I''m a newbie to shopping colored gemstone on Internet, Could you advise for me plz?

[manalert]

I''m a newbie to shopping colored gemstone on Internet, Could you advise for me please that where or which website that can I go to purchase some good quality of colored gemstone.

Moreover..This is my frist time to found this webbord on pricescope.com,It''s very great! There are a lot of knowladge.
Are there any webbord of gemstone where can I discuss like this one?

Thank you very much

 

[MAC-W]

There''s a sticky thread at the top of this forum entitled "Sites selling colored gemstones & jewelry" https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/sites-selling-colored-gemstones-and-jewelry.94723/ which lists all the websites people on this forum have had good experiences with.

Would suggest you start by viewing each of these sites.

Some of the ones that seem to be most popular are

http://www.acstones.com/
http://www.artcutgems.com
http://www.concavegems.com/
http://www.customgemstones.com/
http://www.mastercutgems.com
http://www.palagems.com/
http://www.precisiongem.com
http://www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/
http://torraca.net/gems/
http://www.whitesgems.com/

Hope this helps

 

[manalert]

How about eBay?
Does it OK and trust for buy some quality of gemstone?

 

[morecarats]

Date: 12/22/2009 5:13:26 AM
Author: manalert
How about eBay?

Does it OK and trust for buy some quality of gemstone?

Check out the thread from a while back where someone bought a (possibly natural) sphene on eBay for more than $1k.

 

[Largosmom]

As another newbie, I would advise you read through a few pages of threads in this forum if you have not done so already. You should only purchase when you are confident and trust the vendor, ebay or not...the list above is a good list of trusted vendors. Ebay is far more risky, especially if you don''t know what you are doing. There are a few ebay vendors that have been named as OK, but for your first purchase or two, you should start with someone you trust!

Laura

 

[chrono]

There are trustworthy eBay vendors but most of the water is infested with sharks. Thread carefully if you choose to go that route. Even with a trusted vendor, insist on a trusted & well known lab certification for stones that are expensive or known to have synthetics/substitutes/treatment.

 

[morecarats]

Date: 12/22/2009 7:24:25 AM
Author: morecarats

Date: 12/22/2009 5:13:26 AM

Author: manalert

How about eBay?


Does it OK and trust for buy some quality of gemstone?

Check out the thread from a while back where someone bought a (possibly natural) sphene on eBay for more than $1k.

Manalert, apologies for my previous post. I just noticed that YOU were the one who bought the expensive sphene on eBay. So I guess we ought to be asking you how safe it is to buy on eBay.

 

[MAC-W]

Date: 12/22/2009 5:13:26 AM
Author: manalert
How about eBay?
Does it OK and trust for buy some quality of gemstone?

My experience with ebay is that you get it much cheaper but you dont always get what you think you are buying. Sometimes you get an absolute bargain, other times you get ripped off big time. Whether the 2 balance out ...? Thats a very personal experience and generally depends on your level of knowledge / questions you ask of the vendor

Personally I prefer to pay a bit more for the "guarantee' of buying from a known reputable dealer.

Its the old adages of "what you see is what you get" and "If its too good to be true ..."

 

[movie zombie]

welcome to the world of color!

education Education EDUCATION is a must......and even then you may not get what you think you purchased on ebay.

many of us started there....purchased a stone or two or three. these i refer to as my learning stones. they helped me to understand that i needed education Education EDUCATION. they helped me to understand that it is always let the buyer beware. they helped me to understand that pictures on the internet can and will be manipulated. but most of all: they helped me to develop my eye....and this is not a a bad thing.

even the experts get taken periodically so for any of us amateurs to think we''re going to beat the odds and get that world class stone for a pitance is unrealistic. yes, it is worth the few extra bucks to go with a reputable dealer.

and the most important thing to realize is that you really do get what you pay for. a $100 per carat spinel will not compare with a $2000 per carat spinel.....yes, the difference is not just noticeable, the difference is incredible!

only through education can any of us know what trade offs we are willing to make when purchasing a color stone as most of us do not have unlimited resources.

for me color is paramount and i cannot abide extinction....but will tolerate maybe a bit of window but often pass on windowed stones as well.

again, welcome! enjoy!

mz

 

[T L]

I hear awesome things about swalagemtraders.com. They're out of Africa, but the material, in particular tsavorites and hot pink/red spinels, are top quality. Eric, the owner, has sold much material to Pricescopers here, including that gorgeous pear shaped spinel in Chrono's avatar.

These Thai based companies have decent material if you look hard enough. Returns might be difficult though if you're not in Thailand.
AJSgems.com
Multicolour.com

As for ebay, well, it is shark infested waters as Chrono said, but there are some trusted sellers like gemnut and gemlineinc.

