Opinion on these nifty pinkish-orange sapphires?

[matt_k]

Hi, gang. I'm sorry for being a pest, but i can't resist picking everyone's brain on stuff BEFORE I pull the trigger on an item now. Haha. I think these look very promising, and I have a great feeling about the seller. I found her on Etsy, and she has been so accommodating and informative thus far (plus she seems to really know her colored gemstones, and spent over 20 years managing a fine jewelry store ).

Anyway, I'm posting some pictures and the listing description. I feel like It would be totally worth grabbing one of these 4 mm stones and having a look at it in person, but I wanted to make sure you guys agree. That way I save myself the hassle of buying it and then returning it immediately (which is what I would have done with those super dark red spinels if not for your valuable input .

"This listing is for one sparkling 4.0mm orangey pink sapphire. The color is reminiscent of a spectacular Dahlia or a vibrant Padparadscha sapphire. This exquisite color shifts from orangey-pink to reddish pink depending on the light source and angle from which it's viewed. This gem is from Tanzania and is heat-treated (industry-standard treatment for sapphires). This sapphire does have one minor visible inclusion under 10x which is reflected in the price."

 

[matt_k]

Hi, gang. I'm sorry for being a pest, but i can't resist picking everyone's brain on stuff BEFORE I pull the trigger on an item now. Haha. I think these look very promising, and I have a great feeling about the seller. I found her on Etsy, and she has been so accommodating and informative thus far (plus she seems to really know her colored gemstones, and spent over 20 years managing a fine jewelry store ).

Anyway, I'm posting some pictures and the listing description. I feel like It would be totally worth grabbing one of these 4 mm stones and having a look at it in person, but I wanted to make sure you guys agree. That way I save myself the hassle of buying it and then returning it immediately (which is what I would have done with those super dark red spinels if not for your valuable input .

"This listing is for one sparkling 4.0mm orangey pink sapphire. The color is reminiscent of a spectacular Dahlia or a vibrant Padparadscha sapphire. This exquisite color shifts from orangey-pink to reddish pink depending on the light source and angle from which it's viewed. This gem is from Tanzania and is heat-treated (industry-standard treatment for sapphires). This sapphire does have one minor visible inclusion under 10x which is reflected in the price."

Oh, and she is currently running a sale, and only charging $30 for it! I'm actually considerably flexible about minor inclusions. And she said she would check it again herself tomorrow with her loupe, and insure it had no windowing. AND she said I could return it if I wasn't satisfied, no problem. Seems like a complete no-brainer to me unless I'm missing something that is completely obvious to everyone else as far as the pictures go (although I was also planning to take some pictures when it arrives in different light sources and THEN ask you guys if I should keep it or not ).

So is THIS a pretty unusual shade of orange for an orange sapphire? And would anyone be willing to post pictures of their warrant sapphires so I can get an idea about what a good one looks like? The ones I've seen online for sale so far are either pretty faded out/light or almost artificially orange.

 

[JackTrick]

With most gemstones, I like to get a photoof it on someone’s fingers in more muted lighting. That usually gives me a better idea of how accurate the color might be.

As to this stone, I’ll talk through how I evaluate it.

1. color - orange at its best, brown at its worst. One reason I’d like to see it in different lighting is to get a sense of what I’d expect to see most often. I’m not a big orange stone fan, but the pumpkin spice harvest autumnal colors can be fun…but the mostly dark and brown ones, less so for me.

2. clarity - Harder to judge in just still photos. Looks relatively clean.

3. cut - here’s where I meh hard. We don’t have a view of it from straight on through the table nor a video, which would help for judging it, but I’m not loving the quality of the tilt window (some amount of tilt window is not uncommon, but this one isn’t doing it for me). Also I’m seeing a lot of dark areas of the stone (which echo back to my color concern).

4. Carat - I don’t know the weight, so tough to judge. 4mm isn’t bad in terms of face up size

I was about to post that a lot of my judgements are heavily dependent on price, but I just saw you posted that this one is $30. Likewise, I tend to check for other forms of treatment, but not at this price.

All right. Look. Would I consider this a great gemstone? Not to my tastes. But I’ve already spent money (probably too much) on gems, and most $30 gems aren’t going to do much to awaken a passion in me.

