sapphire confusion!!!!!!

[biblobaggins23]

okay, this is long, but sapphires are driving me crazy right now.

i'm looking for a pair of intense, blue sapphire round brilliant stones around 1.30-1.60cttw

what is the cost of a sapphire in my price range? should i look for ones that are heat treated or untreated for a pair of earrings? is there a visible difference between the 2? is there a difference in polish or price or clariity? like diamonds, would there be a difference between the eye-clean and almost loupe clean? i have seen friends with gemstones (rubies, emeralds, sapphires), and their stones look VERY cloudy for some reason, and i'm concerned about getting one like that. mine really needs to be beyond clean and sparkly looking and intense blue. the reason why i am very concerned about appreance is i want to make my money worth it. i have never spent so much money on myself before! it has to be good.

secondly, what can i expect to pay for an almost loupe clean pair of sapphires? at ajsgems.com, the almost loup clean stones are $525 and 1.84cttw and heated, but not the shape i want ( http://www.ajsgems.com/SAP/SAP-00737.htm ). the eye-clean ones at ajsgems.com are heated and around $225 and 1.56cttw (http://www.ajsgems.com/SAP/SAP-00299.htm). at simplysapphires.com, the round 1.43cttw are also eye-clean, heat treated, but they are $579 ( http://www.simplysapphires.com/html/imagesblue2006/bluerns143-sm.html ). these 2 companies don't really show the color i'm looking for either. should i be concerned about the low-cost of these sapphires? it seems to good to be true, but then again, that could just be me being only familiar with diamonds.

another thing is, is it possible to see a real pics of these? for some reason, they don't look too candid and some of them seem like the same stone for different pics. i want to see them in person and i want to know if the cut is excellent and the color/brillance is what i want. i really don't want to buy a pair of sapphires and have to get them recut and spend the extra expense. i'm afraid if the return policy is 10 days, how can i get an independent appraisal in time so i can return them?

would you recommend getting a colored gemstone from a jewelry store?? i know there is a markup, which would probably go over my buget and that would be a huge disappointment; but medinkow, solomon brothers, shane co., and the ross jewelry cmopany are 15-20 minutes away from my house and i want to see what i'm getting. so i'm in a quandry as to how to purchase my stones and where and getting the best with confidence.

sorry again. thanks!

 

[Kaleigh]

Check out www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com Their pics are spot on.

 

[biblobaggins23]

they didn''t have any that i was speciifically looking for, and they are a little bit out of my price range i think....

 

[strmrdr]

this is what I would do....
contact Gary at www.diamondexpert.com and set him hunting.
This is right up his alley and he can help answer your questions as well as serve as your eyes and filter.

 

[Trelala]

Hi Biblo,

When my fiance and I were searching for sapphires for my ering, we were told a heated treated can cost around $600/carat. The unheated one we eventually got from cherrypicked.com was around $2400/carat. But cherrypicked.com has breath taking sapphires that go for around $5000/carat.
Most ppl can''t tell the difference between a heat treated and unheated. So I think if you do get an unheated stone, be sure to get a certificate (like AGTA) to verify it as unheated.
Have fun searching!

 

[riogems]

"what is the cost of a sapphire in my price range? "

I think you mean in your weight range? Anyway, the cost will vary based on the stones quality (color, cut), and the profit margin the store wants to make. The $579 price is fine, but it is really difficult to tell, because you''re right -- the pics are horrible. Stay away from the round ones you saw at AJS Gems -- these are Thai sapphires and I can guess they are not the quality you are looking for as well. Regarding the low-cost of sapphires? You shouldn''t be concerned. These are not terribly low priced. If they were selling for $25, then you could be guaranteed bad quality, but above a few hundred dollars in this size range you may find decent stones.


"should i look for ones that are heat treated or untreated for a pair of earrings? "

Only if this is important to you. Heat treatment is perfectly acceptable by the gem community, and generally 99%+ of sapphires are heated. You can search the forum and read many threads about this topic. Let me sum up the reason to buy unheated sapphires: 1) you''re a collector of rare gems, 2) your religion or spirituality requires this, or 3) having something untreated is really important to you. But I think that since you asked the question, you should keep your search open to include heated stones.

 

[Pandora II]

To be honest, I think you need to get someone like Garry or Wink to search on your behalf. I am presuming these are for the Katie Holmes style earrings.

You are searching for one of the most sought after shades of blue there, combined with your wanting a matched pair of rounds - not easy. Most sapphires are either oval or cushion cut.

I would suggest that you look at heat treated as I think your requirements in unheated will be a lot more $$$$ than you want to spend considering the potential cost of the setting that you are after. They are beautiful though.

 

[riogems]

Trelala - prices increase geometrically as the size increases. 5mm is still relatively small (and less than 1 carat) -- your prices would never hold true for the 5mm round size.

Pandora II - Matched pairs of rounds are hard to find in bigger sizes, in smaller sizes they are plentiful. 5mm round is still on the other side of the border. Most large sapphires are cut oval or cushion to preserve the weight of the rough. Rough that can only be cut into smaller pieces is often cut in a variety of other shapes including round. Everything would be absolutely true if the size he was looking for was bigger (but at this size, it just isn''t the case).

 

[strmrdr]

sure there are a lot of 5mm round sapphires around if you like very very dark stones.
I was just looking at 10 sets the other day locally that were part of an advertised sale.
Finding a matched set with great color is a 1000x harder.

 

[kriopell]

I got my beautiful concave cut sapphire from Richard Homer.....THE master cutter IMHO.

He worked really hard with me as far as finding just the type of stone I wanted, cut, size etc. He is also a very nice man to deal with. You can take a look at his work, get a bio etc. at:

concavegems.com

Good luck!

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 3/10/2007 1:35:00 PM
Author: riogems
Trelala - prices increase geometrically as the size increases. 5mm is still relatively small (and less than 1 carat) -- your prices would never hold true for the 5mm round size.

Pandora II - Matched pairs of rounds are hard to find in bigger sizes, in smaller sizes they are plentiful. 5mm round is still on the other side of the border. Most large sapphires are cut oval or cushion to preserve the weight of the rough. Rough that can only be cut into smaller pieces is often cut in a variety of other shapes including round. Everything would be absolutely true if the size he was looking for was bigger (but at this size, it just isn''t the case).

Sorry, I hadn''t realised bilbo was only looking for 5mm - I''ve seen pics of the earrings that she likes and they look a lot bigger than that - and they are absolutely top colour.