#JOTW 5.58 ct Blue Sapphire (Gemsthailand)

[Justin_Cutter]

Hello everyone this is my first post here on PS.
I wanted to share with you the stone that I have selected for the Engagement Ring I am building for my girlfriend. This has been quite the journey for me. Finding a Natural blue sapphire without any treatment was a challenge these past 6 months. This is actually my 3rd purchase in my search of a natural unheated sapphire. The first 2 sapphires proved to be heated once I had GIA test them for treatment.
I am perfectionist but I didn't have a unlimited budget so it took me a long time to select each stone, but now finally on my 3rd attempt I have a winner!


Here is a quick "live" pic. I will take some high quality pics of it when it returns from AGL





The sapphire is currently at AGL in New York. Christopher Smith called me today and informed me that the stone is indeed natural and untreated! I was so please to hear this after so much disappointment with my previous 2 purchases. I must say that I am extremely impressed with AGL. Christopher is wonderful to deal with and very knowledgeable. He took extra time to explain differences in report options for the stone in 2 separate phone conversations! It is rare to receive such detailed attention from the president of a world renown company.

As for Gemsthailand- the company I purchased the stone from on eBay. I will be writing a full review in a few days to share my experience with the community.

Please let me know what you think!
~Justin

 

[mrscushion]

It looks like a wonderful stone to me! Congratulations on your upcoming engagement!

 

[mayerling]

I love the colour!

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Thank you so much! I am so excited to get engaged! She is going to love it.

I agree the stone has a nice rich blue to it. I wish you could see it in person. The blue if very intense.

~Justin

 

[tzelin]

Oh my goodness! What an amazing color! My jaw just dropped when I saw the picture! She is one lucky lady indeed to have something as beautiful as that on her finger! What setting do you intend to put that beautiful stone in?

 

[bright ice]

My goodness, what a beautiful sapphire. Such a gorgeous color. She will absolutely love it. Congratulations on such a find and upcoming engagement!

 

[MAC-W]

Congratulations on your upcoming engagement. I'm sure your lady will be very happy to receive such a nice looking stone.




Can I ask,
- why did you switch from using GIA as you said you did on your first 2 stones, to using AGL on this stone ?
- and what would you say were the biggest differences between the 2 companies?

 

[JewelFreak]

What a GORGEOUS color! Made me gasp. Please put up more pictures when you get it back! The size is amazing too. I'm joining the line to ask how you plan to set it.

What a lucky girl you have!!

 

[chrono]

Congrats on the stone and engagement. I, too, am curious on why AGL this time around instead of GIA.

 

[stargurl78]

Wow, what a gorgeous HUGE stone! I am also interested in how you will set it

 

[pwendyp]

Tis a beautiful sapphire and a stunning blue...

I was just on ebay, so had a peek at the company you mentioned it was from, to see what they had...and...they have your stones' twin for sale!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-58-CT-C...0021?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item3a61a61ef5

It can't be though - can it?

And Lo...'Gemsthailand' is another 'Natural Sapphire Company' - another twin!

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Oh my goodness! What an amazing color! My jaw just dropped when I saw the picture! She is one lucky lady indeed to have something as beautiful as that on her finger! What setting do you intend to put that beautiful stone in?

Thank you all so much. Per your request here is the setting I plan to set the stone in. These are just the low quality designer pics that they emailed me. I will take better pics once it is finished. It currently shows a oval in the setting but they have reassured me that it can be made to fit my Cushion nicely. The setting has 2 ct of Diamonds in the near colorless range. I may request the only colorless stones be used however.
I see that my last pic up top ended up smaller than I expected so in case you can't see the dimensions of my sapphire they are 10.53 x 9.29 x Depth 5.68







~Justin

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Tis a beautiful sapphire and a stunning blue...

I was just on ebay, so had a peek at the company you mentioned it was from, to see what they had...and...they have your stones' twin for sale!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-58-CT-C...0021?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item3a61a61ef5

It can't be though - can it?

And Lo...'Gemsthailand' is another 'Natural Sapphire Company' - another twin!

I have already spoke to Gemsthailand about this and the listing should be pulled today. The sale of the Sapphire was tentative until it passed either GIA or AGL report. Which we just found out yesterday that it did pass as a natural untreated stone.