But is it worth $30? Yeah, sure. Gems are worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, and this doesn’t break the bank. Certainly if it excites you to see. HOWEVER. I would still recommend getting a video or a shot on fingers or face down, just so you better know what to expect. The worst feeling is excitedly buying something online, and then being disappointed when you see it IRL. Early on I bought a lot of stuff because it had return policies. Well shipping stuff costs money and time, that sometimes I wish I spent in less regretful ways.

edit: you’ve posted a number of threads. I wonder if it might help to have a single thread for your gem collecting exploits? I’ve seen a few people do that here, and it’s a nice way of keeping all the info in one easy spot!

 

[matt_k]

Oh, and she is currently running a sale, and only charging $30 for it! I'm actually considerably flexible about minor inclusions. And she said she would check it again herself tomorrow with her loupe, and insure it had no windowing. AND she said I could return it if I wasn't satisfied, no problem. Seems like a complete no-brainer to me unless I'm missing something that is completely obvious to everyone else as far as the pictures go (although I was also planning to take some pictures when it arrives in different light sources and THEN ask you guys if I should keep it or not ).

So is THIS a pretty unusual shade of orange for an orange sapphire? And would anyone be willing to post pictures of their warrant sapphires so I can get an idea about what a good one looks like? The ones I've seen online for sale so far are either pretty faded out/light or almost artificially orange.

I just noticed that I wrote "warrant sapphires" when I was asking people to post pictures of their own orange sapphires. My voice to text function hates me sometimes....

 

[matt_k]

With most gemstones, I like to get a photoof it on someone’s fingers in more muted lighting. That usually gives me a better idea of how accurate the color might be.

As to this stone, I’ll talk through how I evaluate it.

1. color - orange at its best, brown at its worst. One reason I’d like to see it in different lighting is to get a sense of what I’d expect to see most often. I’m not a big orange stone fan, but the pumpkin spice harvest autumnal colors can be fun…but the mostly dark and brown ones, less so for me.

2. clarity - Harder to judge in just still photos. Looks relatively clean.

3. cut - here’s where I meh hard. We don’t have a view of it from straight on through the table nor a video, which would help for judging it, but I’m not loving the quality of the tilt window (some amount of tilt window is not uncommon, but this one isn’t doing it for me). Also I’m seeing a lot of dark areas of the stone (which echo back to my color concern).

4. Carat - I don’t know the weight, so tough to judge. 4mm isn’t bad in terms of face up size

I was about to post that a lot of my judgements are heavily dependent on price, but I just saw you posted that this one is $30. Likewise, I tend to check for other forms of treatment, but not at this price.

All right. Look. Would I consider this a great gemstone? Not to my tastes. But I’ve already spent money (probably too much) on gems, and most $30 gems aren’t going to do much to awaken a passion in me.

But is it worth $30? Yeah, sure. Gems are worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, and this doesn’t break the bank. Certainly if it excites you to see. HOWEVER. I would still recommend getting a video or a shot on fingers or face down, just so you better know what to expect. The worst feeling is excitedly buying something online, and then being disappointed when you see it IRL. Early on I bought a lot of stuff because it had return policies. Well shipping stuff costs money and time, that sometimes I wish I spent in less regretful ways.

edit: you’ve posted a number of threads. I wonder if it might help to have a single thread for your gem collecting exploits? I’ve seen a few people do that here, and it’s a nice way of keeping all the info in one easy spot!

One "please advise" thread sounds like a great idea, actually! And it would keep me from cluttering up the forum with too many separate threads.

Thanks so much for your input on this particular stone, by the way. I'm feeling a little less excited about it, and yet still somewhat intrigued. My original plan was to add two lemon yellow Sapphire from Sri Lanka as side stones to it in a little three stone silver ring (the seller has some nice looking yellow 3mm sapphires with VS clarity on sale for $22.50 each). But for close to the same price I could grab two 4 mm pink sapphires from a fellow I've already bought from and create a really cute (and vibrant) pair of earrings in silver. Soooo, yeah: a pinkish/brownish/orangey stone in comparison to a vibrant medium pink is kind of a no contest thing.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

We dont mind your threads
im cluless to help but am enjoying the journey
I like these but i dont mind some brown undertones
But i dont trust my phone when it comes to colour (or pre-emptive text for that matter)
Is this for your mum's ring ?

