Please Provide Info on Ebay 99¢ Star Sapphires TREATED?

[iLander]

Why do I see so many cheap, fakey-looking sapphires on ebay? For example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110583179231&rvr_id=145166950317&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=M*S%3F&GUID=48c81ddd12b0a0aad5142044ffa4e9b0&itemid=110583179231&ff4=263602_263622

And our trusted gem guys are selling sapphires for hundred or thousands of dollars?

I'm sure the ebay stones are faked somehow, and I've always avoided them under the too-good-to-be-true concept. What are these things made of? There are hundreds of them!

Please someone share their knowledge with the rest of us . . .

 

[Largosmom]

synthetic, I think. I started taking the colored stones essentials under GIA and there is an example of synthetic star sapphire...

 

[Lee Little]

Impossible to tell from a picture but quite certainly that looks like a synthetic sapphire with a diffused star. Best regards, Lee

 

[T L]

Not all star sapphires (or rubies) are created equal. There are even natural ones that can be had for very little money, but they won't be translucent or have fine background color. They are also diffusing them too.

 

[Richard M.]

I'm sure the ebay stones are faked somehow, and I've always avoided them under the too-good-to-be-true concept. What are these things made of? There are hundreds of them!

Not every star sappire on EBay is "faked." The one you linked to is natural sapphire that's been given a surface diffusion treatment to create the star -- it's the same process used to create stars in man-made sapphire. The market is currently loaded with these diffused stars at very low prices.

Star corundums entirely made by nature are much more expensive, the price being related to quality and size. Many natural star sapphires are now being heated to dissolve the rutile inclusions, leading to greater scarcity of natural star stones. Those heated stones bring much higher prices in the West when faceted. Star and cat's-eye stones aren't as highly regarded in the American market as they are in Asia where buyers will pay higher prices for fine star gems, so the best stones are seldom offered here.

 

[GemPendants]

I bought a kirshmir color, 2ct sapphire for 99cents on ebay. The seller had mostly positive reviews. I read the reviews and found 1 neutral, all other feedbacks were positive. So I read that neutral feedback. The person said he sent the stone to GIA and spent $85 to find out it is synthetic spinel. I wrote him/her a message to ask more details. He/she said he/she eventally got full refund for the purchase price. The $85 was the cost of lessons learned.

 

[Michael_E]

Sometimes they aren't even treated, just unattractive and probably fractured internally. I bought one of these once, hey they're cheap and I was bored, what can I say? In any case here are some pictures of the one that I bought. The first picture is under a bright fiber optic light.
You can see a surface trace of the fracture in this picture..across the left side.

 

[Michael_E]

Picture number two shows things more clearly in transmitted light.

 

[chrono]

There could be many reasons; synthetic, diffused, very poor quality (opaque, has structural issues, poor body colour) and etc.

As for your linked example, I'm very sure it is a synthetic stone; the body colour is dark and opaque, the star is too sharp and the legs too perfectly straight for anyone to be asking 99 cents for it.

 

[iLander]

THANK YOU Everyone!

You all made exactly the point that I hoped you would: that the vast majority of star sapphires out there are faked, cooked, treated and finagled into being star sapphires. To me, they just count as "fakes" and are to be avoided like the plague.

I also wanted to make the point that our trusted PS vendors are the place to start when looking for a REAL star and they are priced accordingly.

MakingTheGrade has a thread in which she is considering a beautiful star from (I guess shall remain nameless since she didn't name him) one of our vendors, and if she (or any lurkers) were thinking of straying to ebay for a star, I wanted to dissuade her.

 

[Largosmom]

I guess I know just enough to be dangerous...

Well, to be fair, a synthetic sapphire is still corundum...just not made by nature. So "fake" may not be the correct word to use. To me, "fake" implies use of glass or some other material that isn't the same as corundum, which is the vendor's claim. So, it is still a sapphire, just made by man, and the star created by man as well.

If not synthetic, Micheal's pictures tell the rest of the story with regard to price.

If you want a stone for fun, may be worth the price...if you want a star-sapphire made by nature...NOT!

 

[LD]

I agree with Largosmom.

To say that all/most star sapphires on Ebay are "fake" is too wide a generalisation. Many on there are natural star sapphires but they are of poor quality. They're not fakes at all. Others are natural corrundum but with the "star" diffused into it. Then there are actual fakes. It depends on your perspective and whether you want totally natural gemstones.

Don't forget on this forum we all seek to buy the best we can afford and most of us are aware of treatments or at least know enough to ask questions. For the majority of people, they wouldn't particularly care if the star had been diffused - especially if it had nice straight legs and could be easily seen!

 

[digitaldevo]

Also don't forget they also lead glass flash them now too. Opaque ones can even just be epoxy or CA filled as well as resin filled. In my personal experiences on eBay they typically lump this treatment under Heat.