Tanzanite Buyers in London

[lukeha1]

Hi there,

Just joined the site, hope you are all well. I was wondering if anyone knew of anyone who buys tanzanite in the london area. My wife is from Tanzania and we have a little one on the way so hope to supplement our income!
Any advice would be welcome. We tried Hatton Garden but didnt get very far

 

[LD]

You could try local jewellers but in all honesty you're going to be competing with the likes of The Jewellery Channel who are a sister company of STS (one of the 5 Tanzanite One Sight Holders). That means that high grade, certified, Tanzanite is fairly easy to buy in London. It sells at the moment (set in jewellery) for around £300-350 per carat for high end Tanzanite.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

You plan to buy tanzanite in Tanzania and resell it in London? I would be very careful here. There are very few ways to make easy money (specially as a supplement to your income, not a full time occupation) and a lot of ways to lose a lot of money.

How are you going to add value in the chain? Anyone can fly out to Africa, buy some rocks described as Tanzanite and try to resell them. What are you bringing into the equation?

Do you have the know how to identify good stones, avoid fakes and get a good price for it? Unfortunately, the gem trade is full of fraud, overpriced merchandise, undisclosed treatment and traps of all sorts.

Do you have the right connections? The best pieces are sold straight from the mine, to middlemen with a established relationship. This is picked over several times by different people, until what is left is sold to whoever (aka, the person without a commercial realtionship in the business). This material can change hands several times, increasing in price every time. If you are the end of the chain, you will most likely see ok grade at expensive prices. You need a way to get close to the source.

Can you set up the business legally? There is a lot of burocracy in exporting and importing gems, specially for resale.

Do you have the right connections in London? Imagine if someone walked into your office with some valuable stuff, that is often smuggled, frauded, etc and wanted you to buy it. What would you do?

"secrets of the gem trade", by Richard Wise, is a good book to read.

 

[lukeha1]

Thanks for advice so far guys. My wife''s family work in the gem trade. We have the stones already to see if we could find a market. We were told that we should aim to sell at around $400 a carat. They were in the 3.5 to 6.0 carat range. Problem is we dont have London connection, completely understand why someone would be cautious!

 

[LD]

Well, you may need to rethink your selling price as well. The cost per carat I quoted you is for Tanzanite set in rings/pendants etc., with VS and SI graded G-H diamonds with the Tanzanite being certified. So the $400 per carat for a loose stone is too high. The mark up for anybody you sell to would be negligable. You also will get very little takers without certification. Even somebody in the gem trade can be taken in by fake/treated/synthetic gemstones so you may find it very difficult to sell without certification.