Jason Brim's facebook auctions

[new-beginning]

Has anyone bid/won any of the colored stones on the Facebook page

Fine Faceted Gems & Cabs Auctions

He has some of his stones plus some stones from other lapidaries up there using an auction format.

 

[minousbijoux]

So far, nothing has really appealed and I doubt I'll be checking on a regular basis. I do know someone who got one of the rings and was disappointed - but then again, its a case of you get what you pay for, I suppose...

 

[davi_el_mejor]

I bought that ring... It's exactly how it was pictured... I just had hopes that were too high. I also didn't ask questions. But for $65 and a 10x8 sphene (granted not top quality) it was worth it.

Ask questions if you have any.

 

[vickygigi]

Like New Beginning said, there are precision cut stones there auctioned by lapidaries we all know... I think even Peter Toracca posts there. I saw some nice Jeff Davies stones too. I think its worth checking out...

 

[NKOTB]

I bid on something, but lost, when I got busy and then my time zones confused!

 

[FrekeChild]

Not really worth the time it takes to check it honestly. I much prefer the Fine Faceted Cabs and Gems Market because there are more sellers, more variety and it moves faster.

Jason, in general, seems to be a reseller. He buys stuff on ebay or from trusted vendors, bumps up the price a bit and sells it to the public.

 

[vickygigi]

Again, I'd stay tuned to that group. It is brand new (just about a month old) and it does take time to get things going. There are 10 sellers and they all set their own opening auction price and the market determines the final selling price.

 

[erinl]

It is a new group so just getting off the ground-- will be interesting to see what happens. I will include it in my perusing rotation.

 

[FrekeChild]

Not really worth the time it takes to check it honestly. I much prefer the Fine Faceted Cabs and Gems Market because there are more sellers, more variety and it moves faster.

Jason, in general, seems to be a reseller. He buys stuff on ebay or from trusted vendors, bumps up the price a bit and sells it to the public.

Let me add to this to clarify some things.

Descriptions of group/PSAs posted by Jason:

This group is called the Fine Faceted Gems & Cabs Auctions. I invite everyone who wishes to bid in an auction format to join. The group is presently an “Open” group so anyone can see it and join.

However, selling in the group is RESTRICTED. I have decided that there will be a maximum of 10 sellers. This is non-negotiable. Each seller will have admin status and only admins will be able to post. Anyone can respond to a post. Seller/Admin status is by invitation only. If you feel you have high end product you would like to auction, you may contact me but I cannot guarantee you will be approved. If you do not receive a reply you have NOT been approved. This does NOT mean you are despised, hated, ugly or anything else. LOL, it just means the admin feels the group would be better served with other sellers.

The group will remain “Open” for 30 days from today. After which it will become a “Secret” or “Private” group which will be invisible to the greater Facebook community and only visible to members. I am extending this invitation to ALL of you, our Fine Faceted Gems & Cabs Market members to join the Auction group. SO please do so soon so we can get underway.

Thanks so much for your participation in the this group and I am looking forward to seeing you all enjoying the new group.

Yours,

Jason Brim

Hi everyone,

We now have 10 sellers. No more at this point will be added. Please welcome, Jeff Davies Gems Jewellery, Beau Patterson, Jamey Swisher, John Daharsh, Allyce Kosnar, Brume Jeroh, Chris McCue, Jim McCormick and Peter Torraca!

I have called these sellers because of their known reliability, honesty and integrity in business and the gem industry. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds and will be offering you an equally wide variety of gems and gem related items from rough to cut to finished jewelry.

Thanks for participating.

Jason Brim

Here is where I explain my issues.

1. There are actually 11 sellers. Jason added Chris Auletta to the group mentioned above. This rings of being disingenuous when Jason has spelled out that ONLY ten sellers are allowed. "I have decided that there will be a maximum of 10 sellers. This is non-negotiable." and "No more at this point will be added." Uh, ok.
2. I think limiting it to so few sellers is a bad idea. What happens when no one has anything to post in a week? Interest in the group will die out and the group will become stagnant. I'm not sure what the point is of limiting the number of sellers. Also, because there aren't a lot of sellers, the bids are few and far between. I don't know if that's because of the goods being posted, because there aren't really that many members or what, but I have yet to see any items garner more than 10 "bids", typically if stones even get bids (a lot don't) we're looking at 2-3 bids each.
3. I don't know who anyone else is besides Beau and Jim (neither of which I have ever done business with), Jeff and Peter (who I have done business with) and a few others who have bought items from me in the past. If sellers are going to be limited so much, they need individual introductions. I'm not going to trust Jason's word that they are reliable, honest and have integrity. If I'm going to spend money with them I need to know why I should buy from them, and why I should feel comfortable doing so. I've been buying gems and jewelry for more than 5 years, and never heard of some of these people. Which really doesn't mean anything, just that I need to be introduced to them.
4. It moves slow. Again, it's because there are so few sellers.
5. Sellers don't hide their auctions after they are closed, even though they are supposed to. So the group is messy and filled with closed auctions.
6. Auctions are typically 5 days long. Dude, if you threw a 24 hour auction for a big unheated blue sapphire or something, bidding would get hot and heavy and people would be checking it non-stop. That's not happening. It's slow and it's kind of boring. Which is why I rarely check it, even though I'm not really in the market for gems right now.

