dull and shiny material...
 

I was wondering if there is any way I could possibly have UV's laid out for multiple items and select which ones I want to be shiny and which ones I want to be dull using one material.

I have sand and metal in one UV layout and I'm putting them on a blinn but I obviously don't want the sand to be reflective at all. Any possible solution to this situation?

Create a specular map? (which could get plugged into reflectivity too I assume)

No idea how to do any of that... any quick links or guides you could point me to to get started?

Well, it shouldn't be too hard.
Simply export your UV map as a screenshot into PS, and color in all the areas in you want shiny white and all the areas (objects) you want dull black (or varying shades of grey if you get fancy). Then plug that image as a texture into the specular attribute of your blinn. It will read black as zero specular (no shininess) and white as highly specular (very shiny). White would equal 1, which would probably be too much.
The same goes for reflectivity, but a little goes a really long way, so you'd probably want everything quite dark, and the sand to be black for that map/texture.
Does that help? If you need more details (like plugging a texture file into the attribute) just ask.

Basically, it's the same process as making a color texture, except instead of color, you're making areas of dark and light which provide the shiny and non-shiny areas.

Ooooh alright thank you very much stwert!! I appreciate it. I'll have to screw around with it a bit once I have a little more time.