Posting from Afghanistan

[Sage1982]

Greetings Everyone,

This is my first post and I''d like to introduce myself. I''m a total amature when it comes to diamonds and other precious stones but I''ve begun learning a bit about them in the last year. I have been working in Afghanistan for over 2 years now, Kandahar to be exact, and I stumbled across various shops selling gems in local bazaars. So far I have only bought red rubies ranging from 15-25$ per karat. My intention is to take them to Germany where I live and sell them there to jewelers for profit.

I have steady access to stones here and I''m starting to get interested in blue and green Saphires as well.

Any advice from you all would be greatly appreciated. So far I''ve only spent a couple hundred dollars at a time when I buy. If anyone could advise me on what stone would reap the most profit for me when I attempt to sell in Germany, I''d really appreciate your proffessional advice.

I have also bought Diamonds for personal wear from Dubai, mostly VS Princess cut jewelry ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 ct set in white gold. If anyone is interested in pictures of my stones, jewelry or pictures from the Afghan bazaar shops and their wares, let me know and I''ll gladly take some and post them.

V/R
Brian S.

 

[neatfreak]

I hate to say this, but my advice is don't get into colored gems unless you REALLY know what you are doing. There are no amazing deals for people buying a few hundred dollars worth of things at a time, and MANY chances to be ripped off. No matter what country you are in. Whatever you do, don't invest a lot of $ without getting things independently appraised and/or testing the market in Germany...

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 8/9/2008 11:28:21 AM
Author: neatfreak
I hate to say this, but my advice is don''t get into colored gems unless you REALLY know what you are doing. There are no amazing deals for people buying a few hundred dollars worth of things at a time, and MANY chances to be ripped off. No matter what country you are in. Whatever you do, don''t invest a lot of $ without getting things independently appraised and/or testing the market in Germany...

DITTO

A member of my firm was posted in Afghanistan for a year. He purchased a lot of loose rubies, emeralds and sapphires.

Upon his return, he took them to a jeweller to set them (with diamond stones he purchased on the way home through Dubai).

The local jeweller here was very unimpressed with what he had brought home. In fact, the emeralds were fake. The sapphires were very, very dark and included. Rubies were so-so. Apparently, even in Dubai the diamonds he purchased were low-quality.

That is NOT to say that good quality stones are not to be had in Afghanistan and Dubai. But if a person doesn''t have a lot of experience, they can get "taken"..

postscript to the story:
Upon learning that the emeralds were fake, he sent them BACK via another member of his squad (Military guys). So his friend went back to the dealer who sold him the emeralds for a refund. After not getting much co-operation, they did finally get the $$ back....... but only after a few of his "buddies" showed up in camo-gear and weaponry, if you get what I mean!

LS

 

[Sage1982]

thanks for the info guys

what I''m trying to do is test the market in Germany by buying some variations of stones and seeing which will sell. It is really a luck thing right now and a no-brainer that since I''m unexperienced I''ll buy some duds, but I''m not spending much and if I get sold fakes I can get a refund the same way you just explained how your friend got his refund.

although a friend of mine in Kabul bought some rubies there and made quiet a bit of profit by selling them in Germany.

I bought 3 rubies today for around 200$, I''ll post up some pictures in this thread tomorrow from work, would be very interested in what you all have to say about them.

thanks again for your advice

 

[LD]

Please be careful with the Rubies. Many will be lead or glass filled. Fine if you disclose it when selling on but you need to know whether the ones you''ve purchased have been clarity enhanced.

There''s also an alarming trend of reconstituted emeralds, i.e. very low quality that have their clarity improving by basically filling and gluing (can''t remember the exact terminology now) but it''s not a stable process.

