Ebay Thai Sellers

[atara74]

So, I love gems, and don't have lots of money. In this situation, ebay has it's appeal. I am wondering what types of experience you all have had with the Thai sellers on ebay-good and bad- and what sellers. Thanks in advance.

 

[Arkteia]

The ones I dealt with were mostly OK... I'd say there in fact is no difference between Thai and non-Thai vendors. I bought stones that I have serious questions about equally from US vendors and from Thai vendors. Likewise, I bought good stones from US, UK and Thai vendors. Usually returns to Thailand are not a problem. One recent purchase I have not received. I am going to give the vendor a couple of days and then contact him. So far his service has been excellent so I expect him to be helpful. But it happened only once.

Toolhaus is a very good way of finding more about a vendor's reputation.

One thing - check if a vendor is willing to provide a certificate from a reputable lab (with photos). A photo is very important - I recently bought cheap spinels of a wonderful cut. The certificate that was provided came from a known lab but without a photo, there is no way of knowing if the spinel "matches" the certificate... Somewhere on the PS there is a thread about different certificates and how they should look (I think it was started by Loving Diamonds).

 

[jstarfireb]

Tan's stores (gemburionline, odysseygem, and vvs1gem) are reputable. The colors of the stones tend to match the videos very well, and the stones are exactly what he says they are (natural, all treatments disclosed).

Also, while these aren't ebay stores, two other highly reputable and competitively priced sellers are AJS Gem and Multicolour.

I don't know of any other ebay Thai sellers who have the same reputation as any of these. Tread carefully because there are a lot of synthetics out there, and photoshop is used frequently to enhance colors on their ebay listings.

 

[T L]

The ones I dealt with were mostly OK... I'd say there in fact is no difference between Thai and non-Thai vendors. I bought stones that I have serious questions about equally from US vendors and from Thai vendors. Likewise, I bought good stones from US, UK and Thai vendors. Usually returns to Thailand are not a problem. One recent purchase I have not received. I am going to give the vendor a couple of days and then contact him. So far his service has been excellent so I expect him to be helpful. But it happened only once.

Toolhaus is a very good way of finding more about a vendor's reputation.

One thing - check if a vendor is willing to provide a certificate from a reputable lab (with photos). A photo is very important - I recently bought cheap spinels of a wonderful cut. The certificate that was provided came from a known lab but without a photo, there is no way of knowing if the spinel "matches" the certificate... Somewhere on the PS there is a thread about different certificates and how they should look (I think it was started by Loving Diamonds).

toolhaus.org is the exact website name. Thanks for mentioning it Crasru.

 

[atara74]

Thanks for your replies. I have spent a lot of time on this web site (just snooping mostly) and knew you guys could give some good advice. I had never heard of toolhaus so I will check them out. Thanks again. Really wanting to add to my spinel collection. I just love them.

 

[Arkteia]

Oh! Then definitely try the websites that Jstarfireb has mentioned... Tan provides excellent photos, provides certificates from reputable labs and most of times, you will not be dissatisfied. Like any vendor, he may give overinflated description of the stones (his latest Tanzanian spinels are of "new" material but you can definitely see the color on his photos). His prices are close to prices of non-ebay vendors but at least you see what you are buying. And his inventory is huge.

Can't comment on AJS or multicolor, but there is one thread on a Burmese ruby here (very recent) and while I like the ruby, the color on PS-er's photos does not match the color on AJS's website at all. I view it as AJS's drawback.