We built the first version of this site in 2004, using a custom e-commerce platform I wrote from scratch in MySQL, PHP, HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It served ably for six years, allowing an avid metal detecting enthusiast with limited computer experience to sell many thousands of dollars worth of gold nuggets and other mineral specimens found mostly at abandoned, historic mine sites around Northern Nevada. In 2009, I ported the site to Joomla 1.5, after discovering the excellent Hikashop component, which had just achieved its first stable release. A decade later — and several hundred thousand dollars worth of transactions later — the site is still going strong. It has migrated through several templates and Joomla releases, and currently runs on Joomla 3.8, along with the latest release of Hikashop, which has become a leading e-commerce solution for Joomla.