And yes he does list it as the natural sapphire company but from what I can see his customer seem happier than the "natural sapphire company" we are all familiar with here in the states . He has been in the sapphire business a long time. I will be doing a full review on the company Gemsthailand to inform the community.

~Justin

 

[pwendyp]

Thanks Justin

I know the words are just descriptives...

You really have a gorgeous stone there - let's hope no-one buys the other listing eh?!

The setting you have shown us is so pretty also - good luck with it all, and your future intended is a lucky lady indeed.

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Thanks Justin

I know the words are just descriptives...

You really have a gorgeous stone there - let's hope no-one buys the other listing eh?!

The setting you have shown us is so pretty also - good luck with it all, and your future intended is a lucky lady indeed.

I know I am a little worried seeing that the listing was still up. But hopefully it will be pulled today. This so far is pretty much my only "bump" in the road so to speak with Gemsthailand other than dealing with a little bit of a language barrier. His English is pretty good though. Definitely understandable and it never was a issue in the 200+ emails that Gemsthailand and I have exchanged.

And thank you I am very excited!

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Congratulations on your upcoming engagement. I'm sure your lady will be very happy to receive such a nice looking stone.

Can I ask,
- why did you switch from using GIA as you said you did on your first 2 stones, to using AGL on this stone ?
- and what would you say were the biggest differences between the 2 companies?

Thank you for the kind words.

Ok well as to why I switched from GIA to AGL. First let me say that my experience is with GIA of Carlsbad California. I have never worked with the laboratory in New York so what I say is strictly limited to the Carlsbad laboratory.

The first stone I had GIA do a report on I actually dropped the stone off in person. This was a very interesting experience to say the least. Honestly from start to finish the GIA representatives that I encountered were either rude or poorly informed about there processes of colored stone reporting. I actual had my girlfriend with me at the time. She doesn't have a clue about the setting I am getting but since Sapphires can have such a range of "blues" I wanted her approval on the color of any Sapphire I picked. I was very embarrassed by the lack of professionalism that GIA exhibited and I wish my girlfriend had not came with me because of it.

I am sure you all would like to hear some specific examples of my disapproval of GIA so here they are.

1. When I dropped the 1st stone off at GIA the representative that was with us was unclear about the price GIA was going to charge me to do the Origin Report for my stone. It wasn't until I pointed out to the representative the price of the report that is on GIA's downloadable PDF with there fees that a understanding was reached. This was pretty sad. My girlfriend gave me this look as if to say "your actually leaving our stone with these people". In addition to this while we were waiting I noticed that GIA had one of there Diamond reports on display. It was a very nice looking report so I asked if I could have one like that for my Sapphire. I was told that GIA doesn't do things like that for colored stones only diamonds. Overall I couldn't help but get the feeling that GIA doesn't really care about colored stones.

2. Whenever I would call the Lab to check on my stone or to inquire about different reports I would say I had a 50/50 success rate of actual being greeted by a friendly representative.

3. The second stone I mailed to GIA. Again to have an Origin Report done. This went pretty smooth until I received the report back in the mail with my stone. The report said that the origin of the stone was undetermined and that no origin could be given. This didn't change the fact that GIA still charged me for the full origin report $350 (4.48ct stone) I called and contested the fact that I should not have been charged for the Origin Report since no origin could be given. This is one of GIA's policies. The customer service manager that I spoke to didn't believe me when I said that this is a GIA policy and that it is actually printed on there colored stones report fees PDF. So I had to go through the GIA website with her step by step to show her this PDF http://www.gia.edu/lab-reports-services/fees_payment/lab_fees/LAB_feeschedule_Ident_1210_USD.pdf. You will notice at the bottom of this PDF there is a note saying that "If an opinion on country of origin cannot be given, a standard Identification Report will be issued" upon showing her this she admitted that I was right and told me that a credit would be given to my account. She had no clue this "policy" even existed. And she is the customer service manager!!! Why should I the customer have to prove to GIA that they owe me money for a service they didn't provide me?

4. I was suppose to receive a call back from this same customer service manager the next day regarding this refund. I did not unfortunately. 4 Days passed and not a word from GIA. So I call again to which she told me that she had been sick. Ok fair enough but someone else should have picked up the ball on this issue.

