the business and e mail friendship. I have truly enjoyed the years of rocks. I wish you all the best in the future. We live in a very changing world and it certainly has me confused.

J.E. 08/29/2023
Apreciat Jordi:

En aquesta vida, tot el que comença s’acaba. Amb els anys anem posant punt i final a moltes etapes viscudes.

M’alegra llegir que no canviaries la vida que has viscut. Aixó és molt satisfactori interiorment.

Et desitjo tota la força per a superar les dificultats familiars i t’agraeixo tota la professionalitat i la bona rebuda i estada que sempre he tingut als teus stands a totes les fires europees en que ens hem trobat.

Àmim per a seguir endevant.

E.L. 08/29/2023
jordi,
J'ai lu la last email update.

Nous nous connaissons depuis peu mais je voulais t'écrire ce mot pour te remercier de ton travail : ton site, le forum et ton éthique marchande sont pour moi des références, des points de repères très importants dans ma jeune vie de mineralogiste.
La culture minéralogique qui transparaît dans ton activité incarne à mon sens la vraie minéralogie, celle qui n'est pas concentrée que sur les beaux cristaux colorés mais qui incite à l'étonnement, à la réflexion et à la science.

Merci d'être une source d'inspiration durable pour le futur de jeunes mineralogistes.

En espérant te croiser prochainement et d'avoir la possibilité d'apprendre, un jour, de ton expérience minéralogique !

M.K.H. 08/29/2023
Hello Jordi —
It is with some sadness that I send you best wishes for your “life after mineral sales”! You are a marvelous representative for the mineral community and will be greatly missed by mineral lovers great and small all over the world. I will always remember so very fondly your great kindness to Mike and me when we visited you in Barcelona. I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to meet you personally and I wish you 08/29/2023 well as you begin this next chapter of your life. Thank you so much for all you have given to the mineral world. ��

D.T. 08/29/2023
Jordi, was sorry to see that you will be leaving the business and wanted to wish you luck in all your future endeavors and hat any family issues resolve themselves well. While I'm sure I was never your biggest customer, I have bought a number of things from you over the years, both at Tucson and from your website, and you always had quality, interesting things at fair prices. Some of my favorite pieces (in particular a large Milpillas azurite) were purchased from you. Best of luck.

R.W. 08/29/2023
Bonsoir Jordi,
Voilà une bien triste nouvelle pour les collectionneurs. Et pour moi-même.
Votre action a été remarquable à un tel point que vous avez soudé les amateurs par un tel niveau de précision dans la connaissance de la minéralogie que je vous en remercie.
Je vous admire d’avoir réalisé une telle œuvre de vulgarisation de la Science dans un monde devenu fou.
Vous m’aviez déjà averti de vos difficultés familiales. La santé est un bien précieux et vous avez l’amour et la force d’aider votre épouse dans une période difficile. J’ai moi-même quelques soucis de cet ordre, mais moins graves.
Je souhaiterais que votre épouse soit consciente de tout ce que vous avez réalisé et je doute que vous ayez un successeur pour vous remplacer avec autant de professionnalisme et de passion pour les minéraux.
Quel fut votre parcours pour arriver ainsi à promouvoir la science ?
Je vous remercie de toutes les offres que m’avez faites pour ma collection avec le plus grand bonheur pour moi.

Infiniment merci Jordi

P.D. 08/29/2023
My son (Liam), my wife, and I have loved meeting you in your Barcelona shop and we enjoyed buying so many Fluorites and other stones from you.

You were so nice to my son and he loves all your stones!

We are sorry to see you sell your business, but I hope you have solved your family issues. We hope things will be easier for you.

Thank you for sharing your interest in stones with my son.

Best regards,

R.A. 08/29/2023
Hi Jordi,

Sad news for me but hopefully nice for you !! I think we are about the same age, so I fully understand.

Great that you are passing your inventory on to Dan Weinrich; you and Dan are my favourite mineral people!

I still hope we meet sometime soon.

All the best for the future…..and I will take care of all those lovely minerals I have got from you!

M Z. 08/30/2023
As someone who is also retiring, i wish you the best, and hope your family difficulties are manageable and not too bad. You have always been an honorable and involved member of the mineral community, and i thank you for that. Take care my friend.

D P. 08/30/2023
Hello Jordi,

A really sad day to hear the news that you are shutting down the web mineral business. It has been an inspiration to me over the years, and I have greatly enjoyed your eclectic selections of wonderfully interesting specimens. I will miss it, as well as your presence at the mineral shows. But it is inevitable that all things must end and you have been doing it gracefully for a long time. I hope that your family difficulties can be resolved well.

Best regards

T.N. 08/30/2023
Dear Jordi,

I was surprised to see your notice about the LAST update.

I feel sorry about your decision to close the shop though I understand that you made the decision for compelling personal reasons.

