Wildfishgems crowd funding?

[digdeep]

Umm, VL, can you stick to English? I think it's out of line to write comments directed at one person on a public forum where everyone speaks/writes English and few people know German, verstehen Sie.......

 

[Marlow]

For example

aufgewachsen - you mean educated I think - but the meaning of "aufgewachsen" is "grown up" like I am grown up in NY....

So you have to live with my funny english

Heat and natural oil is o.k. for my...otherwise I don't buy them.

 

[eastjavaman]

Umm, VL, can you stick to English? I think it's out of line to write comments directed at one person on a public forum where everyone speaks/writes English and few people know German, verstehen Sie.......

Yes VL, let's not overcomplicate a complicated matter by adding another language.

 

[Edward Bristol]

I gladly accept your apologies. Happens.

I have already decided to take the crowd-funding down, though I am not convinced it is such bad thing (sure I am not going to make a loss here, but hey, I run a business, remember?)

Before I take it down, please somebody have a look if he can find the words ‘investment’, 'interest rate’, ‘pay back’ or ‘profit’ or such. I can’t.

They were never there (TL, don’t say I faked my website and don't make fun of my typos, I am not as fluent in English as you).

There is the word ‘share’, and ‘fund’, if that has caused discomfort I am sorry.

No 'investment' mentioned anywhere.

Two questions arise:

- Liao, you are here for 2 weeks or so. Why are you so eagerly defaming me? Who is behind you?

- Marlow, you are a trade member. Why do you not ID yourself as such?

 

[Marlow]

Ed

I am a collector.

I swear I am not a trade person!

 

[Edward Bristol]

Marlow, I accept your word of honour.

 

[arkieb1]

I think I understand what you were trying to do, it just needs to be better thought out and explained differently. When you start talking about gems as investments it starts getting into a grey area legally....

For people wanting untreated gems particularly if you can PROVE they have been ethically sourced - you then have a justification for higher prices than other dealers. The problem as we both know is many gemstones can and do change hands a number of times between the miners and the wholesalers/retailers that end up with them.

Perhaps you should instead be thinking about some incentivised buying programs or something of that nature where people can buy gems over a period of time and they know they are specifically buying untreated (& perhaps ethically sourced?) gems and paying a premium for both.

 

[chrono]

Quotation as requested by Ed:
Every 12 months the shareholder can decide:
Choose a gem inside your preference at 125% of your initial share value.
If you invested $10k, you have a credit of $12,500 after one year.
Put the gem in your pocket. Tax-free.
Leave 'your gem' in the fund and have $15,625 gemstone credit after two years.

I was sure I saw a comparison to a bank's 0.5% interest rate but do not see it today.

Regardless of the wording, just the idea of how this works still does not sit right with my conscience. JMHO.

 

[Edward Bristol]

Quotation as requested by Ed:
Every 12 months the shareholder can decide:
Choose a gem inside your preference at 125% of your initial share value.
If you invested $10k, you have a credit of $12,500 after one year.
Put the gem in your pocket. Tax-free.
Leave 'your gem' in the fund and have $15,625 gemstone credit after two years.

I was sure I saw a comparison to a bank's 0.5% interest rate but do not see it today.

Regardless of the wording, just the idea of how this works still does not sit right with my conscience. JMHO.

Yes, true, bad wording. Mea culpa.

 

[Edward Bristol]

Quotation as requested by Ed:
Every 12 months the shareholder can decide:
Choose a gem inside your preference at 125% of your initial share value.
If you invested $10k, you have a credit of $12,500 after one year.
Put the gem in your pocket. Tax-free.
Leave 'your gem' in the fund and have $15,625 gemstone credit after two years.

I was sure I saw a comparison to a bank's 0.5% interest rate but do not see it today.

Regardless of the wording, just the idea of how this works still does not sit right with my conscience. JMHO.

Yes, true, bad wording. Should have said 'started with' or so. Mea culpa. But I am not saying "Invest 10k and earn 25% return."

 

[T L]

They were never there (TL, don’t say I faked my website and don't make fun of my typos, I am not as fluent in English as you).

I'm not sure if you're joking Ed, but I would never say your website is fake. I also never ever accused you of a ponzi or pyramid scheme. In fact, when I first said, "what if you're not around in five years," I was seriously actually thinking, "what if you went out of business in five years time, and you had no stock because you had to liquidate your assets." It can happen to any vendor, as you said yourself, this is a tough business.

 

[eastjavaman]

I am not allowed to tell you why I think that ruby is special, but there is a threat on that topic.

What are you talking about????

What threat? No one is threatening you. Here's the thread, anyone can read it.

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/100-ruby-challenge.201810/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/100-ruby-challenge.201810/[/URL]

If WLT tells me that you're a donator, then fine, I'll believe them, and post it here, but again, this charity is marketing on your behalf. Why not highlight the rainforest issues instead, and be a silent donator? I think that's a lot more tasteful, especially in lieu of your markups. Slapping charity logos all over a webpage for a investment scheme is just . . .

I think Ed typo-ed thread.

 

[Edward Bristol]

Chrono, below is the place where I spoke of banking interest rates.

First of all:

Marlow, I offer you a deal:

If you can make that $200 stone to anything similar to my stone (cobalt, precision, certified etc.), I give you my gem for free and throw in an acre of rainforest.

If you can’t (say in 6 months) you buy the acre of rainforest.

The PS community will judge. Deal?

About the share-business:

This was actually a customer’s idea/request and I have done similar deals several times over the last years because I was asked to.