5. To actually have a refund put back on your credit card GIA needs written approval via either email or fax. I was going to send them a email but I was given a wrong email address. This is a small issue but at this point in the process it proved to be frustrating. I called back again and received a correct working email.

All this to say GIA will never receive a colored stone from me ever again.

AGL's specialty is colored stones so this is why I chose to go with them for the 3rd stone. I must say that so far my experience has been wonderful. Everyone I have talked to is very friendly and willing to answer any questions I have. Christopher Smith called me himself to tell me that my Sapphire was natural and unheated! He also spend a lengthy time on the phone with me discussing my options! I am so impressed!

I hope this helps and sheds some light on why I switched Labs.

~Justin

 

[minousbijoux]

Hi Justin:

Congratulations on so many levels - finding your life partner, navigating your way through the world of colored stones and, if it really is similar to the photos, finding a quality 5+ ct unheated sapphire for a great price.

It also sounds like you are pretty knowledgeable at this point about what you want, so you can take this with a grain of salt but I just want to point out that a 10mm stone in the halo mount you like will be quite blingy and large - almost like cocktail ring size. Nothing wrong with that (I love the fact that you are going for it ) but just wanted to give you something to think about, especially if she has petite hands and fingers.

Good luck, you'll have to share the rest of the story as well, cause we won't leave you alone now until you do

 

[LD]

Justin - please forgive me and I hope your posts are genuine but the Natural Sapphire Company has a habit of sending people here to this forum to promote them. I am really confused as to how you've got the stone in the US but it's still for sale on Ebay? In the advert, Gemsthailand state that only AIGS reports are available for stones over $500 and it has an accompanying AIGS report so I'm wondering how/why you've got the stone and it's with AGL and it's still for sale? Why would they make a tentative sale on a stone that already has an AIGS report?

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Justin - please forgive me and I hope your posts are genuine but the Natural Sapphire Company has a habit of sending people here to this forum to promote them. The fact that your stone is still for sale on Ebay gives me grave concern. In the advert, Gemsthailand state that only AIGS reports are available for stones over $500 and it has an accompanying AIGS report so I'm wondering how/why you've got the stone and it's with AGL and it's still for sale? Why would they make a tentative sale on a stone that already has an AIGS report?

Valid Question.

I assure you I am not with the Natural Sapphire Company. I am assuming you mean this company. http://www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/

I do not represent the natural sapphire company or Gemsthailand.

As for the AIGS Report you mean this one that is right in front of me


Let me explain why I insisted on a additional report. My 1st sapphire purchase came with a AIGS Report saying that it was a natural sapphire without heat treatment. I wanted to be sure so I took the stone to GIA. There report found that the stone was indeed heat treated. Ever since I have no faith in AIGS. Gemsthailand was gracious enough to let me get a second report from GIA or AGL and if the stone proved to be heated he would give me a full refund.

As to why the stone listing is still up on ebay I honestly don't know. The reason the listing didn't automatically end when I bought it is because I saw the stone on ebay but didn't buy it through ebay. I contacted Gemsthailand via email from there website http://www.gemsthailand.com/\
So we continued with the deal outside of ebay via email. I am assuming that the listing remaining on ebay is just a formality that was simply overlooked oh Gemsthailand's end.
If you need further proof that I am not scamming the community or trying to represent a company I could take a screen shot of my PayPal receipt from when I purchased the stone.

In addition I personally cant stand The Natural Sapphire Company. To many bad reviews. That is why I went with Gemsthailand.

I hope this helps clear the air. Sorry for any confusion.

~Justin

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Hi Justin:

Congratulations on so many levels - finding your life partner, navigating your way through the world of colored stones and, if it really is similar to the photos, finding a quality 5+ ct unheated sapphire for a great price.

It also sounds like you are pretty knowledgeable at this point about what you want, so you can take this with a grain of salt but I just want to point out that a 10mm stone in the halo mount you like will be quite blingy and large - almost like cocktail ring size. Nothing wrong with that (I love the fact that you are going for it ) but just wanted to give you something to think about, especially if she has petite hands and fingers.

Good luck, you'll have to share the rest of the story as well, cause we won't leave you alone now until you do

Thank you for the input!
You are correct that the ring will have a large footprint but my girlfriend really likes that look. I think it will probably be ok. If you look at the designer pictures of the setting the oval sapphire that is shown is actually 10mm X 8mm so its not to far off from what mine is.

