soldiers and rubies

[Edward Bristol]

Every other week I get a query from the forces in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Usually the email comes from an entrepreneurial US soldier:
“I can buy cheap rubies in the local market!”

My answer is always the same: “DO NOT!”

Often people won’t listen and months later I get an email saying: “I wish I had not.”

I respect risk-taking, and good business sense is an American virtue. However, when it comes to gems everybody seems to think he is the very first.

Probably many others try every week. So here it is, for all to read:

Forget about buying cheap rubies (or other gems).

Gems have been traded there since the ice age. Those locals know their business and the last thing they will do is sell a soldier a bargain. Period.

 

[morecarats]

If the soldiers were reading Pricescope, there would probably be no need for your warning.

However, if you change "Afghanistan or Pakistan" to "eBay", your warning would be timely.

 

[serenitydiamonds]

Date: 1/12/2010 5:50:51 AM
Author: morecarats
If the soldiers were reading Pricescope, there would probably be no need for your warning.


However, if you change ''Afghanistan or Pakistan'' to ''eBay'', your warning would be timely.

Lol, very very true.

--Joshua

 

[StonieGrl]

PT Barnum applies here: Sucker born every minute.

In addition, If you look around the table and you don''t see the sucker, IT IS YOU!

Pure greed can inspire someone to take a ''risk'' that is certain, after 5 seconds of rational thought, to lead to the short end of the stick.

 

[Arkteia]

I am going to post photographs of stones bought by my father in Laos as "alexandrites". They may be real (although not alexandrites), they may be synthetic. Dad says the guys selling them to him would strike them with a hammer to "prove that they were not glass". What bothers me is that the stones showed very significant shift, from raspberry-purple to blue, when they were set in 1978, and now the shift is disappearing. I wonder if they had been irradiated. I do not know if there was a practice of irradiating the stones at the time, but if they were, it only means that they were heavily emitting for many years! So buying at local markets may not only be unwise, it may be simply dangerous.

 

[Arcadian]

My dad did his last tour in Afganistan in 2007. Ed, you''re definitly right about the so called rubies over there, but soldiers can be sometimes a bit hard headed and have that "seriously, you''re not over here, how do you know" attitude.

Him being my dad I had to educate him in a way that did not offend or disrespect, after all, I''m his youngest kid!! So with that in mind, I talked him down off several "rubies" he wanted to get for his girls and told him that a hand made Afgan rug will have much more value in the US than the rubies being offered.

He knows how much I love gems and paid attention. So he passed the word to his guys to buy rugs instead (he''s an E-9, they tend to listen to him) BTW, I really love the rug he got me.

Of course after he got back we had a VERY long conversation about the gemstones in those market places.

Though my dad has not yet retired and does not go over seas anymore (he now instructs guys before they go), he reminds the guys to be careful even in the markets over there.

Consumers should check out the place they tend to buy from, be it in person or online. I personally have been dinged doing business in both arenas. Lucky for me not for much, but those were lessons learned.

There are places on the internet and stores on ebay I will purchase from because of their reputation and quality of the goods. If I buy and they check out fine, I buy again.

Can you get "bargins" on ebay? For some people that could be a yes. A found bargain can mean differnt things to different people. My bargin will not be someone elses.

I think some forget that some well regarded sellers on this forum also have ebay stores that people buy from.


-A

 

[Kim Bruun]

No such thing as a free lunch when it comes to rubies, eh? I can certainly understand the tendency to get carried away when a seemingly good deal is offered on a gem.

I've bought some stones on eBay over the years:

A 1 carat grayish blue spinel, which I paid around 25 dollars for.

A 3.5 heated brownish pink zircon. The symmetry is off but there is no window. 66 bucks.

A 2.35 yellow beryl, which I suspect is synethic, because the seller had lots of high quality material of this particular color. 41 bucks.

A 0.76 rubellite, which I paid 20 dollars for. It's actually quite nice, more red in tungsten light and slightly more purplish under the cold winter sun.

I often wonder if I've been bamboozled with any of these stones...

 

[Harriet]

Given their pay and the risks they undertake, I can't fault the soldiers for trying. But, in general, I'm a firm believer in one getting what one pays for.

 

[Edward Bristol]

Kim,

I don''t think so, and for the few $ you get to know different qualities and can work your way up as far as you like. Ebay is a good place to start on a budget; and get an idea if you are really interested in collecting tiny colored stones or rather go fishing.

Date: 1/12/2010 10:05:59 PM
Author: Harriet
Given their pay and the risks they undertake, I can''t fault the soldiers for trying. But, in general, I''m a firm believer in one getting what one pays for.

Harriet,

Yes, I always do my best to convince them to drop it but ones people think they have smelled easy riches the rational gets lost. It is like trying to teach a child that the ofen is hot without getting burned.