Hello from Bogota

[rmhunt07]

New member here. Lurking for the past month and enjoy the many comments, however, I have a question I hope someone can help guide me.

I'm from Dallas, an expat living in Colombia. My Colombian wife has contacts in Colombia that allow us to buy rough or cut emeralds from the mines of Chivor, Cosquesz and can also get rough emeralds in Muzo at some pretty decent prices. She wants to start an emerald export business. I've told her thats fine, but I've never sold emeralds and don't know who I could sell them too. She knows a dealer in Bogota that will teach us cutting as part of the education process as well as offer his emeralds at a discount that we can sell in the US or Europe.

My question is this. Who can we sell to in the US? I'm assuming at wholesale since I really don't want to get into the retail side. Is the Diamond District in NY a possibility or would they only pay pennies on the dollar? Is this a profitable possibility with travel costs, etc... Thanks for any advice or guidance.

 

[whitewave]

I don’t think learning to cut is that easy. I have no idea what to tell you, sorry.

 

[T L]

I don’t think learning to cut is that easy. I have no idea what to tell you, sorry.

I would never sell gems, especially emeralds, without getting tons of education on their characteristics, how to spot fakes, the mines and treatments. Cutting an emerald is also precarious because due to their fractures, they can easily shatter. I think you’re way out of your league.

 

[rmhunt07]

We're not planning to cut them ourselves, we're only practice cutting to learn the process so that we're educated in the process. We know we can't cut them since it takes years of experience but it's a necessary essential to be aware of how it's done. We've been studying the characteristics and visited the mines to educate ourselves and are being mentored by some of the best in the business.

 

[voce]

If you're just looking to sell rough, you can visit the Tucson show like once a year. I can't help but think that the big dealers already have contacts, and if you're not adding value to the process, it's hard to see why people would do business with you instead of someone with more experience.

 

[MollyMalone]

'm from Dallas, an expat living in Colombia. My Colombian wife has contacts in Colombia that allow us to buy rough or cut emeralds from the mines of Chivor, Cosquesz and can also get rough emeralds in Muzo at some pretty decent prices. She wants to start an emerald export business. I've told her thats fine, but I've never sold emeralds and don't know who I could sell them too. She knows a dealer in Bogota that will teach us cutting as part of the education process as well as offer his emeralds at a discount that we can sell in the US or Europe.

There's a whole other morass that it doesn't sound like you've considered. The anti-money laundering & anti-terrorist funding measures imposed by the US and other countries pertaining to the sale of, e.g., precious gems. I don't know the particulars, but it's definitely a topic for discussion with an international law attorney with expertise in this area.

 

[rmhunt07]

Thanks everyone for your replys. Voce, we'll be dealing primarily in cut stones. Molly, there is an established export process for emeralds down here, so not really worried about the international regs. We'll see how this pans out.... start small and see where it takes us. Learning and working with emeralds is the easy part, it's establishing relationships with buyers thats the tough part.

 

[Sungura]

I am in a similar position to you. Husband’s family in Bogota. We own property there and travel often. We have Family members with 30 plus years in the gold business. A geologist with years of experience in Colombia I also live near NYC and have friends and acquaintances who work in the diamond district or who deal in gems and jewelry.

Here is what I have learned about the wholesale business. Wholesalers buy massive quantities of rough and have gems cut in cheaper locales like Jaipur. Take a look at the AMerican Gem Trade Association source directory ( https://agta.org/directory/) and see how much competition there is. Moreover the wholesale business is very relationship-based and relies on trust. One needs a lot money to invest and often only get income a few times a year at a few big shows.

As @voce says you will need to find way to add value to the supply chain and I can only see viable business models in the retail channel in niche markets.

 

[arkieb1]

I buy things like Sapphires and spinels from dealers that have become friends from places like Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Africa (a guy from Mozambique that is a second generation native African gem dealer lives just over an hour from my house because he met and married an Aussie girl).

They mostly make money selling their stones to retail customers or people like me that will pay more than a wholesale price to have them hand pick out something but less than a retail price. Large stores in the US and all around the world tend to either have their own supply chains with the people that cut and onsell the stones or they go to big gem shows and buy up stones.

