Wonders of the World

I finally made it into this great store! Henry, the owner, is very knowledgable and helpful. His selection of stones and gems rivals none. Can’t wait to get an ametrine one day.

It looks so promising-​but what an unwelcoming place. A potential customer is greeted at the door with a sign not to come in unless you have an appointment — and then most items are marked with signs, «you touch it you buy it». This owner should instead open an ebay store, to protect himself from physical customers.
(Yelp, you took down this exact review earlier, claiming that it lacked «detail». Really? Compare to other reviews, and of course that’s not true, and you shouldn’t take down this review again at the request of the business owner.)

Came in here on a Friday night, this place is exceptionally beautiful. Terribly priced. The owner was educated and I notified him that I was a collector and was looking for something specific. I threw out some of my knowledge so he knew I was a serious buyer. Mind you, when I’m shopping for specimens, I’m looking for a particular shape, color, feel, and how they can be displayed. This isn’t my first rock rodeo, I know what I’m doing. I attend gem and mineral shows across the country on a year-​round basis. This place is so ridiculously overpriced it actually breaks my heart. I’m seriously depressed.
As an avid collector, I left there so incredibly disappointed by his pricing and how he runs his shop. He said he only sells one piece at a time. Meaning what you see is what you get, the second he sells something he replaces it with the same item, just a different shape and doesn’t let you pick through his boxes. etc. That is not how you sell rocks and minerals, sir. You are taking away the special quality when one shops for minerals. You’re supposed to have a selection to choose from and the one mineral that speaks to you, means it’s yours.
The owner takes pride in telling me how unique and scarce these things are. There’s handwritten signs everywhere saying «do not touch unless you intend to buy», «you break it, you buy it» I’m sorry, but I don’t buy unless I can touch. His store is a mess on top of that. It’s almost impossible to walk in there. How he’s never been fined by a Fire Marshall or by not having ADA aisles baffles me. It’s almost as if he situated the store that way, so you would break something, and have to buy it.
There’s a local mineral store in the valley with much more affordable prices and better customer service. The best store I’ve ever been to is in Austin, TX called «Nature’s Treasures».
This guy does have a beautiful collection, but some of these things he has marked up to $ 800+ when I’ve seen the equivalent at a rock show or a better store for 7x less. His markup is almost comical.
Seriously so disappointed that I couldn’t take a beauty home. I refuse to give my service to someone that tries to sell that way. I take pride in my collection and would only wish he loved selling rocks as much as people love collecting them.

BEWARE!!! Scale in store gave a large number. When I demanded a re-​weigh, the stone suddenly got lighter by 40% and $ 90 cheaper. Always have your items double or triple-​weighed to avoid this guy scamming you.
Owner is EXTREMELY shady in my opinion. Also, I’m not saying he’s an elitist, but here is what I experienced:
My friend and I went into this store. The items in the store were amazing, but there are only two aisles in the store — both dead ends. Only one person at a time can walk through, so if you have mobility problems, I wouldn’t recommend it here. There was only a single employee other than the owner, Henry. She was extremely helpful, but she was not allowed to give pricing or ring up purchases. Only the owner was allowed to give prices and ring up purchases. It is my opinion that this allows him to re-​price items on the fly if he thinks you’ll pay more.
Also, their scale is either broken or set up to scam customers. Most of the items were priced per gram. My friend wanted to buy a stone that was $ 9 per gram. When she asked for it to be weighed, they said it was 26 grams. I commented to her that it didn’t feel like it was 26 grams and magically, when re-​weighed, it was suddenly 16 grams. That’s a $ 90 difference. How evil of a person do you have to be to try and swindle someone who doesn’t have a lot of money but wants to get a nice gift for their mother?
My friend and I finished picking out the items we wanted to purchase and handed our credit cards over to the female employee. She walked over to the owner and talked to him. We waited about 15 minutes. During this time, the owner was reading something (I couldn’t tell what it was) and pretty much ignoring the employee. Then, a blonde woman walks in the store. My friend and I greet her and continue waiting. She walks down the aisle and right away, the owner starts talking to her. WTF?! At that time, another person in the store asks for assistance and is told to wait her turn — that she’s after the blonde lady. Odd, since she was in the store before the blonde woman. Funny that my friend and I were there before any of them and were ignored. When I complained, the female employee told me it was because they were interested in the more expensive stuff.
Very shady. Very douche-​baggy.
Greed drives the store.

I went here once when I was a kid with my dad and remembering it was a really enjoyable experience with lots of stuff to look at, so when my friend visiting from New Jersey came to town this summer I thought it would be a cool place to show her in Santa Monica.
We arrived during posted hours only to find it closed, we waited at Starbucks for half an hour before deciding to leave and come back later. We come back an hour later and it is open. We go in and begin to look at the shop (which had totally changed its layout since I had been, you could no longer even walk through the store. He asks if we are looking for something in particular and if we had called earlier, we replied no to each at which he seemed annoyed. After being in the store for maybe 2 minutes, he announces that he’s closing and to come back later. I was very irritated obviously, since we had waited an hour and a half to come in only to be essentially kicked out because we wanted to look. I told my friend that it wasn’t worth it and we left for good.