 

[shaneniganz]

Hi, I''m new here too, I saw your post and had to reply. My husband is in Afg. too, has been there for roughly 2 yrs also. Actually he is not far from you now in Sharana. He was in Kandahar last year for a while. The reason I was replying to your post though is to let you know that while there are a great deal of junk and poor/low quality stones commonly found there, you can find some really good stones! He has brought home some gorgeous emeralds, sapphires, and rubies among others. I would advise that you educate yourself as much as possible on colored gemstones! My husband has been learning as much as he can during his off time and when he is home for R&R he is talking to everyone he can in the trade to learn as much as possible. I must admit, when he first embarked on this venture of buying gemstones, I was apprehensive, and concerned that he would be ripped off and we would end up with a lot of junk. Now he has bought a few duds early on, but the more educated he becomes, the better stones he has brought home. We have had ours tested, appraised and have quite a valuble collection now. We haven''t sold any yet, of course we haven''t tried either. I imagine if you wanted to talk to my husband for some advice he would be glad to talk to you. Let me know and I can tell you how to get in touch with him. I have some pics of some of our stones that I will post here in the next few days for those who would like to see them.

 

[Sage1982]

Thanks @ all for your advice.

That''s great Shaneniganz, I would love to see the photos of your collection.

What do you all think of gem tester kits?

How can one tell with the naked eye if a stone has been clarity enhanced or filled?

Shaneniganz, I think it''s great you are supporting your husband in his quest for gems in Afghanistan, my girlfriend is in Germany right now contacting some jewelers who are friends of hers so they can look into the worth of the stones I''ve already acquired. I just returned from R & R and just bought 3 stones yesterday, I''ll post some pics of them in a couple of hours.

 

[Sage1982]

So, after my visit to another shop this shopkeeper informs me that I bought pretty low quality rubies and I bought them for a bit more than they''re worth. That''s allright I learned something from it. He then showed me his richer colored rubies and I could see the difference in quality.

I would post pictures but the "attach file" function keeps giving me an error message.
the file I attempted to attach is under 100KB, is a jpeg file, and has a unique name without any special character in it.

I would have uploaded them to a host site like photobucket but the "insert image" function says it''s restricted to only posting photos from pricescope (which I have never seen before on any forum)...

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 8/10/2008 8:55:59 AM
Author: Sage1982
So, after my visit to another shop this shopkeeper informs me that I bought pretty low quality rubies and I bought them for a bit more than they''re worth. That''s allright I learned something from it. He then showed me his richer colored rubies and I could see the difference in quality.

I would post pictures but the ''attach file'' function keeps giving me an error message.
the file I attempted to attach is under 100KB, is a jpeg file, and has a unique name without any special character in it.

I would have uploaded them to a host site like photobucket but the ''insert image'' function says it''s restricted to only posting photos from pricescope (which I have never seen before on any forum)...

If you''ve already attempted to upload a pic, it has to be renamed, even if it was rejected the first time. (also, make sure no spaces, hyphens or weirdy characters in the name or it will bounce).

What I do is save them on my desktop with a standard naming format: ie: Lost1, Lost 2, etc. Then, every time I resize something for Pricescope, I save the resize version to the desktop and add a digit to the end....works great.

Give it another try!

LS

 

[Sage1982]

first pic, room lighting

 

[Sagebrush]

Sage,

The word sage in French means "wise". The members who have replied to your post have given you excellent advise, you would do well to heed it. But, as the Bible says: "the price of wisdom is beyond rubies."

 

[Sage1982]

The word "sage" pretty much means the same thing in English.

I read and own "Secrets of the Gem Trade"

my findings will become higher with quality as I learn more by trial and error.

Thank you all for all of your kind words and enthusiasm.

 

[Sagebrush]

Sage 1982,



Can't argue with your research. Being in Afghanistan is a wonderful opportunity. I have never been their myself though I did edit a couple of articles with Vincent Pardeau as the field guide. Check out Vincent's site http://www.fieldgemology.org you may find it helpful.

When I am asked similar questions my reply is always to try to dissuade people from jumping in and buying gems in a foreign country. People often assume that the prices will be cheaper and jewelers at home will jump at the chance to buy. This is never the case. However, knowledge comes with trial and error and if you are careful and resist any idea that you are going to get rich quick off the ignorance of the local people, who after all have been doing this for a living for generations, you may succeed.

Keep us informed and best of luck.http://www.fieldgemology.orghttp://