I am excited to see it once it is set! Oh and no worries I will be updating the thread as I go through this journey!

~Justin

 

[LD]

Thank you Justin for your thoughtful reply and I'm grateful that you didn't take offence at my question.

I do hope that this sapphire turns out to be all you want. As others have said this is going to be a real statement piece and certainly eye catching. A cushion may give more finger coverage than an oval but as you've seen it in person, you'll have an idea of dimensions in any case. Will you be proposing formally once you have the ring or have you done so already with a piece of plastic or something?

 

[athenaworth]

As to why the stone listing is still up on ebay I honestly don't know. The reason the listing didn't automatically end when I bought it is because I saw the stone on ebay but didn't buy it through ebay. I contacted Gemsthailand via email from there website http://www.gemsthailand.com/\

I bought some diamond dangle earrings from someone on ebay. They were one-of-a-kind, and the seller kept the listing up through my "return policy" timeframe just incase I didn't want them. I guess they didn't want to miss the opportunity to sell them if I didn't wind up liking them.

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Thank you Justin for your thoughtful reply and I'm grateful that you didn't take offence at my question.

I do hope that this sapphire turns out to be all you want. As others have said this is going to be a real statement piece and certainly eye catching. A cushion may give more finger coverage than an oval but as you've seen it in person, you'll have an idea of dimensions in any case. Will you be proposing formally once you have the ring or have you done so already with a piece of plastic or something?

No problem at all I am happy to clear things up. Also the listing has been removed from ebay. Thank you Gemsthailand.

I agree the cushion will have more finger coverage. The size of this stone is probably at my limit as far as how big I wanted to go considering that my girlfriends hands are fairly petite. Once I get the stone back I will take some more in hand pics for us to review then I will make my final decision on the setting.

I will definitely be proposing formally! My girlfriend has only been apart of the sapphire selection process. I just wanted to make sure I got a color that she would love. She doesn't know the cost of anything though and I intend to keep it that way. I am not a wealthy man and this stone was at the top of my budget but I just had to have it! I love it so much and she is worth it!

~Justin

 

[Justin_Cutter]

As to why the stone listing is still up on ebay I honestly don't know. The reason the listing didn't automatically end when I bought it is because I saw the stone on ebay but didn't buy it through ebay. I contacted Gemsthailand via email from there website http://www.gemsthailand.com/\

I bought some diamond dangle earrings from someone on ebay. They were one-of-a-kind, and the seller kept the listing up through my "return policy" timeframe just incase I didn't want them. I guess they didn't want to miss the opportunity to sell them if I didn't wind up liking them.

Interesting. I guess I can understand that but I would still prefer that a vendor remove the listing once sold personally.

Gemsthailand wrote me apologizing for the mistake. They thought the stone had already been removed from eBay. It is not there normal practice to leave a listing up once a stone has been sold. They thanked me again for my business and once again apologized for the mistake.

~Justin

 

[pregcurious]

Beautiful stone! Thanks for the info about getting your stone certified.

 

[platinumrock]

Beautiful sapphire. I can't wait to see it set!

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Beautiful stone! Thanks for the info about getting your stone certified.

Your welcome. I don't meant to bash GIA so badly but this was my honest experience. I will still send any future Diamonds to GIA but that's probably the only thing. For everything else I prefer AGL. The difference in my personal experience has been night and day.

~Justin

 

[tzelin]

That setting is just beautiful. You have done very, very well indeed.

 

[Justin_Cutter]

That setting is just beautiful. You have done very, very well indeed.

Thank you and everyone else so much for the kind words and approval of my selections! It is encouraging for me to have some of the most versed gem collectors and guru's critiquing my selections. I feel very confident that once the stone is set it will be truly beautiful and will hopefully have that "one of a kind" statement to it.

I am sure many in our community can understand where I come from when I say that I have spent so many late nights searching high and low for the best combination of setting and stone to meet my girlfriend's wish list for a engagement ring.
It has been a joy though honestly even though the first 2 sapphires were heated. I would gladly do it all over again if I had to.
When I saw this setting for the first time I just knew it was perfect for her!

