Site Usage and Ordering

With our newly redesigned web site, featuring a more advanced shopping cart and order management system, we’ve aimed to create a more user-friendly and pleasant online shopping experience for our customers. If you have comments or feedback, please let us know.

Following is a brief guide to using the site and some of its new features, as well as placing orders.

My Account

When you place your first order with us, you can create a customer account that gives you access to useful customer tools on the site. (You may check out as a guest if you prefer not to create an account.) Your account tools include:

• Order Status: See the status of every order you've placed at Mama's Minerals,  including whether it has been shipped, and if so an optional tracking number.
• Completed Orders: See all completed orders you've placed at Mama's Minerals. You can conveniently reorder items from previous orders. You can also print invoices from this page.
•  Address Book: Add, edit and remove shipping and billing destinations from your address book.
• Wish Lists: Wish Lists are for filing away products that you’re interested in, and sharing them with others (so they can perhaps buy you a gift). Add, edit and remove Wish Lists, see items in your Wish Lists and optionally add each item to your shopping cart for purchase. You can create multiple Wish Lists if you like. (For example, "Birthday," "Christmas," etc.)
• Your Account Details: Update your contact details, email address and/or change your password.
• Your Recent Items: See a list of items you've recently viewed at Mama's Minerals.

View Cart

To view the contents of your shopping cart at any time, click the View Cart link at top right of any product page, or the Home page.

Search / Advanced Search

Looking for that certain unique product or gift, and want to save time? Use our site's search engine, located at upper right of each page. Notice that if you type in a search keyword or two (for example, "alabaster" or "alabaster rough rock"), the search engine will dynamically serve up a list of relevant search results as you're typing. Click on the most relevant link, or click the See All Products button at the bottom of the list to see all search results. (The dynamic search function will often return just a partial list of search results.)

You can refine your search using Advanced Search (link beneath the search entry field). The Advanced Search page allows you to search by these criteria: product categories, price range, featured products (items that are on sale), and free shipping (items which ship for free).

For more information on using the search engine, click on Search Tips (next to the Advanced Search link).

Viewing Products by Category / Sorting

Our products are organized by Category, and often by Subcategory. Use the left hand Categories navigation menu to view products by either criteria. If you are at the top level Category view, all Subcategories for that Category will be displayed. You may also navigate individual Subcategories using our handy "accordion" menu, which can expand and contract Categories and their respective Subcategories.

Note that you can sort products in a Category or Subcategory view by various criteria, including Featured Items (products on sale), Newest Items, Bestselling, and by Price. Use the Sort by dropdown menu near the top of the page to perform a sort.

Shop by Price

You may also shop by price when viewing any Category or Subcategory page, by using the Shop by Price links at the bottom of the left hand Categories menu. Relevant price ranges for the particular Category / Subcategory will be displayed; just click the appropriate price range you're interested in.

Place Your Order

Our shopping cart system is designed to make placing an order easy and intuitive. Here's a short guide to using the cart:

• Add to Cart: Click the Add to Cart button / link for the product you'd like to order. (Be sure to select your desired quantity, and any product options that may apply.)
• View Cart: Click the View Cart link at the top of any product page (or the Home page) to view the items in your shopping cart. Note also that after you have added an item to your cart, you will see a summary of your cart contents in the right hand sidebar. If you have a discount coupon from us, you may enter the coupon code in the Coupon Code field at top of the right sidebar, then click Go to apply the coupon to your order. You may also calculate shipping and handling cost on the View Cart page. Just click the Calculate Shipping & Handling link, select your Country and State / Province, enter your Zip / Post Code, and click Calculate Shipping. A list of shipping methods and corresponding prices will load; select your preferred shipping option, then click Update Shipping Cost to preview shipping cost as applied to your order. The View Cart page will now reflect your shipping choice. (If you'd like to recalculate and apply a different shipping method, just click Calculate Shipping & Handling again.)
• Checkout: Click the Proceed to Checkout button when you're ready to place your order. The Express Checkout page is a streamlined, single-page checkout screen, where you will enter your Billing and Shipping details (addresses), enter your final selection for Shipping Method, review your order, select your payment method, enter any optional order instructions or comments, and enter your payment details. Note that you may create a shopper account, or check out as a guest. (Creating an account makes placing subsequent orders easier, and has other benefits; see My Account above.) You may go back and modify your information in any of the checkout steps by simply clicking the Modify link associated with a particular step. When you are ready to submit your order, click the Pay for Order button.

Forms of Payment

We accept all major credit cards, and you can also pay via PayPal, money order, or mail us a check. (Receipt of check / money order is required before we ship your order.)

Share This

Beneath the Add to Cart button on each product page (and on various informational pages in the site), you'll see a "Share This" link. Click "Share This" and you can share the page with a friend, relative or colleague. You can share via email, or share via various social media such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, etc.

Using and Sharing Your Wish List(s)

Wish Lists are a convenient tool for saving products that you're interested in for later shopping, i.e., to save products for a birthday shopping list.

To use Wish Lists, you need to create a customer account, which allows you to store your Wish List data on our site. (There are other advantages to creating an account.) Once your account is created, you can add any product to a Wish List by clicking the "Add to Wish List" button in the right sidebar of any product page. Note that you can create multiple Wish Lists, i.e., "Christmas" or "Hannukah" for a holiday shopping list, "Timmy's Birthday" for your son or grandson's birthday, etc.

To share your Wish List with someone, click Wish Lists at the top right of the page, click the Edit link for the Wish List, then click the checkbox for "Make This Wish List Public?" Click Save Wish List, then on the Wish Lists screen click the Share link for the Wish List. The next page will display a web address that links to your Wish List. Select and then copy the address (Control + C in Windows, Command + C in Mac), then paste the address (Control + V in Windows, Command + V in Mac) into an email to send the Wish List address.

E-Newsletter

Subscribe to our email list, and you'll receive periodic emails based on your preferences, including sales specials, new product announcements, interesting news from the world of rocks and minerals, and more.

To subscribe, just fill out the form on the Join our Email List page.

RSS Subscriptions

You can also receive information from us via RSS feeds, which allow you to subscribe to a variety of channels of information on our site. We have multiple RSS feeds, so you can subscribe to newly updated information related to your particular area of interest.

Our RSS feeds are marked by the RSS icons you will see displayed in various areas ().

Learn more about our RSS subcriptions here.

Follow us on social networks

We're regularly posting short little blips of information to Twitter, Facebook and Duke City Fix (for our local Albuquerque followers). Stay in touch and up to date with Mama's Minerals via any of these channels. And share with your friends!

Learn and Explore!

Our site is full of interesting and useful information on rocks and minerals, and much more. Whether you're a rock hound or a beader, interested in metaphysics or geology -- be sure to browse our Learn and Explore area. And check back often; we regularly post new informational pages here.