Going to gem shows might be a good option for you, but like the others have said you will need to have the resources to buy in bulk to be able to make money.

These days places like Instagram are full of decent quality decent priced emeralds so you have to compete with that too...

 

[TreeScientist]

These days places like Instagram are full of decent quality decent priced emeralds so you have to compete with that too...

Instagram is a good option too if you just want to do this part time. Get a decent following and open an Etsy shop and you can sell a few stones direct to consumers every few months.

I'm in a similar position, only with regards to Vietnamese gems. Wife is Vietnamese and we have a few contacts back in Vietnam(aunt with a jewelry business who knows some spinel miners/exporters, including a few up in Luc Yen) who can get us a few decent rough/cut stones at good prices. I've been learning quite a bit about the trade recently to see whether it would be lucrative for us to buy a few stones on our trips back to Vietnam and then sell them.

As you said yourself, once you have a few good, trustworthy contacts at the mines, getting the gems is the easy part. It's finding a place to sell them that's the difficult part. It takes a lot to establish trust with whomever you're selling to, and there's also a lot of competition out there.

Basically, if you're just looking to sell part time and not rely on it as necessary income, but rather a side hobby that brings in a bit of cash, then it's relatively easy to enter the "trade." As already mentioned, you can post a few of your stones on Instagram/Etsy and sell to whomever expresses interest. Don't sell a stone for a few months? Who cares. It's just a hobby. You're not buying your rice and eggs with it.

It's much, much (much) more difficult to make it if you're wanting to make this an actual business where you're relying on the income as part of your salary. You need a large stable of customers, both trade members and retailer customers, so that you're moving stones consistently and getting a (relatively) consistent stream of income. It's also hard not to be "desperate" when you're relying on that money you're earning to survive. Trade members can smell desperation in fresh meat, and they will take full advantage of it.

As for myself and my wife, we're probably going to try it out as a hobby in the next few years (right now we're still learning, so probably won't even start for 3 or 4 years). Just have fun with it and see how it goes. With the prices we would be able to get them at, it wouldn't hurt to try, and I really love looking at and analyzing new stones. But we're never going to try and make it an actual business. We have good careers that we enjoy and don't need the money in the least, but it would certainly be fun and a good way to justify even more trips back to Vietnam to see her family.

I would suggest starting off that way. Take it up as a hobby and just try selling a few to start with. You'll make mistakes at the beginning. Learn from those mistakes. Go to as many gems shows as you possibly can and make as many friends in the trade as you possibly can. As with almost any field, if you're a decent, likable human being that people like to be around, then you'll make friends who will be willing to lend the newbie a hand. And most of all, enjoy.

 

[rmhunt07]

Thanks Tree, very good post. Thats kind of what we're thinking. My wife is the most lovable easy going woman that has a tremendous amount of contacts in Colombia. We're going to go very slow and develop the business by word of mouth. We don't need to rely on the income. I'm retired and it's something fun to do and learn while making a little money. I'm not a social media user, don't have any social media accounts but your comments about Instagram has me thinking. Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts. Much appreciated.

 

[Sungura]

Thanks Tree, very good post. Thats kind of what we're thinking. My wife is the most lovable easy going woman that has a tremendous amount of contacts in Colombia. We're going to go very slow and develop the business by word of mouth. We don't need to rely on the income. I'm retired and it's something fun to do and learn while making a little money. I'm not a social media user, don't have any social media accounts but your comments about Instagram has me thinking. Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts. Much appreciated.

Excellent advice @TreeScientist

@rmhunt07 I see you are open to ideas. I love that you and your wife are going to spend time learning about emeralds from the mining to cutting. more possibilities. The more you know what you like about the emeralds and the supply chain, the more clearly you may see a path forward. You and your wife may fall in love with small and mighty emeralds, or like the hunt for just the right gem for a customer. Or perhaps you will like the rough crystals that collectors buy or the rough emeralds that some use for jewelry. Maybe you will like to tell the story behind each handpicked gem

Typically when one has real passion for something that translates to the customers

You can learn a lot from some of the threads here. There have been a number of emerald threads recently

Also look into International Emerald Exchange IEEX on instagram @muzoemeralds. The owner, George, shows his emeralds within the context of Colombia and Colombians. I personally love this.