The setting is made by this company. http://www.diamondringforever.com/rings.htm

If anyone has experience with them please let me know! I am kind of in the dark regarding having a setting made. This is my first engagement ring purchase and I pray that it will be the last. I want everything to be perfect. I have spoken to the company and they seem very knowledgeable and friendly but I would love to hear from someone with actual experience.

~Justin

 

[MAC-W]

Congratulations on your upcoming engagement. I'm sure your lady will be very happy to receive such a nice looking stone.

Can I ask,
- why did you switch from using GIA as you said you did on your first 2 stones, to using AGL on this stone ?
- and what would you say were the biggest differences between the 2 companies?

Thank you for the kind words.

Ok well as to why I switched from GIA to AGL. First let me say that my experience is with GIA of Carlsbad California. I have never worked with the laboratory in New York so what I say is strictly limited to the Carlsbad laboratory.

The first stone I had GIA do a report on I actually dropped the stone off in person. This was a very interesting experience to say the least. Honestly from start to finish the GIA representatives that I encountered were either rude or poorly informed about there processes of colored stone reporting. I actual had my girlfriend with me at the time. She doesn't have a clue about the setting I am getting but since Sapphires can have such a range of "blues" I wanted her approval on the color of any Sapphire I picked. I was very embarrassed by the lack of professionalism that GIA exhibited and I wish my girlfriend had not came with me because of it.

I am sure you all would like to hear some specific examples of my disapproval of GIA so here they are.

1. When I dropped the 1st stone off at GIA the representative that was with us was unclear about the price GIA was going to charge me to do the Origin Report for my stone. It wasn't until I pointed out to the representative the price of the report that is on GIA's downloadable PDF with there fees that a understanding was reached. This was pretty sad. My girlfriend gave me this look as if to say "your actually leaving our stone with these people". In addition to this while we were waiting I noticed that GIA had one of there Diamond reports on display. It was a very nice looking report so I asked if I could have one like that for my Sapphire. I was told that GIA doesn't do things like that for colored stones only diamonds. Overall I couldn't help but get the feeling that GIA doesn't really care about colored stones.

2. Whenever I would call the Lab to check on my stone or to inquire about different reports I would say I had a 50/50 success rate of actual being greeted by a friendly representative.

3. The second stone I mailed to GIA. Again to have an Origin Report done. This went pretty smooth until I received the report back in the mail with my stone. The report said that the origin of the stone was undetermined and that no origin could be given. This didn't change the fact that GIA still charged me for the full origin report $350 (4.48ct stone) I called and contested the fact that I should not have been charged for the Origin Report since no origin could be given. This is one of GIA's policies. The customer service manager that I spoke to didn't believe me when I said that this is a GIA policy and that it is actually printed on there colored stones report fees PDF. So I had to go through the GIA website with her step by step to show her this PDF http://www.gia.edu/lab-reports-services/fees_payment/lab_fees/LAB_feeschedule_Ident_1210_USD.pdf. You will notice at the bottom of this PDF there is a note saying that "If an opinion on country of origin cannot be given, a standard Identification Report will be issued" upon showing her this she admitted that I was right and told me that a credit would be given to my account. She had no clue this "policy" even existed. And she is the customer service manager!!! Why should I the customer have to prove to GIA that they owe me money for a service they didn't provide me?

4. I was suppose to receive a call back from this same customer service manager the next day regarding this refund. I did not unfortunately. 4 Days passed and not a word from GIA. So I call again to which she told me that she had been sick. Ok fair enough but someone else should have picked up the ball on this issue.

5. To actually have a refund put back on your credit card GIA needs written approval via either email or fax. I was going to send them a email but I was given a wrong email address. This is a small issue but at this point in the process it proved to be frustrating. I called back again and received a correct working email.

All this to say GIA will never receive a colored stone from me ever again.

AGL's specialty is colored stones so this is why I chose to go with them for the 3rd stone. I must say that so far my experience has been wonderful. Everyone I have talked to is very friendly and willing to answer any questions I have. Christopher Smith called me himself to tell me that my Sapphire was natural and unheated! He also spend a lengthy time on the phone with me discussing my options! I am so impressed!

I hope this helps and sheds some light on why I switched Labs.

~Justin

Thank You Justin for such a detailed and informative reply.
Much appreciated
Mac