IMO, it's the forbidden "unobtanuim" aspect that makes it desirable. There is no practical advantage to the material given that there are many synthetic substitutes. And, yet, people will continue to try to own it until the species is extinct. I'm sorry, what limits your playing ability is not how hard it is to get tortoise picks, it's the fact that you should be practicing more. Leave the tortoises alone.

I keep a few Wegans for when someone wants "to borrow a pick" or if in a place that I might drop and lose my BC or TS.

I find this discussion interesting. Not because it revives a discussion that started 3 years ago, but because I learn from all of you. So I am not intending to stir a pot but to share my tortoise picks stories.

I happen to own 3-4 genuine tortoise shell picks. When I started playing guitar in the early 90's I had read that these were a desirable pick to have. As I was doing my regular rounds through the guitar shops that existed in my home town back then I happened to notice a small case of these picks in the counter. There might have been a dozen or so. The merchant told me what they were and that they were $8 a piece. I thought it would be a good idea to buy some. So I found 3 or so that suited me. Didn't know at the time that my purchase was illegal.

A year or so later, I was at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival and I recall a gentleman selling genuine tortoise shell guitar picks that he fashioned from old antique brushes and combs, etc. He CLAIMED that it was legal. This was the first that I heard that the tortoises were protected. What did I do? I bought one for $20 bucks.

Now, I respect creatures of all kinds and I respect the laws of this and other countries. As I say that, I eat cows, pigs, chickens and various fish for their meat that I assume have been legally harvested. (Do you know where your fish comes from?") When I bought those picks, I look back and now believe that those could have been illegal purchases. But those purchases I doubt have led to the further destruction of a single turtle. I do not have any guilty feelings that somehow I was propagating the continued demise of these animals. The real culprits responsible are the dishonest hunters and dealers who continue the practice.

I however, have learned the errors of my ways and am reformed to seek to be a socially responsible visitor on this planet. Heck, I am an avid recycler. I am not or ever will seek to purchase another tortoise shell item. Mostly thanks to the discovery of Blue Chip Picks. They are to my ears and fingers the closest thing to the "alleged" remarkable sound that is produced by the real thing. They are going to stay in my possession where they are currently buried in my deep jar of guitar picks that I don't use.

In case anybody has a problem with it, I will just claim that my 8 year old hijacked my username.