Whether you’re a Los Angeles resident or just visiting, «Wonders of the World» is definitely a «must-​see»! When I first visited the store, several years ago I was totally amazed to find a fully articulated, fossilized Dinosaur, and a Prehistoric Giant (Megalodon) Shark’s tooth!
As a collector I must say that this Store/​Museum has some of the finest examples of Crystals, Minerals and Fossils that I have ever seen, and the store’s owner, Henry Runge, is an expert in his profession and is somewhat of a modern-​day «Indiana Jones», who has traveled the world in search of these natural treasures!
Whether you’re looking for a special gift, a conversation piece, unique home decorations, or are the most discerning collector, Wonders of the World has something for you!

I stopped by this place with my sister a couple of years ago. While the items that are packed into every available space are nice, the owner is neither helpful nor trustworthy. It’s not just that the prices are too high. It’s that the information coming out of the owner’s mouth isn’t accurate. He tried to tell us that the rings he wanted to sell us were made of meteorite from before the universe was formed. Really? Even a meteorite from outside the solar system would be freakishly rare and likely located in an actual museum rather than turned into rings and sold out of a box in a cramped little store in Santa Monica. And he claimed that they were from before the universe was formed! (Nothing existed before the universe was formed.) He tried to tell my sister that a piece he was try to sell her was «one of a kind.» When I pointed out another one just like it on a lower shelf, he nearly threw me out of his store. I had brought several fossils with me to see if he could tell me anything about them. All he’d said was that they were worthless and that he should probably be charging me for an assessment. Then he’d gone on to claim that everything in his store was the best in the world. He’s not really friendly. He’s not helpful. And what he says can’t be trusted. I don’t believe that he’s all that knowledgable. Frankly he seems far more interested in making sales than in anything else. I won’t be back.

Really cool collection. It’s definitely worth a look if you’re interested in minerals or fossils. However, if you’re looking to buy anything this is probably not the place for you. Tends to be pretty overpriced (sometimes ridiculously so) because the store clerk claims everything is so rare. While some of the items are definitely one-​of-​a-​kind pieces, the smaller items aren’t worth the cost. The sales clerk/​owner is a little invasive when it comes to trying to help you find something.

Out and about in Santa Monica, we ambled into Wonders of the World and gazed on the fossils, gems, crystals, and other items on display.
The proprietor Henry was very informative and cordial. We really liked the dragonfly fossils and the healing gems.
Def will come back when we have more time.

Overpriced, unknowledgeable and you’re not allowed to touch anything. Also the store is extremely cramped and has things on the floor that you can trip on, and if you break anything you’re buying it.

Beautiful place to browse around and amazing extensive selection.
If you’re looking for simple crystals for healing/​protective purposes, however, this place is extremely overpriced. I came here for some black tourmaline to keep in my purse — a very small amount of it came out to $ 7 because «it’s so rare and the price is based on weight»
I found a bigger amount of black tourmaline at a spiritual/​healing shop somewhere else for under $ 1, as well as the shopkeeper telling me that black tourmaline is highly abundant and shouldn’t be priced that high.
When shopping, be ready to be followed around and asked to not touch anything, even though the store is very intimate already.
The hours are also inaccurate — I came here at 4pm only to wait until 4:30pm for anyone to show up, with no apology or gratefulness whatsoever.
Great fun to browse, though.

Lame… Came here one afternoon when they were supposed to be open to get a gift for my son who loves rocks. Door is locked… Sign says to call to confirm hours. I call and they say open «3 pm — 8 pm» but they clearly were not! Whassup?

As you walk in, the selection will leave you breathless. HOWEVER, being followed around only to get to touch items under scrutiny makes the shopping experience VERY unpleasant. Crystals are my thing, and touching them is a necessary component of my purchase decisions. I would not recommend this place.