I also feel very grateful to you for offering many nice specimens to my collection for years.

Hope your closing business will go smoothly.

I also hope that you will stay in the mineral collecting community and make yourself heard to us.

Best Regards

M.R. 08/30/2023
Hi Jordi,

I just saw your mail about your last update.

I wanted to let you know its ben a pleasure working with you and discussing interesting minerals over the 20 years that I have known you (!) attending mineral shows across the world. I wish you and your family all the best, thank you for the good times and the great minerals.
Mike

J.S.W. 08/30/2023
I am pleased that you plan to continue the Forums because they have been both educational and fun. I have thoroughly enjoyed my modest role in the English language Forum.

D. L.
I received you email regarding the closing of Fabre Minerals. Joanne and I are so thankful to have met you and to have spent time with you. I wish you the best as you go forward. Life certainly has a way of taking us where it wants to.

K. D. 08/31/2023
Hi Jordi

We are home now and saw your note about your upcoming retirement. I am both pleased to see a good guy has made a fine run of a career in this crazy business and sad to see you go. You have been one of the true gentlemen in this trade and I will miss seeing your face and hearing your wet comments. I also fully understand your love and commitment to your family. It is the right choice for you I am sure. I wish you a comfortable transition and a grand ending to a first class career.
In the next days I will review your website. I will also watch with care your upcoming grand finale. As you are a lover of minerals and also a true collector I am sure we will connect at times in the future. We both enjoy Touissit and someday I would love to see your collection.
Of course I do not want to intrude in what is now a very important time to spend with your family. But we will really miss you.

Best regards

J.F. & J.
Hello Jordi, 09/01/2023

I am sad to hear that you are retiring from mineral selling. I always enjoyed seeing you and your exhibit at shows as there was usually something interesting there.

I hope your family difficulties are not too difficult, and I hope to see you again, if just as a visitor at shows.

Best Wishes

D.M. 09/01/2023
Jordi....just this short note that I very much enjoyed our mineral exchanges and the enhancements you made to my collection. Wishing you and your family the best in the future.

T.M. 09/01/2023
Dear Jordi,

sad to hear that you are going to retire soon and that Fabre Minerals will no longer exist. I wish you all the best in the future for you and your family!

H. G. 09/01/2023
Hi Jordi,

You’ve made this hobby a fabulous experience for me, as I’m sure you have for many, many
others. I’ve often marveled at the amount of time and detail work you’ve had to put into the
website alone!

As my wife and I work through family issues and “next,” it’s rewarding to be able to continue to
call the shots where we can, find new joys, and tackle different projects we never imagined.

It’s clear you’ve lived a rich life, as we have - although we didn’t realize it at the time!

Best to You and Your Family,

E.V. 09/01/2023
Querido Jordi,

Darte las gracias por toda una vida dedicada a la mineralogía, en la que has ido mucho mas allá del simple interés comercial. A través tuya nos hemos asombrado, enamorado y animado a investigar sobre esas piezas tan excepcionales que nos has mostrado.

Un fuerte abrazo,

T.W. 09/02/2023
I know you need to retire as all good things must end,but I will miss your site.It was easy to navigate and the prices were reasonable.I am sorry to see you go,but please enjoy your golden years in the Spanish sun,you deserve it after enriching the world with the best of mother nature for 57 years.Thanks for everything and the best to you as well.

L.D.B.
Je suis triste de ne plus pouvoir voir ton stand.

B.S. 09/04/2023
Dear Jordi,

So unfortunate that you will have to stop the family business. I always really enjoyed the beautiful minerals you offered.

J.M.E. 09/05/2023

Hola Jordi

Me acabo de enterar que septiembre es el último mes de la mejor página de venta de minerales del mundo, la tuya. Te conocí en la feria de Bilbao cuando me señalabas uno tras otra unos minerales que yo te iba comprando. Esto fue en 1999. Luego me enteré de tu web. Te echaré mucho de menos. Todas las cosas tienen su principio y su fin; hay que aceptarlo, aunque cueste. Te deseo mucha suerte y renovada sabiduría en tu nuevo ciclo de vida y experiencia.

Un fuerte abrazo

M. 09/05/2023
Hola feliz día, reciban un cordial saludo. Con respeto y admiración, les envío mis felicitaciones por el maravilloso trabajo que han realizado en su página web y que fue apoyo e inspiración durante mi carrera universitaria. Por ello, a pocos días del cierre de su empresa como la conocemos actualmente, les agradezco el gran aporte que han dado al especial mundo de la mineralogía.
¡Éxito y reconocimiento!

D.G. 09/07/2023
Hi Jordi

I was saddened to read of the end of your company. I have enjoyed your updates and the many excellent specimens I have purchased from you in the past; my collection would not be the same without Fabre Minerals. I particularly appreciated your mineralogical rigor, with detailed analytical data for unusual pieces. I wish all mineral dealers were as careful.

