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Found an amazing spinel

First thing, ask what light this Spinel's video was taking under. If natural sunlight in the tropics such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka or Thailand I can pretty much tell you if you live farther north or south it will look like a garnet with some brown in it. Tropical sunlight makes warm colors look purer. It will even look more like a garnet under artificial indoor lighting. The color is just not that saturated.

If the video was taken indoors (it looks like it but could still be under sunlight through a window) under artificial light then what you have is a nice but moderately saturated (not vivid) red spinel with a hint a purple and a tad grayish.

Pretty stone, but it all depends on price and if the price is good and the cost of top color red spinel is unreachable for many, it would make a very nice ring stone.
 
Oh, I see it is $2500 a carat, missed that. A little overpriced, $1500 to $2000 a carat would be more like it if it looks like its video. But for the end buyer you could do worse than that price.
 
fredflintstone said:
First thing, ask what light this Spinel's video was taking under. If natural sunlight in the tropics such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka or Thailand I can pretty much tell you if you live farther north or south it will look like a garnet with some brown in it. Tropical sunlight makes warm colors look purer. It will even look more like a garnet under artificial indoor lighting. The color is just not that saturated.

If the video was taken indoors (it looks like it but could still be under sunlight through a window) under artificial light then what you have is a nice but moderately saturated (not vivid) red spinel with a hint a purple and a tad grayish.

Pretty stone, but it all depends on price and if the price is good and the cost of top color red spinel is unreachable for many, it would make a very nice ring stone.
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Yeah it’s for sure in Thailand, the Bellerophon claims it is vivid with a vibrant cut how good are they on color? Asking about light source now. You are on point about my concerns cause red is difficult color.
 
I could not tell you how good or honest they are about color. Never even heard of them but that does not mean much. So many labs out there. More everyday.

Good luck to you. :)
 
fredflintstone said:
I could not tell you how good or honest they are about color. Never even heard of them but that does not mean much. So many labs out there. More everyday.

Good luck to you. :)
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Thanks here is the relative image, Pala international just posted a 4ct oval that just caught my eye as well.


IMG_8462.jpeg
Bellerophon image fwiw reminds me of Mozambique ruby. Likely artificial light

IMG_8468.jpeg
Last thing I want is a brownish red looking spinel. Top left is the one I was considering.

Pala gems 4ct reminds me of a ruby.

IMG_8463.jpeg
IMG_8464.jpeg


IMG_8467.jpeg
 
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Pala is very trustworthy but also very expensive. But for the peace of mind and if money is no object and you don't want to chance buying from a source dealer in a source country that you may never get a refund from or a major hassle getting one if you don't like the stone, then by all means go with Pala.
 
fredflintstone said:
Pala is very trustworthy but also very expensive. But for the peace of mind and if money is no object and you don't want to chance buying from a source dealer in a source country that you may never get a refund from or a major hassle getting one if you don't like the stone, then by all means go with Pala.
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Yeah they didn’t reply with price yet but I am willing to take some risks on source dealers. As long as the price is right.
 
SpinelsAndTourlamine said:
Yeah they didn’t reply with price yet but I am willing to take some risks on source dealers. As long as the price is right.
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It's your money. Just make sure the source dealer invoices you with a PayPal invoice or pay from your PayPal account (if you have one) for merchandise. That way you have a way to come back on them if they send you a stone you don't like.

By the way, you do not need a PayPal account if they send you an invoice as Paypal will allow through the invoice for you to pay with a debit or credit card. Protection.
 
fredflintstone said:
It's your money. Just make sure the source dealer invoices you with a PayPal invoice or pay from your PayPal account (if you have one) for merchandise. That way you have a way to come back on them if they send you a stone you don't like.

By the way, you do not need a PayPal account if they send you an invoice as Paypal will allow through the invoice for you to pay with a debit or credit card. Protection.
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Thank you for this, the 5% fee will be worth it then. Vendor is Nature de colours on IG, they claim to have a 10 day return policy but PayPal will be much safer.
 
SpinelsAndTourlamine said:
Thank you for this, the 5% fee will be worth it then. Vendor is Nature de colours on IG, they claim to have a 10 day return policy but PayPal will be much safer.
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Their videos and images read as pretty accurate to me
 
I think you're missing the fluorescence in the first stone, and also doesnt look like its going to be straight red (looks like it is going to have secondary colours that is going to make it go a tinge brown in low light).

Pala gems looks a bit better, hard to read a photo where the gem is in tweezers though (this stone might be a tiny bit windowed, but if colour is good enough I doubt this will be a problem).
 
The clarity is very good but are you looking for a dark spinel? Do you see all the black areas in the 1st stone as the stone moves? In buying spinels I have found that those areas likely look very dark or black out in most lighting conditions. I would be surprised if this stone isn't overly dark when viewed in person.
 
This stone seems to be missing the glow that I associate with high-quality spinel. Maybe being internally flawless is not that desirable in spinel if the glow comes from silk?
 
SpinelsAndTourlamine said:
Thank you for this, the 5% fee will be worth it then. Vendor is Nature de colours on IG, they claim to have a 10 day return policy but PayPal will be much safer.
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Lisa Loves Shiny said:
The clarity is very good but are you looking for a dark spinel? Do you see all the black areas in the 1st stone as the stone moves? In buying spinels I have found that those areas likely look very dark or black out in most lighting conditions. I would be surprised if this stone isn't overly dark when viewed in person.
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The stone's crystal is not dark, but the cut does have extinction in it, the dark areas or there’s a black camera to close to the stone reflecting off the facets. It could be both???

Best to have a camera as far away from a stone as possible so it does not reflect off the facets. Know this from years of experience taking thousands upon thousands of videos and pictures of stones for sale.
 
pokerface said:
This stone seems to be missing the glow that I associate with high-quality spinel. Maybe being internally flawless is not that desirable in spinel if the glow comes from silk?
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Yeah its an amazing stone on paper but the extinction is its downfall, it’s not so much it blocks out the majority of the color but it could have recut potential as extinctions are due to excess depth typically. The size of the face is my personal focus not carat weight so I am curious about options there I am just not a lapidary.
 
I would reach out to Ramon Tesoro on Insta. I've had him recut for me and his work is incredible. I'm going to send an example of another spinel that he just recut/posted that looked similar to yours and came out transformed. He is in Italy, so for me it was easiest to have the vendor ship to him and him ship the finished piece to me. It isn't the cheapest lapidary work I've found, but it's the best.

 
musicloveranthony said:
I would reach out to Ramon Tesoro on Insta. I've had him recut for me and his work is incredible. I'm going to send an example of another spinel that he just recut/posted that looked similar to yours and came out transformed. He is in Italy, so for me it was easiest to have the vendor ship to him and him ship the finished piece to me. It isn't the cheapest lapidary work I've found, but it's the best.

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Apologies for threadjacking, but have you ever shipped anything directly to him from the US? If so, which service did you use? I've heard there might be VAT charges for loose gems. I'm worried that shipping the gem could end up costing more than the work itself. I've never shipped a gem internationally and don't know where to start. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Since the bubble has already been burst a bit... I will concur that I think the first stone is quite average color-wise (though I love the size and the fact that it's flawless!). I much prefer the one from Pala though. It's more pink-red, but looks like a winner. Have you received a price yet?
 
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