gemstones on ebay

[alikat]

I''ve seen a lot of nice looking gemstones on ebay... however I''m not sure how its possible for the sellers to provide nice stones for such cheap prices... has anyone had good luck on ebay? any seller recommendations?

I''m particularily interested in spinels.

Thanks!

 

[Clarygrace]

Hi there! I''m also lurking around Ebay for gemstones and trying to figure it out....my FI collects rough minerals and gemstones and he has been very lucky on the site for his collection. I think with gemstones though, you need to really read the feedback on the vendors and look very carefully at what they are selling. I''m sure there''s a lot of "glass" out there...

Good luck!

 

[maxspinel]

I''ve been looking at ebay just out of interest but I normally don''t buy anything from there. Some of the gems especially spinels are too cheap and the seller claim that they are flawless. I am just too skeptical since synthetic spinels are hard to differentiate from natural spinels especial those that claim flawless. One needs to use a microscope to tell the internal growth characteristics to tell the difference. When something is too cheap, I just stay away no matter how good the deal seems to be.

 

[innerkitten]

I''ve gotten some nice stones an some really ugly ones too! Some things to look fo when buying are 100% positive feedback and they should offer returns for any reason.

As far as spinel go I got a lot of four that are raspberry colored and really pretty and shiny, they do have some small flaws but I don''t mind. I also got a small beautiful pink one that I love. But I also got a piece of glass ( it was so obvious too once I saw it in person) and one wih a horrible window. I didn''t pay too much for any of them. On Ebay I probably wouldn''t pay too much for a stone.

 

[lumpkin]

Hi, I''m new to this forum. I''ve been looking on Ebay, too. But I''m not really looking for investment type stones, more something fun maybe to have made into earrings with sterling silver -- something that''s real, not like the department store plastic or glass, but definitely not expensive. More artsy trendy fun pieces...

Anyway, I haven''t bought anything. I have seen some diffusion sapphires that look gorgeous in the pictures. Might be good for earrings???

I really don''t know very much about colored gemstones, so anything I bought would have to be really inexpensive.

 

[deorwine]

I've had middling-to-enh luck on ebay-- I've bought a couple off of those Thai vendors, the ones that list lots of stones with really nice pics.

A couple of times I got stones that looked fine, and matched about what I paid. The one time I bid up to about $200 I got a stone which was NOT the one in the auction. I complained, sent it back, and got another stone which was larger and nicer but still was not worth $200. At that point I probably could have sent it back again and gotten my money back but was tired of mailing things to Thailand and gave up.

So I'd say, for small amounts of money it's probably fine.

For cheap silver jewelry, I've had good luck with the cheap silver settings here:


http://stores.ebay.com/Gems-By-Deni_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsQ3amesstQQtZkm

tighten it with a plier, and you're good to go!