This category rewards precision and punishes vagueness, and it has two edges a seller should know about before listing.
Check it is sellable first
Two of Metzee's prohibited headings reach into this category:
Wildlife products. Coral, ivory and the shells of protected species are not sellable. Antiquities. A good deal of what people call a fossil can fall under heritage and antiquities rules.
If you are not certain whether a piece is covered, ask before you list it. Prohibited items.
Name the species
Not "crystal" — the actual mineral name, as far as you can say it. If you are unsure, say what you were told and by whom, and say you cannot confirm it. "Sold as amethyst, bought from a dealer in Jaipur, not independently identified" is an honest and sellable line.
Name the locality
Where a piece came out of the ground matters to collectors, often more than size. If you know it, say it. If you do not, say that too rather than inventing something plausible.
Declare treatment
Dyeing, heating, irradiation, stabilising, coating, polishing and reconstitution are all normal in this trade and all change what a piece is. Declare whatever you know, and where you do not know, say the piece is untreated only if you can actually support it.
Give the measurements
Weight in grams, and dimensions in centimetres, with something ordinary in frame for scale. Photographs of minerals are notoriously misleading about size.
No health claims
Do not write that a stone treats, cures, relieves or protects against anything. Describe the stone. A claim about what it does to a person is one you cannot support, and it is the claim that comes back at you.
Delivery
Points, edges and terminations chip, and they chip in the last metre. Packing minerals.
More: how to sell on Metzee, pricing minerals.
Questions people ask
Can I sell a fossil?
Ask first. Some are ordinary and some are not, and the line is not one for a blog post to draw.
What if I was sold a stone under the wrong name?
Pass on what you were told, name your source, and say it is unconfirmed. That is honest and it protects you.
Is polishing a treatment?
It is a process worth declaring, especially where it changes how a specimen reads to a collector.