 

[LD]

This is a “no” from me. These are soooooo brown. You seem to be veering towards brown toned stones. Is that because you like them or because they’re cheap? If you like them that’s all good but if you’re buying because they’re cheap there’s always a reason.

Generally speaking brown and grey tones are not what collectors look for (unless they specifically like them).

 

[matt_k]

We dont mind your threads
im cluless to help but am enjoying the journey
I like these but i dont mind some brown undertones
But i dont trust my phone when it comes to colour (or pre-emptive text for that matter)
Is this for your mum's ring ?

No, this would be another break even commission project--- this time for my supervisor's sister.

 

[matt_k]

This is a “no” from me. These are soooooo brown. You seem to be veering towards brown toned stones. Is that because you like them or because they’re cheap? If you like them that’s all good but if you’re buying because they’re cheap there’s always a reason.

Generally speaking brown and grey tones are not what collectors look for (unless they specifically like them).

Well, I'm definitely one of those people who enjoy trying to find a bargain, not gonna lie. during my search for that fabled super ideal RBC engagement stone several years back I spent about a zillion hours looking at diamonds online ( White flash, James allen, Brian Gavin) in search of a super ideal diamond that perfectly threaded the needle between value and quality. This was especially important since super ideal cut stones generally come at a premium price. and I finally found what I was looking for during a pre Valentine's Day sale at Brian Gavin diamonds: a 1.16ct/J/SI1 that was perfectly eye-clean and absolutely stunning. And to add to the overall savings I selected it from his "Brian Gavin blue" collection. as I'm sure most of you know, those are the stones that have blue fluorescence, but have been completely vetted by Brian Gavin himself to make sure they are not milky or hazy--- because of the market's disdain for fluorescence, buying one with blue fluorescence brings the total price down, with the added benefit of the stone actually appearing brighter than it's listed/graded color in bright sunlight (I was very lucky in that I didn't need a color higher than J, anyway, because the band was 18 karat rose gold; my ex was a big fan of rose gold, but she also liked the practicality and look of a modern setting.... so one of the bezel settings from sholdt in Seattle was the perfect hybrid of Victorian age color with a SUPER-modern and sleek design).

But getting back to the color part, I'm not especially fond of brown. But I was looking at the fire-y orange pink quasi-Mexican fire opal looking photo in that one shot, and i thought maybe this stone might be kind of a unique take on the traditional orange sapphire color (plus with the eye-clean SI clarity bringing the price down--- and it being a 4 mm stone--- it activated my bargain hunting mode ).

Once again, you guys have saved the day. The initial euphoria has passed, and calmer heads have prevailed. Thanks!!

I would still very much love to see some example pictures of what you guys consider to be the average solid, decent orange sapphire color, though. And if anyone has any advice (or links ) on where to find good (good, NOT perfect) Orange sapphires in the 3 mm size range that would be awesome..

 

[matt_k]

UPDATE:

I just heard back from the seller (she is on the west coast, so it's not even 8:00 a.m. there--- EXTREMELY prompt reply ). She had the opportunity to look the stone over closely with her jeweler's loupe (it was a recently acquired stone, I believe, and only examined once by her prior to listing it). After our brief conversation a few days ago she understands that I have a pretty low tolerance for windowing. anyway, THIS is what she had to say:

"It really is a gorgeous stone. The pictures don't do it justice. But like I wrote in the listing, it is SI. If you look at the third photo, you'll see the inclusion (it's visible as a black spot- this is caused by a mineral crystal trapped in the sapphire). That's the only inclusion in the stone. In addition, there is windowing. The windowing and inclusion on this stone is why it has a lower price/carat than its 4mm VS counterparts listed. I don't believe you'll be satisfied with it."

so cool! I love her transparency. Nice!


So, yep: THIS puppy is dead in the water. Very much no bueno. Thanks again, gang! My confidence in your evaluation skills continue to grow by the minute.