Ebay best gem offers?

[bazargan]

Hei guys,
I have been looking around in eBay. I found sellers with hundreds of positive feedbacks having gems in auction for a really good deal. It just doesn't feel right. Why the hell sellers don't sell them somewhere else with better price? I found a 8.5 ct. padparadscha heated sri lanka saphire for 300$. Ok i know there has to be something wrong. But in the other hand howcome people have bought so many gems and have put positive feedbacks? It just doesn't make sense.

 

[T L]

Hei guys,
I have been looking around in eBay. I found sellers with hundreds of positive feedbacks having gems in auction for a really good deal. It just doesn't feel right. Why the hell sellers don't sell them somewhere else with better price? I found a 8.5 ct. padparadscha heated sri lanka saphire for 300$. Ok i know there has to be something wrong. But in the other hand howcome people have bought so many gems and have put positive feedbacks? It just doesn't make sense.

#1) The buyer is so happy with the cheap price, and how the stone looks, they don't bother to get it checked out.
#2) The buyer is not educated enough to get the stone checked out.
#3) There are plenty of legit stones for sale on ebay, but the cheap prices make the buyers happy. Whether or not the quality is there, is another story.
#4) Some vendors will "buy positive feedback, or no feedback" by returning some of the money to an unhappy seller. This is part of ebay's customer satisfaction service.

I've been an avid ebayer for years, and I've noticed a sharp incline in synthetics, simulants and poor quality, while there's been a sharp jump in price for anything that is decent. It's a giant marketplace and some sellers are reputable, and some, not so much. It's always good to look at that 1% of negative reviews because they're usually more informative than many others.

Toolhaus.org is a good tool to really check negative feedback.

 

[arkieb1]

People call all sorts of material Pad sapphires and Padparadscha colour when really very few pieces are and those that are command fairly high prices. Ask any vendor if they will get the stone certified for you by a reliable lab that should help sort the genuine pieces from the non genuine ones. Ask if the stone is lab made and what treatments it has.

 

[bazargan]

Here is the stone. I didnt mention seller's name because i am afraid we are not allowed to. Well, as you can see no negative feedback. By toolhaus i got few old negative and plenty of neutral. One or two of those negative ones have mentioned he is selling fake and he has replied to them he is selling only real stones and they can return it. This auction ended at 256$ with 17 bids. So what is your opinion?

 

[T L]

Here is the stone. I didnt mention seller's name because i am afraid we are not allowed to. Well, as you can see no negative feedback. By toolhaus i got few old negative and plenty of neutral. One or two of those negative ones have mentioned he is selling fake and he has replied to them he is selling only real stones and they can return it. This auction ended at 256$ with 17 bids. So what is your opinion?

Most definitely be-treated or a synthetic. If it's be-treated, he isn't lying about the treatment as all be-treated sapphires are heated. He's just not forthcoming with ALL the treatments. That's the big problem with sapphires. There's a ton of sapphires on ebay where be treatment isn't fully disclosed, but the seller isn't lying about their heat treatment status, and unfortunately a lot of the smaller labs in Thailand and elsewhere can't always fully test for diffusion. They denote "heated" on the lab report instead. If he has tons of positives, then he must be refunding people that discover this in order to retract their negative comments. You can mention the seller's name here, it's not against the rules.

You would not believe how many people get excited over cheap sapphires, and they could care less about treatment. I've even seen this behavior at gem shows.

 

[dk168]

My piggy bank is empty, otherwise I would be staying up to try and bag this lovely precision cut pink Spinel from Jeff Davies:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRECISION...5361?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item566cf0c311



His site is full of affordable goodies, a trusted vendor within the CS community, myself included.

So yes, there are bargains about on eBay, just need to be very careful and more selective/discerning.

DK

 

[Marlow]

Here is the stone. I didnt mention seller's name because i am afraid we are not allowed to. Well, as you can see no negative feedback. By toolhaus i got few old negative and plenty of neutral. One or two of those negative ones have mentioned he is selling fake and he has replied to them he is selling only real stones and they can return it. This auction ended at 256$ with 17 bids. So what is your opinion?

Most definitely be-treated or a synthetic. If it's be-treated, he isn't lying about the treatment as all be-treated sapphires are heated. He's just not forthcoming with ALL the treatments. That's the big problem with sapphires. There's a ton of sapphires on ebay where be treatment isn't fully disclosed, but the seller isn't lying about their heat treatment status, and unfortunately a lot of the smaller labs in Thailand and elsewhere can't always fully test for diffusion. They denote "heated" on the lab report instead. If he has tons of positives, then he must be refunding people that discover this in order to retract their negative comments. You can mention the seller's name here, it's not against the rules.

You would not believe how many people get excited over cheap sapphires, and they could care less about treatment. I've even seen this behavior at gem shows.

Maybe Be treatment is NOW a traditional heat treatment??

 

[LoversKites]

As a general boundary I'd avoid sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and any other very commonly treated gems from vendors on ebay unless they are well established and reputable or unless I'm looking for a treated gem (even so not all vendors disclose lead glass filling, dying, coating and other treatments I don't like). Good reviews don't not mean much when the general public is ignorant about treatments and reviews can be changed.

I bought a pretty but inexpensive pink spinel on ebay from a Thai vendor. It may be oiled or heated or undergone a treatment that hasn't been spotted yet, I don't know; but I don't really care in its case.

 

[Marlow]

Bazargan,

take a look at Buyer a***m:

Is this feedback a real buyer would give?? Think about it!

The have employees, relatives and friends with an Ebay account or they pay for it.

The same with restaurants, hotels ... forget it!! Save your money - buy less gems but fine - you will love them for years. No aquarium gravel!