Overpriced Spinel?

[minousbijoux]

I have been looking for blue/lavender/purple spinels for a while and came across this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350283676954&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2062wt_907

Doesn't it seem a bit overpriced considering how dark it appears, or is it the video/camera photo that makes it look dark? I know its large, but what good is large if its overly dark? All thoughts are welcome.

Also, can someone point me in the direction of a tutorial which will teach me how to copy the photos in rather than just the url?

TIA.

 

[vbnet]

here's how I get the pics in. I right click on the picture, hit copy, then paste it into a folder on my computer. From there, I right click again and hit edit. Now it depends on what picture editor your computer pulls up. You want to find a way to compress the picture, I believe it needs to be less tha 100 kb when done, then you can upload the picture when you do a post at the bottom of the page.

I'm looking for the pricescope thread on this , I'll update if I find it.

 

[vbnet]

To me, I think it's a bit overpriced, but I'm just getting into colored stones myself. I like dark stones but I don't want to overpay for them.

 

[ForteKitty]

i emailed him about that one. For the longest time the video didn't work. He finally got it up last night, but i was very disappointed in the video.. way too dark!

 

[JewelFreak]

Minou -- that's $139/ct, doesn't seem too bad to me, though I'm not the expert others are. It is dark but looks clean -- hard to tell from the photo if there's a tiny window but at that depth, unlikely; cut looks okay. For comparison I recently bought a 2.96 ct. medium blue spinel, great saturation & tone, beautiful cut, eye clean but w/some veiling at magnification a little lower than this purple one, for $450/ct, from a well-respected cutter. Anything is worth what you're willing to pay, of course, but I don't feel like it was too much. Had been looking for a bigger good-quality blue for ages -- finding them for a price I could cough up was hard. I'm not sure if purples are more abundant but I've notice prices for blue spinels rising.


Copying photos: the above is right, though I just click Copy Image & then open my photo editing program & clickEdit, Paste As New Image. If the photo is in Adobe you don't get a Copy Image choice when you right-click. For those, on the upper right of your keyboard is a key marked PrtScn (Print Screen). Hit that, then open your photo editor & click on Edit, then Paste As New Image. You'll get the whole screen & can use Cut to get the stone by itself.

--- Laurie

 

[minousbijoux]

vbnet and Laurie:

Thanks for your photo assistance - boy, do I have a lot to learn! As for the spinel, thanks - you all confirmed what I thought. Laurie: I think its completely different when you are dealing with precision cut stones. I really view those as individual works of art, so in that case, I believe the stone is worth whatever you are willing to pay for it and there is no judgement for paying more per carat. Didn't you have a thread on that spinel recently? Every time someone has a spinel in that color family, particularly a precision cut one, I ogle and ogle and ogle...

 

[VapidLapid]

Part of why it could be so dark is the depth, 86%. Plenty of room for a recut to optimize the pavillion angles for brightness and cut a thicker crown for increased sparklies. Just an option, an alternative, something to consider.

 

[Michael_E]

Part of why it could be so dark is the depth, 86%. Plenty of room for a recut to optimize the pavillion angles for brightness and cut a thicker crown for increased sparklies. Just an option, an alternative, something to consider.

While a re-cut is a possibility, a thicker crown will invariably require that the face up size be reduced. This is because making a taller crown requires steeper angles and the only place that the added material can come from is the girdle/pavilion. This then requires that the girdle be recut making it smaller.

 

[T L]

Spinels jump in price over 3 carats, and I think that's a fair price for the stone. I'm not saying it's inexpensive, because it isn't, but I don't think it's overpriced either. It's also very clean, and that's also an important consideration in price since many spinels have inclusions.

 

[m76steve]

if u really are interested in the stone-ask the seller if he would consider an offer - buy-it-now - say maby 80-85% of the price he wants-most he will say is no!-show an interest-show a little respect-cant hurt-nothing in stone-hahaha-steve...

 

[vbnet]

I agree that precision cut stones are worth more. I also like the idea of making an offer. Good luck