So sure, it's an interesting idea, but there are a lot of flaws in the execution from my point of view.

 

[vickygigi]

1) There are only 10 sellers. Chris Auletta was added when one of the original 10 sellers dropped off (I believe it was Chris McCue). Jason Brim isn't "disingenuous" at all. He's a pretty sincere guy.

2) I wouldn't worry about limited items because there are posting requirements for each seller to remain authorized to sell on the site. I suspect bid traffic will increase once the group matures. It is still new and the more members there are, the better the site will be.

3.....) I'm sure Jason would be receptive to this idea and some of your other ideas. You should bring them up to him (the request for intros, enforcing the rule re. closing auctions, shorter auction timeframes, etc.).

 

[FrekeChild]

No. There are 11 sellers. Go look if you don't believe me.

I did not call Jason disingenuous, I said that requiring ten sellers and then having 11 is disingenuous.

I also have no idea what you're talking about with limited items. I was talking about limiting the sellers to ten. Whats the point to limiting it to so few? Other people are just as qualified, if not more so, to sell gems or other items. But Jason hand selects the few he wants to sell amongst? Why wouldn't you want to maximize sellers to create traffic and maximize buyers? Without a decent variety of quality goods and sellers, there is no traffic, no buyers and the group is dead in the water.

I don't particularly care to bring these topics up to Jason. If you want to, feel free.

 

[vickygigi]

There were 10 sellers. However, as a result of the suggestions here and elsewhere, the policies have changed. Jason is listening and there is no longer a restriction on number of sellers. Also, each approved seller will post introductions...

 

[gsellis]

I have know Jason for quite awhile. Jason has always been forthcoming. I have never seen evidence that Jason buys his material on ebay. I do know that some top faceters have reworked material for Jason and it was resold (at a much higher quality and price). Others have bought material from Jason to recut. I can attest that when Jason was interviewing for a job, more than a few folks of the community in another forum volunteered to be a reference, including myself.

Your mileage may vary, but I personally trust him.

PS - Jason did at one time dabble in faceting

 

[iLander]

Why, oh, why, do people do things that are exclusive to facebook? Why would someone limit their marketing efforts like that?

Not Everyone is on facebook, you know . . .

BTW, I did purchase a stone from Jason and returned it because the color didn't turn out to be what I wanted. But I have a returned stones to about 10 different faceters/gem dealers/etc., so it's not unusual for me to do so. No problem getting a refund from Jason.

 

[WestCoastingIt]

Does anyone have the link to look at the gemstone auctions? I don't have facebook but I would get it to look!

 

[aaronl]

**edited by moderator. please do NOT link or point to facebook or other personal social networking sites per our privacy policies**

 

[JewelFreak]

Why, oh, why, do people do things that are exclusive to facebook? Why would someone limit their marketing efforts like that?

Not Everyone is on facebook, you know . . .

Ditto, iLander! Frustrating to potential buyers (moi) not on FB & I don't see why people restrict their exposure. Guess they figure everybody on earth is on Facebook.

--- Laurie

 

[OTL]

I have seen Jason won a big blue sapphire on ebay for about $3000 and sell on his website (not on fb) for about $8000. Actually he listed the stone for a while and found no one interested at it, so he didn't pay for the stone on ebay. The ebay seller relisted the sapphire after. I know this because it is a rather big and easy to notice stone, and I asked the seller why is it relisted he said the winner did not pay after a while.

Not to say he does this all the time, or to say it is a good or bad way. Just stating what I have noticed.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

I think this is an additional venue for the sale of their gemstones. Some of them have their own websites to sell and use other sites to sell. I don't or want to use facebook, but 2 Billion users is a definite pull if you can get some of them to buy what you sell.
Facebook will become an enterprise venue, just as the plain interent did. Sell Sell Sell.

George

Jason does use ebay to buy and sell and i don't think it should be looked at as a minus. After all there are a number of good sellers
on ebay. In fact some of our own members do it.

I have had mostly good experiences buying from Jason. My last was unexpected. He didn't have my money to return when I sent back the stones. (approx 125.00) I had to wait. So I'm cautious now. He is nice.

 

[gsellis]

Hi,
George

Jason does use ebay to buy and sell and i don't think it should be looked at as a minus. After all there are a number of good sellers
on ebay. In fact some of our own members do it.

