- Joined
- Sep 19, 2004
- Messages
- 2,547
WOW....
Are you into colored gemstones. How do you pick out a good one.... Heck, how do you even know what the options really are.
It took a little doing, but with arrangments by Wink I was able to get a personal tour of the mineral collections and gemstones for sale at Pala International (in reality it took more than a year from concept of idea to the trip).
Does your jewler order in a couple rubies, or other stones, for you to look at... Well, I looked at about 75 rubies today (except the ones out on memo). Now I know what ruby red really is.
We all see colors a bit different, and we all have our own concept of how deep a color should be to be perfect for us. You may never know about the stones of a bit different shade or shape.
Overall, I must have briefly looked at about a thousand stones of all kinds of colors, shapes, and yes prices.
WOW... Impressive doesn''t cover it. This is the way to pick out a gemstone.... and I did. A nice demontoid. Pala will send it to Wink, from whom I will buy it from. I''ll post more information then as I did not even write any of it down today. From well over 100 demontoids I selected 4 in my size and price range that looked good to me. Then we took those 4 back to the microscope - where I narrowed it down to one.
Compare that with the option being considered last year of putting over $40,000 of demontoids on my CC so that Wink could send them to me to evaluate... Palagems may not have even sent me the one I finally chose. And, what if something went wrong when the stones were in my posesion - and I could concievably be stuck with $40,000 in debt and no stones at all.
I fell in love with a whole bunch of other stones as well.... The deep blue sapphire''s are to die for (personal preference). Now I know what moonstone is susposed to look like; and a dozen things that I really did not know existeded. Of course, I''d love some of those rubies as well.
Palagems wholesales gems to the trade and carries gemstones by names from A to Z; and you can look at their website at:
www.palagems.com
They also have their own jewelry line that you can purchase from their store. All very good stuff. If you are into collecting minerals.... that too (and Pala might have actually mined some of the stuff you buy - as they started out as a Tourmaline mining company).
It may take a few years, but I intend to go back.. with a much larger budget than I had today.
If you are a serious buyer - or at least seriously interested in minerals and gemstones - who wants to see what the options really are your jeweler can make the contacts necessary for you to get the same tour that I got today. The people at Pala were helpfull and gracious. Josh was wonderful. Just be sure you understand what your budget is going in... It would be so easy to way overspend here...
Gee, If I only had about $100,000 to spend I''d been a kid in a candy store... Well I was a kid in a candy store... eye candy.
Oh, for those wondering about the gemshows we go to. Like the one in Minneapolis and Chicago I attended (and at Chicago with several of the gang). What is offered to the public at these shows does not even come close to what is in the Pala vaults for what the options are.
I cannot really tell you how impressive the collection and the options were...
I can only hope that a few of you get the chance to do what I did today.
Note: I may not be able to post many followup messages as I am on vacation and rarely have good internet access. It may be a week or so before I can follow up further here. But I thought you would all like to know about this.
Perry
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