It depends what kind of gem you're looking for. Anything in particular since some sellers specialize in a various type of gemstone.

 

[morecarats]

Date: 12/22/2009 9:49:39 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
I hear awesome things about swalagemtraders.com. They''re out of Africa, but the material, in particular tsavorites and hot pink/red spinels, are top quality. Eric, the owner, has sold much material to Pricescopers here, including that gorgeous pear shaped spinel in Chrono''s avatar.

These Thai based companies have decent material if you look hard enough. Returns might be difficult though if you''re not in Thailand.
AJSgems.com
Multicolour.com

As for ebay, well, it is shark infested waters as Chrono said, but there are some trusted sellers like gemnut and gemlineinc.

It depends what kind of gem you''re looking for. Anything in particular since some sellers specialize in a various type of gemstone.

I live in Thailand and my impression is that we are well connected with international post and courier services. Have people had problems trying to send packages to Thailand? It doesn''t seem like the Thai dealers have problems sending goods to most other parts of the world.

 

[T L]

Multicolour.com made it very difficult and expensive for me to do a return. It cost around $22 to return a stone, and I wasn't allow to insure it. At least for that price, if I was able to insure it, I would have had peace of mind. They required it be sent global priority express uninsured and declared as documents in a flat envelope.

It didn't bother him to send it to me via registered mail, which was inexpensive on his part, and takes forever. However, I couldn't send it back that same way. I had to use the more expensive and risky method.

 

[morecarats]

FedEx is the best way to send anything valuable to Thailand, and it usually takes only 3 days. International registered mail is only about $12 for less valuable shipments. If a dealer requests that you return an item uninsured, then he should assume the risk in case of loss.

 

[haagen_dazs]

Date: 12/22/2009 10:42:41 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
It didn''t bother him to send it to me via registered mail, which was inexpensive on his part, and takes forever. However, I couldn''t send it back that same way. I had to use the more expensive and risky method.

did they explain why this was their preferred method of shipping?
curious

 

[T L]

Date: 12/22/2009 10:48:47 PM
Author: morecarats
FedEx is the best way to send anything valuable to Thailand, and it usually takes only 3 days. International registered mail is only about $12 for less valuable shipments. If a dealer requests that you return an item uninsured, then he should assume the risk in case of loss.

I wasn''t allowed to send it through FedEx, but I was specifically told I HAD to ship it global priority mail, uninsured, in a flat envelope, declared as documents for zero value. I''m sure FedEx would be expensive as well, but whenever you have to ship overseas, it''s alway more expensive, so I try to buy from dealers I''ve had good repeat experiences with in order to avoid the return hassles associated with these types of shipments. If a Thai or any overseas vendor has given me consistantly good quality, I will take the chance and repeat purchase from them. Unfortunately, MC.com is not a vendor I''ve had good luck with. I''ve returned almost all stones I bought, and the out of the ones I kept, I was only happy with one. With my bad experiences coupled with their restrictive return policy, I refuse to buy more from them. However, other people have had very good luck with them.

That being said, some of my best purchases were from overseas vendors, so I do not rule them out simply because of the complications of return shipping. It''s just something you have to be aware of when you do purchase from one.

 

[T L]

Date: 12/22/2009 11:21:54 PM
Author: haagen_dazs

Date: 12/22/2009 10:42:41 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
It didn''t bother him to send it to me via registered mail, which was inexpensive on his part, and takes forever. However, I couldn''t send it back that same way. I had to use the more expensive and risky method.

did they explain why this was their preferred method of shipping?
curious

No. It was just, "you have to do it this way" otherwise no refund. I guess I could have asked why, but I didn''t want to irritate the vendor since I just wanted a prompt refund.

 

[LD]

Date: 12/23/2009 1:05:49 AM
Author: tourmaline_lover

Date: 12/22/2009 11:21:54 PM
Author: haagen_dazs

Date: 12/22/2009 10:42:41 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
It didn''t bother him to send it to me via registered mail, which was inexpensive on his part, and takes forever. However, I couldn''t send it back that same way. I had to use the more expensive and risky method.

did they explain why this was their preferred method of shipping?
curious

No. It was just, ''you have to do it this way'' otherwise no refund. I guess I could have asked why, but I didn''t want to irritate the vendor since I just wanted a prompt refund.

I think it''s because if you ship by FedEx, customs are more likely to get to the package and then the Vendor has to pay taxes again.

Interestingly, returning gemstones from the UK to Thailand is easy. You can insure and use registered, signed for mail inexpensively. Registered mail tends to take about 5 working days both to and from Thailand.