A customer puts in X today and chooses a gem next year with X%+. Nothing else. Very simple.

People do that when they have cash in hand, but can’t decide for a gem or want to wait for something special and hate to get 0.5% interest rates at their bank (and I assume they trust me more than their banker)

Or, I have several customers who sent me X every month for years now and from time to time choose a gem themselves.

Taking this as a clue for a market demand I tried to formalize the offer. That was all.

I sold 10+ shares mostly to old time customers in the first 2 weeks and that was that.

So, there is no pyramid, snow-ball system or anything. And I am not rolling in cash here.

If really everybody thinks this is such a terrible idea, I will take it offline.

However, I must of course keep my deal with those who have bought shares and if somebody asks me for more, I cannot refuse.

As for my photos, again, they are all all done with a simple camera in normal daylight, no photoshop, and I have handshots and usually different backgrounds and if somebody wants a different image I make it. I must have gotten good over 12 years of gem photography, but I never try to mislead anybody because I hate returns.

 

[Edward Bristol]

I am not allowed to tell you why I think that ruby is special, but there is a threat on that topic.

Absolutely!!!

So? That can be forged. How does it tie back to the charity? Where's your receipt Ed?

TL, here you claim I forged the world trust certificate.

 

[chrono]

Thank you, Ed, for clarifying.

 

[Edward Bristol]

Thanks, Chrono, I always appreciate your cool fact orientation (despite all our disputes) but you never get unfair.

 

[Edward Bristol]

They were never there (TL, don’t say I faked my website and don't make fun of my typos, I am not as fluent in English as you).

I also never ever accused you of a ponzi or pyramid scheme.

Yes, thanks, I noted that.

If the OP does not explain himself, may I ask for his removal from the user list?

I had a lawyer contacting me and offering to sue Mr "Liao" but I declined. Yet, I hope he will not be allowed to libel again, at least not here.

 

[chrono]

If the OP does not explain himself, may I ask for his removal from the user list?

Ed,
That is between Liao and Ella. As long as he has not broken any PS forum rules, he is allowed to stay (per the PS forum rules).

 

[T L]

I am not allowed to tell you why I think that ruby is special, but there is a threat on that topic.

Absolutely!!!

So? That can be forged. How does it tie back to the charity? Where's your receipt Ed?

TL, here you claim I forged the world trust certificate.

I personally require verification when someone puts out lots of claims, like you do. It's one thing to say, "oh I support umpteenth charities, give money to this one and that one, etc. . . "

I don't know if you forged that certificate, and I never said that was definitively a forgery. I just implied that anyone can do that. I am the type of consumer that requires verification on any major claims, especially when they're used as major marketing tools. It was a bit harsh a comment, and I apologize for that, but I was extremely frustrated, as I said before, because all I see is talk with nothing to back it up. However, if you do support those charities on your own, then great.

 

[john smith]

Marlow, I accept your word of honour.

Having only recently looked at WildFish gems website I found it to be closed and bankrupt. Searching I was unable to find any police report about this although I searched thoroughly. Somewhat surprised I Googled the company. I was surprised to find hundreds - literally - of complaints on ' Trust' type sites. Quite unbelievable really. In particular there were reports of fake stones and dreadfull jewelry. This led me to read some of Ed's stories of his travels. The story of his planting a listening device in the flower pot of a Bangkok gem dealer and a private detective hired hired by Ed to follow the dealer is, it must be admitted ,great fiction. Living as I do in Bangkok I had occasion to burst into laughter on several occasions as I followed the oddesy.

 

[MMtwo]

Made me look too. It appears he claims he was robbed.

 

[john smith]

I dont know which site you looked at on Google. I have not figured out how to attach the site I found most informative URL here so I shall type it. Trust.pro/ wildfish gems
If there is talk of crowd funding the information at Trust.pro/ wildfish gems needs to be promulgated more widely on this website although I am uncertain which thread it should be in

 

[Autumn in New England]

I don't recall this at all... what a wildly entertaining read!

I bought one stone from Ed, which was lovely, and got a decent price because it had a nick. I've since sold it. Yeah, that whole robbery story is really odd.

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

I really liked browsing his site back in the day. The prices were a bit high for me though. Has anyone heard if the investors were made whole? I would imagine he had insurance.

 

[john smith]

No. No insurance. Even those who gave him stones to sell lost out. Look up his blog about Alexandrite in Bangkok. It is hillarious. He is a first class confidence trickster.

 

[john smith]

Look up" Edward Bristols personal website" - that is the title of the site - on Google. Here you will find his thrilling story of his Alexandrite adventure in Bangkok.

 

[Autumn in New England]

No. No insurance. Even those who gave him stones to sell lost out.

I also remember hearing he had no insurance, which makes the situation even weirder.

 

[fredflintstone]

I sold an orange (Mandarin color and lively for Hessonite) Sri Lankan Hessonite to Ed maybe 10 years or a little more ago. I cannot remember the carat weight, seems around four carats to six carats. Sold it to him for $400 and he had it on resale for $2000. That much I do remember. The stone did get sold as I watched with interest. I cannot say how much he sold it for but as I wrote the listed price was $2000.

Ed always said, ethically and environmentally friendly mined gemstones. He had no idea how this stone was mined, LOL!

The sad thing about this is I see people here overpaying all the time but I try not to say much as it can offend people who paid that amount and I try to stay neutral as any vendor can ask anything they want and I will not point that vendor out, but I just could not help telling this little story that is fact, not fiction as Ed was such a honest guy.