Finder's Fee?

[kenny]

I noticed some diamonds in a local shop that sells second hand stuff.
A friend heard my description and may be interested in buying them.
He/she offered a finder's fee.

I have no idea. What percentage is customary/appropriate?

 

[ForteKitty]

a nice lunch and coffee. that's what i usually get when i find stuff for my friends.

 

[kenny]

a nice lunch and coffee. that's what i usually get when i find stuff for my friends.

Me too.

This person is thousands of miles away, took the initiative to contact me and volunteered a finder's fee.
I'll be taking a good amount of my time to take fine macro pics (to facilitate the buying decision) and offering my somewhat-informed opinion (I'm certainly not a GG or appraiser but not exactly a diamond bimbo either) and I'll be negotiating price and shipping them.
Still just lunch and coffee?

I'm looking for a customary professional's fee - not that I'd charge that since I'm not a professional.
Well, not yet.

 

[ForteKitty]

how good of a friend is this person? and how big of a purchase is this?

I would say no more than the cost of a plane ticket... because if it's more, why wouldn't they just fly over? (assuming it's an easy buy and doesn't take up too much of your time.) and if it's a good friend.. i would feel kind of guilty taking more than the cost of a plane ticket.

 

[kenny]

Thanks FK, a very reasonable consideration.

 

[Gypsy]

Hi Kenny, ping me.

 

[kenny]

Well, I usually don't ping girls, but maybe just this once.

 

[Gypsy]

ROFLMAO.

 

[Anon-E-Mouse]

None of my friends would ask for a finder's fee. So define "friend".

LOL

 

[kenny]

None of my friends would ask for a finder's fee. So define "friend".

LOL

I didn't ask.
They contacted me out of the blue and offered.

Asking to be paid would be an entirely different dynamic.

 

[Anon-E-Mouse]

I didn't ask.
They contacted me and offered out of the blue.

Asking to be paid would be an entirely different dynamic.

Based on the information you're providing here, give 'em five bucks and hope for the best.

 

[kenny]

I didn't ask.
They contacted me and offered out of the blue.

Asking to be paid would be an entirely different dynamic.

Based on the information you're providing here, give 'em five bucks and hope for the best.

So if I spend 4 hours of my time traveling, negotiating, photographing, packing and shipping that comes to . . . oh . . . $1.25 per hour.
Sounds fair, well perhaps in the day these OECs were cut.

 

[yssie]

Reimbursement for all travel expenses (gas, etc.) plus whatever a lower-end professional photographer in your area would charge for taking the photos incl. time/setup?

 

[Hera]

I wouldn't do most of those things. I would at the most give the diamonds a look to make sure that they were nice, then give the friend the phone number for them to call and arrange payment and shipping.
The way you make it sound, it sounds like a business deal and I wouldn't want to mix business with pleasure.

 

[Anon-E-Mouse]

So if I spend 4 hours of my time traveling, negotiating, photographing, packing and shipping that comes to . . . oh . . . $1.25 per hour.
Sounds fair, well perhaps in the day these OECs were cut.

You didn't mention anything about travel, etc. in your original post. Just mentioned a friend finding a stone and asking for a fee. Please be clear.

 

[ForteKitty]

going anywhere in LA requires traveling. my drive home just now took 35 mins. total miles traveled: 3.85. I think it's rather considerate of his friend to offer some kind of fee for the time and effort kenny put in. Taking pics = PITA.

kenny, is there any way they can come out for a visit and see the diamond too? i'd hate to see you do all that and have them receive it and go, "oh.. it's too ______" you know how people can be sometimes.

 

[Anon-E-Mouse]

Sorry you live in a such a sucky car environment. That's your choice, no one else's.

So, you're saying if Kenny can charge a fee for driving out in the California wilderness to merely look and not buy it's okay for the sellers to drive out to Kenny and charge him for the trip? These little stones are getting way expensive in silly commuter fees even before any product changes hands. . . .

Methinks LA isn't the place to do business in diamonds based on this concept. I don't get it. But that's just me. . . LOL

 

[ForteKitty]

Sorry you live in a such a sucky car environment. That's your choice, no one else's.

So, you're saying if Kenny can charge a fee for driving out in the California wilderness to merely look and not buy it's okay for the sellers to drive out to Kenny and charge him for the trip? These little stones are getting way expensive in silly commuter fees even before any product changes hands. . . .
Methinks LA isn't the place to do business in diamonds based on this concept. I don't get it. But that's just me. . . LOL

No, that's not what i'm sayin. Not sure what the heck you're saying, actually. I never said he should charge the person for all that stuff if the person isn't buying it. He asked what is a fair compensation for helping this person BUY this stone. He obviously spent a lot of time and effort, and will spend more time before this stone actually reaches the buyer.

As for the driving time... kenny and i live in the same area (relatively), so the traveling time is totally relevant in this case. A local place can take 45 mins to get to. Kenny is helping this person... his time's not free. He asked what's fair, and i think traveling time to get to these little stones, time to negotiate price, time to take pics - all matter.

I may love my friends, but i'd tell my friend to get his/her ass out here and visit me, and i'll take them out to see this stone in person. Then i'd take them out to the beach since it's so beautiful out here in the middle of winter

 

[Anon-E-Mouse]

I think I made myself very clear.