I wish you the best in working through your family difficulties. I do agree that ending on a "high note" is better than slowly having the quality deteriorate slowly because other priorities are more important.

I hope that my "final pile" during Expo Mineral Virtual will be a great one!!
Best Regards,

A.Z. 09/10/2023
Muchas gracias por su atención y por su trabajo durante todo este tiempo.

Saludos desde Murcia

C.M.S. 09/10/29023
El mundo de los minerales sin ti no es lo mismo. Tu lo haces bonico.

A.A. 09/12/2023

Hi Jordi,

Many congratulations to have made it so far! I found you through the early internet (I think it was 2002) and soon after I visited you in Barcelona where I saw your fantastic specimens at fair prices (I must have spent hours there with you) from which I selected a significant part of the high quality core of my collection. Over the years, meeting you at Sainte-Marie, Munich and Barcelona, you have provided me with guidance and knowledge that has been very valuable, along with great specimens. I have not missed any of your updates!

Your enthusiasm and knowledge about minerals (including the back stories of mines and minerals) has fuelled my interest in minerals - and I am sure also that of many others. You can certainly stop dealing after so many years, knowing that you have left a significant mark! Now you can enjoy minerals and friends more, without the headache of moving stuff around the world!

Many thanks, Jordi - best wishes for whatever your plans may be from now on and I definitely hope to keep in touch and see you around!

E.T. 09/12/2023

Bonsoir Jordi.

Je suis bien triste que cette aventure soit bientôt finie.

Je vous remercie pour nous avoir fait rêver avec de magnifiques minéraux depuis plus de 50 ans.

Je vais garder précieusement les 80 pièces que j'ai achetées chez Fabre Minerals depuis 2019.

Prenez bien soin de vous et n'abandonnez jamais les merveilles que la Nature nous offre.

Bien à vous.

L.R. 09/12/2023

Jordi,

Thanks all these years for your offerings and knowledge! Enjoy your future!

T.G. 09/12/2023

Hi Jordi,

I'm so glad I was able to come out and visit you last year. You were a very gracious host, and Shannon and I had a great time.

Thank you for all that you've done for the mineral collecting community. Thank you, also, for the very nice minerals I have picked up from you over the years.

Cheers,

U.L. 09/12/2023

I still cannot belief it that there will not be any more displays by you at future mineral shows. I still hope to see you there anyway.

Ti.G. 09/12/2023

Dear Jordi,
Thank you so much for many splendid specimens and pleasant chats. You have given me a lot of pleasure and a lot of mineralogical information. Enjoy your coming life to the full!

Sincere best wishes

D.G. 09/12/2023
Salut Jordi,

Un grand "merci" pour ton ENORME contribution à la minéralogie!

Au plaisir,

G.M. 09/12/2023
Bonjour Jordi,
Un peu triste de savoir que tu te retires du négoce. En tout cas je garderai quelques jolis souvenirs de toi.
Amicalement

P.D.B. 09/12/2023
Dommage que vous partez en pension. Mais vous l'avez bien mérité.
Amitiés.

E.B. 09/12/2023
Jordi and team,

Wishing you all the very best in your next endeavors- you’ve been such a wonderful retailer over the course of my collection growing. You were responsive and always showed care and consideration.
Take care,

M.S. 09/12/2023
Hi Jordi,
I’m just up the road from you in Nice at the moment following the rugby World Cup. I’m truly sorry to see that you’re leaving the mineral scene but wish you all the very best for retirement. I very much hope we’ll run into one another at some future mineral show and thank-you very much for your enormous inputs to the hobby over so many years.
Very best wishes.

J.Z. 09/12/2023
Hello Jordi,
I want to thank you very much for your continous contributions to the world of minerals and being a part of this world as a very honest and extremely serious mineral dealer.
As well I want to thank you for your always very interesting infos you gave me during the last years when preparing the Munich Show report for Rainer Bode. I really appreciate that.
It is very sad that all things come to an end, but it was the same with Rainer's Bode Publishing Co. recently too.
I bought many good calcites from you years ago and they have been excellent members of my collection.

So once again: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
And all the best for the future

J.S.W. 09/12/2023
So sorry but I think I understand.

C.S.G. 09/12/2023
Gracias Jordi, por todo. Toca cambio y es mi deseo de que todo te vaya como mereces. Recibe un abrazo de esta gallega

P. 09/12/2023
Hello Jordi
Sad to hear you closing, got some nice pieces from you over the years.
All the best for the future .
Best Regards

G.H. 09/12/2023
I am very sad to learn that you want to abandon your business��.
Thank you for the beautiful specimens you gave me the chance to buy. I wish you very much beautiful and peaceful years.

All the best