I buy a bunch of rough on ebay. There are some losers, but mostly winners. Yep, a couple things came from the mines of ebay

 

[Barrett]

Heck I used to flip stones on ebay all the time...still recall a red beryl crystal I knew was much better than the crappy photo showed so i won it for like $2-$3(yes it was red beryl). I knew from buying in large amounts what the size and mm told me...I took top notch photos of it and the next week sold it for $90. Did that all the time with red beryl, benitoite, and a couple others I knew the market real well..
I know Jason has his own rough cut, I know he has sold stones for me, as well as many others before, I know he sold a bunch of material at Tuscon for a Russian ges dealer(sold a..was it like... $20,000 spinel from the Russian), etc...etc.
Whether Jason buys from ebay or not doesn't matter...he is tapped into the biggest names in the gem business on a first name basis...so he can, and does, source stones from some big name cutters and dealers. Unless you import direct, travel oversea's, buy in bulk at Tucson, then ebay is the next best place to score close to wholesale if not wholesale or below prices so if he does do so then more power to him.
Do you have the time and the know how to read ebay listings and determine what can make a profit and has a decent profit margin? Takes a lot more intuition than most think. I know chrono, LD , and TL will agree since they have been ebay lurkers since the good ole days

 

[T L]

Heck I used to flip stones on ebay all the time...still recall a red beryl crystal I knew was much better than the crappy photo showed so i won it for like $2-$3(yes it was red beryl). I knew from buying in large amounts what the size and mm told me...I took top notch photos of it and the next week sold it for $90. Did that all the time with red beryl, benitoite, and a couple others I knew the market real well..
I know Jason has his own rough cut, I know he has sold stones for me, as well as many others before, I know he sold a bunch of material at Tuscon for a Russian ges dealer(sold a..was it like... $20,000 spinel from the Russian), etc...etc.
Whether Jason buys from ebay or not doesn't matter...he is tapped into the biggest names in the gem business on a first name basis...so he can, and does, source stones from some big name cutters and dealers. Unless you import direct, travel oversea's, buy in bulk at Tucson, then ebay is the next best place to score close to wholesale if not wholesale or below prices so if he does do so then more power to him.
Do you have the time and the know how to read ebay listings and determine what can make a profit and has a decent profit margin? Takes a lot more intuition than most think. I know chrono, LD , and TL will agree since they have been ebay lurkers since the good ole days

A lot of dealers buy on ebay, not just Jason. If you know what you're doing, and you deal with reputable sellers, there's nothing wrong with obtaining material on ebay. Ebay is just a middle man, and most sellers have some sort of middle man.

 

[minousbijoux]

Okay, I'm reassessing here. I am suddenly jonesing big time for new stones. Rather than going out and spending way too much money to get my fix, I've bid on a few stones in Jason's group. Kinda cool! Of course, it doesn't mean that I will get them for their starting bid of under $100 each, and there is always the risk that I could get caught up in a bidding war, but it slakes my need, somehow just to bid.

Also, I think its fine for folks like Jason to buy on ebay for resale. Its a lot of work - to cull through a gazillion listings on ebay, figure out which are the bona fide sellers, buy the stone, figure out how to get it to its new home, etc., and I don't mind at all that he is selling it for more than it was offered on ebay. My only thing is sometimes when I'm on ebay, I go to the same vendors and see the same stone for sale so I know the price Jason bought it for. Then, sometimes, its a bit hard to stomach...on the flip side, he is doing all the heavy lifting and taking the risk. I know Jason works really hard to make his living.

 

[jstarfireb]

I agree wholeheartedly with Freke's assessment of the flaws in the group's design. I've also noticed that the gemstones tend to be of lesser quality than the ones in the "Market" sister group.

 

[movie zombie]

i'm not on FB and if I miss out on a "deal" what I don't know won't hurt me.
I value some other things more than I value getting a deal by giving up more of my privacy.

 

[LD]

Interesting thread. There are some sellers in that group that I would buy from. Others I wouldn't who flip lower quality stones continually. I agree with Freke and several others who have pointed out the flaws with this new group. Good luck to them but not one I want to be a part of.

 

[minousbijoux]

Interesting thread. There are some sellers in that group that I would buy from. Others I wouldn't who flip lower quality stones continually. I agree with Freke and several others who have pointed out the flaws with this new group. Good luck to them but not one I want to be a part of.

I agree with this completely. Also, from my own experience, I realize that as much as it may scratch an itch to win something, they are, in fact, lower value stones (at least so far) and its a case of you get what you pay for...

 

[JewelFreak]

Like MZ, I'm not willing to join FB for the sake of a perceived bargain. I don't see a sensible vendor giving up profit because his customers are on FB or anywhere else -- it'll even out somehow, by selling lower quality or sacrificing price on one stone & increasing it on another, whatever. Not tempting to me.

--- Laurie

 

[pregcurious]

I went to Select Gem's FB page. Where are the bids?

 

[minousbijoux]

So Jason Brim started a facebook group called Fine Faceted Gems and Cabs Market. Shortly after, he started a similar one for auctions called Fine Faceted Gems and Cabs Auctions. Jason has since gone on to other endeavors so these two sites are now administered by other gem enthusiasts, so the title of this thread isn't even accurate any more! But if you do a search on FB for those group titles, you should have no problem finding the groups (I don't know that I am allowed to link to them). HTH.