If you don't get it, you don't get it. 'Sall good.

 

[ForteKitty]

No, your sentence was the one that made no sense in the scheme of this thread. It was all over the place and implied things that wasn't said. Do you really want me to quote all the sequences so you can see it?

maybe i'll play after dinner, but you're kinda rude, so maybe not.

 

[ForteKitty]

sorry kenny for being a lil beeyotch on your thread... i turn into a gremlin when i'm hungry.

 

[kenny]

No problem.
I'm just grateful for the helpful information.

 

[ForteKitty]

haha... (he's joking, right?) my sense of humor returned and everything seems funny suddenly...

 

[kenny]

I can't tell whether he/she is being serious or not.

 

[Gailey]

Knew it would take something juicy to drag me out of lurkdom ......

Gailey thinks Mr Mouse speaks with forked tongue. In fact, methinks Mr Mouse has been acquainted with Kenny for some time.

Jerry's playing with you Tom, don't bite.

 

[Ella]

Please don't quote antagonistic posts. It makes it more difficult for us to remove them. Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[kenny]

Knew it would take something juicy to drag me out of lurkdom ......

Gailey thinks Mr Mouse speaks with forked tongue. In fact, methinks Mr Mouse has been acquainted with Kenny for some time.

Jerry's playing with you Tom, don't bite.

Huh?
So you know who this poster is?
Is it someone with two screen names?
Isn't that a violation of PS rules?

I feel I do have a healthy sense of humor, yet it seems I'm being made the butt of a joke here that is going over my head.

Edit: The offending posts have been removed by admin.

 

[frankiextah]

kenny, i helped a so called "friend" (we used to hang out quite a bit but now we don't even communicate anymore) ... on a pair of 2ctw RB studs and i was badly burned from the experience ... she promised me that she was dead serious about buying so i had a few pairs on hold by several vendors... she ended up leading me on and on, during which i had to repeatedly beg my vendors to hold onto the stones... after 2 weeks i finally had all the stones released, jeopardized my relationship with my trusty vendors, and my friend's attitude just left a bad taste in my mouth.

i would make sure your friend is serious about this purchase by at least paying you a retainer before you go ahead with the search, to cover all your expenses at least... i would hate for you to have to buy the stone on your friend's behalf with your own money in advance ... or worse hurting your relationship with your own vendors !

i previously found a 2.62ct E IF RB H&A RB stone for my mom for $75K, she loved it so much that she gave me $500 in cash without me even asking, as a form of a thankyou ... this was when i was in Hong Kong and spent time and effort communicating with my vendors in NYC - meaning lots of late night phone convo's and email exchanges. perhaps you could have your friend "suggest" what he/she thinks is fair - provided that you're helping him/her as a friend ?

when my husband and i were looking for my engagement ring stone, our friend who is a GG and works in the diamond district offered to help us through it. the way it worked was that we would picked out several stones that we liked, and he would come down to meet us and look at each stone. we would then take him to lunch. he couldn't be happier and it seemed like he had a lot of fun doing so as well ! this was however a local thing where we met up personally and going to the stores together. he did this for about 3 times (each took about 15-20 mins) and we took him to lunch after each time.

here are my suggestions:
- have your friend pay you a retainer (to compensate your expense) as a promise that he/she is totally serious about this whole thing
- search for diamonds and narrow down to a collection of stones on hold
- have your friend come to where you are and do a diamond viewing day trip (if your friend is serious about it he/she would agree to do this), have your friend communicate with the vendor onwards... at this point you will be hands off
- if this is really not possible then you would email all the info to your friend and have your friend communicate with the vendors from this point on
- if your friend is a true friend he/she will suggest some way to fairly compensate you with a thankyou... whether it is a gift card to your favorite store or restaurant, or send you a check ... since he/she volunteered to do so you would trust that he/she will not breech his/her promise

 

[Imdanny]

I didn't ask.
They contacted me and offered out of the blue.

Asking to be paid would be an entirely different dynamic.

Based on the information you're providing here, give 'em five bucks and hope for the best.

So if I spend 4 hours of my time traveling, negotiating, photographing, packing and shipping that comes to . . . oh . . . $1.25 per hour.
Sounds fair, well perhaps in the day these OECs were cut.

LOL!

 

[Lula]

I provide friends with links to this website, and an overview on how to educate themselves. I show them the websites of vendors I have worked with, and encourage them to contact the vendors with questions. But I no longer go out of my way to help them find stones, because, frankly, no one I know is willing to do the work it takes to find and vet good stones. So they tend to fall into the "oh, it's pretty" trap and pay too much for whatever it is they end up buying. I don't take offense -- it's how most people buy jewelry, and this is a hobby for me, not a profession. If I did end up doing more hand-holding and legwork for a friend, it would be nice to receive a nice bottle of wine or a gift certificate in appreciation. But I wouldn't expect it, because this is a hobby for me, and it's something I enjoy talking about and sharing with others.

However, it sounds like what your friend is asking you to do is more labor and time intensive, so I'd be okay with some sort of compensation, especially since he/she offered. You seem to know how much effort this will take, Kenny, so be upfront with him/her and, as others have suggested, set up some sort of agreement. That approach protects both of you, imo.