Okay, so I’m a student and I came here in search of volcanic rocks, specifically obsidian and/​or basaltic rock, which are pertinent to a project I am working on. As some reviewers noted, the hours are a bit odd so before going I called the number provided to make sure they would be open. Henry, the owner, picked up and… to be completely honest, I couldn’t hear much of what he said… except «4:30−5:00» and «9:00». I’m a bit of a chicken so I didn’t really ask him to repeat what he said… I just crossed my fingers and put my faith into the hours listed on Unilocal as they were, more or less, the hours I heard over the phone.
I arrived at 4:00 and the doors were closed and it was dark inside. My friend and I stood around a bit but then decided to wait at the Starbucks across the street and keep an eye out. We figured someone would come by eventually since we did call so they must know there are expecting customers :) At around 5:30, we saw someone come around to open up the shop. Upon entering, we were greeted by Henry and he asked if it was us who had called earlier and apologized for the wait due to traffic. While looking around, whatever I picked up to examine, Henry would mention something of note concerning the particular item; he shared factual knowledge as well as the more mystical /​intangible qualities it carries (i.e. tourmaline has protective qualities).
In terms of my project, I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for. There were obsidian rocks but they were tumbled, which wasn’t what I wanted. Despite that, I picked out a few smaller pieces such as tourmaline, space crystals, and a piece of a meteorite. I also found that they had volcanic geodes, which are pretty close to what I had in mind which were priced at about 30 – 100 per geode. Joe, who assists and works with Henry, asked me what my budget was and explained that the pricing depends on the formation of the crystals, not just by weight. He helped me pick out the cheapest one of the bunch – though, I’m not really sure what the exact price would have been since Henry said he would take it for 30… so I’m assuming it was probably a bit more than that.
Knowing the volcanic geode would be 30, I asked for a quote for the various smaller items I selected before, hoping they would be similarly priced to decide between the two. It turned out to be much more than I expected; the meteorite alone was about 140. So I was pretty much set on just getting the geode but then Henry offered to sell all of it for 190 — which would be more than 100 off (the entire selection I had was originally calculated to be over 300). I was a bit surprised and although 190 was pretty far above what I planned to spend, I ended up going for it. Outside of the purposes of my project, I’m rather fond of rocks and minerals so it was worth it. Before leaving, Joe and Henry gave me suggestions on how to clean and care for the rocks: use still water in a spray bottle!
Some important information: most things are sold by weight in grams and they range from 1.00 — 9.00 per gram. And of course, there are others that depend on more than just that — such as the geodes.
In conclusion, there’s a pretty good selection overall; besides rocks and minerals, they also sell fossils and various other things like petrified wood. Henry and Joe are both knowledgeable and very helpful. I had a good experience and definitely encourage people to check out Wonders of the World.

The store is nice and I can you that. But pricing seems a high. And hours are for very late afternoon to the night time and don’t know if owner try’s to save money or does a second job before that so they open late. I gotten a few little «inexpensive» items and are nice. The owner or employee that’s usually there is ok. Parking is on Lincoln blvd and also on Broadway.

If you’re looking for crystals to use metaphysically, I would’t recommend this place. I second the review that this place is a prison for crystals. I don’t think the owner is that knowledgable; I was sold crystals that were heat-​treated and irradiated to enhance their color and was told they were «natural». My bad for not researching beforehand, but I basically overpaid for dead crystals. Go to Spellbound Sky instead. Lovely guys that are honest and truly love crystals.

This is not a place where I’d buy anything, but more a place to just look around. It’s sort of like a museum. The owner also claims the triceratops skull in there is real. His story is pretty compelling. Overall, this is a fun, touristy place to go.

I love Wonders of the World! All I knew was that I wanted something beautiful and meaningful to give to my co-​workers as a holiday gift. I went into the store and Henry, the owner, helped me find the perfect gifts that were within my price range … rose quartz, carved angels. My co-​workers all loved them and are still thanking me for them!
Wonders of the World is a treasure trove of crystals, minerals, fossils, jewelry and all sorts of rare natural wonders. Henry, is always friendly and is a wealth of geological knowlege. He is always very helpful and takes the time to help me find the perfect gift.
I have been collecting crystals for a long time, and I can honestly say the quality and variety in the store is staggering! I have never found another retail store that offers as much as Wonders of the World. If you are looking for a beautiful piece of nature, it really is the perfect place to find it. It doesn’t matter if you know exactly what you are looking for or you just know you want to find a very beautiful and special gift … Wonders of the World will not disappoint!

I first visited Wonders of the World several years ago to track down a particular crystal. From the moment I walked-​in I was fascinated with the huge assortment of high quality crystals, gemstones, fossils and meteorites.
Not only is there a unique assortment of rare and beautiful items, but Henry the owner has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history, geology and sourcing for everything in the store. Since my first visit it’s become a regular stop for me. I’ve purchased dozens of treasures for myself and as gifts.
While it’s true that some items seem expensive, they are much higher quality than what ‘s available at other stores. When I actually bought some cheaper items at another store and brought them in to compare –there was no comparison– the more expensive items were much higher quality. Think about the price differences between a high quality diamond and lower quality diamonds and you’ll understand that higher quality costs more.
Some of the amazing treasures I’ve purchased include opalized ammonite fossils, trilobyte and fish fossils, opalized labradorite, black smoky quartz, meteorites, quartz crystal balls, rutilated quartz, hematite and more.
On a limited budget? You’ll still find something great for the price… just know you’ll be tempted by the best of the best.

This is my new favorite store! I first visited after seeing the shop on the show «Storage Wars» to get some unique Christmas gifts, and this place was perfect. It feels like being inside a natural history museum, but everything is for sale. Prices start at just a dollar or two and go upwards of a million dollars! (Ex: huge Triceratops skull)
The store has dinosaur skeletons, rare Egyptian and Roman artifacts, fossils, crystals, gems, jewelry, quartz, meteorites and so much more. The volume of crystals and stones for sale is staggering. The owner, Henry, is very knowledgable about every item and will write up a descriptive certificate of authenticity for anything you buy. Even if you have never been into crystals and stones before, you must check this store out. I promise you will see something you have never seen before and probably will never see again.