Specific Gravity of Grade B Jadeite

[Burmesedaze]

I hope so. I'm starting to want one of those gorgeous dragon carved pendants as well. Looking at them on my Samsung, I think the greens are not as saturated in real life...

Yes they wouldn't be, so ask for a video in natural light if possible.

 

[clumberlove]

You're all so brave buying off wechat in mandarin! I am on a buying ban until I've got some stones set, but I am now addicted to Ruyi's Royal love in the Palace

 

[Burmesedaze]

Highlighted characters read no returns.

 

[Burmesedaze]

These highlighted are special discount price/no price discussion

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

OMG I love the second bangle!!!!!

@clumberlove I plan to rewatch certain episodes of Ruyi's Royal Love after Christmas (when my lace earrings arrive and all my Christmas activities settle down) decked head to toe in jade .

 

[clumberlove]

OMG I love the second bangle!!!!!

@clumberlove I plan to rewatch certain episodes of Ruyi's Royal Love after Christmas (when my lace earrings arrive and all my Christmas activities settle down) decked head to toe in jade .

I'm not too far in, I've just got to the cold Palace. I'm enjoying all the intrigue and the beautiful costumes. Is it just me or is it dubbed as well as subtitled? Do they use different voice actors or something? My fella is shaking his head at me watching it but I love it so far!

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

Hubs yelped when I showed him this! He was like "Wth how unsavoury. What are you going to do with that? Take it out with you when you go to eat Cantonese ginger and shallot crab?"


***
@clumberlove most of them are dubbed as they are required to speak uniform mandarin which is sometimes not possible with a varied cast.

Ruyi (actress Zhou Xun) uses her real voice because she apparently has great mandarin!

 

[suzanne2]

@Burmesedaze Do you think some items will still available after a week or so? I saw some green lace earrings and can't stop thinking about them. I guess I can just ask. As soon as I build up courage. I don't want to bother them unless I'm ready to buy.
@clumberlove You are in for a treat! It gets slow sometimes, but I fell in love with Ruyi's voice. And her earrings. Poor woman.

 

[Burmesedaze]

@Burmesedaze Do you think some items will still available after a week or so? I saw some green lace earrings and can't stop thinking about them. I guess I can just ask. As soon as I build up courage. I don't want to bother them unless I'm ready to buy.
@clumberlove You are in for a treat! It gets slow sometimes, but I fell in love with Ruyi's voice. And her earrings. Poor woman.

I think these area fairly commercial items from leftovers so even if sold out, they would do another batch.

 

[Burmesedaze]

Pincer = 拨钉钳

钳sounds like money 钱. So wearing a pincer means you are a wealthy person or it brings you wealth.

 

[clumberlove]

@mellowyellowgirl that makes sense, I thought it might be something like that.

@suzanne2 I'm already really enjoying it, I even quite like the slow parts, you get a feeling for everyday life. I think it will be a series I'm sad to finish.

 

[ChaiK]

I keep getting side-tracked. I want cab. But there are so many things on wechat and it is difficult to gauge quality because of the phone pictures. You read my mind exactly.

K. I managed to download the video of the pair of icy pendants I bought. They have bits of green floating in them. She said after polish, it would be cleaner and clearer. I don't know.

And three buddhas which are icy with green tummies.

 

[ChaiK]

Pincer = 拨钉钳

钳sounds like money 钱. So wearing a pincer means you are a wealthy person or it brings you wealth.

Oh, almost bought one and that pair of yellow peanuts!!!

 

[ChaiK]

I'm not too far in, I've just got to the cold Palace. I'm enjoying all the intrigue and the beautiful costumes. Is it just me or is it dubbed as well as subtitled? Do they use different voice actors or something? My fella is shaking his head at me watching it but I love it so far!

I am going to totter about in my jadeite today and watch that Ruyi again. And at the same time shop for a big fat cab. It's called multi-tasking. V busy.

 

[peacechick]

That pincer is really pretty and looks yummy. I would totally wear one.

 

[ChaiK]

That pincer is really pretty and looks yummy. I would totally wear one.

Oh ok, I will check one pincer out too. Very very lovely . And those huge yellow peanuts . I don't know where to wear them but I am so tempted.......

Wait, I have to focus on cab....

 

[ChaiK]

Haha okies I do not know a word of chinese!

I message them in English and they reply in chinese. I then paste the chinese into google translate to see what they are saying.

At the very beginning I typed in English and got google to translate it into simplified chinese and then posted that chinese to the vendors. I told them I was using google translate so forgive me if I sound funny. They told me to write to them in English.

Sometimes I throw in the phrase posted by @Burmesedaze! That got me a discount on the rings where I piked but no luck with these ones!

Postage was $43 USD for me today to Australia

I have a banking app with my Australian Bank that lets me transfer any currency (hmm except maybe the dodgy ones) from my AUD account to anyone. The bank charges me either $6 or $12 AUD per transfer depending on the amount.

I'm pretty confident they will ship to US!

Haha payment was a bit of a trial but if you get to that stage I can post the translations of the payment details I used!

if you press on their reply, a translate button pops up.

 

[AV_]

Pincer = 拨钉钳

钳sounds like money 钱. So wearing a pincer means you are a wealthy person or it brings you wealth.

WHOA! So with jade items one gets to wear - puns? This is a dream...

-

I wouldn't wear parts of crab, but such things happen WWW; I am quite sure I have seen outrageous jewelry made because of that piece, but cannot recall whodunnit off the bat.

 

[Burmesedaze]

WHOA! So with jade items one gets to wear - puns? This is a dream...

-

I wouldn't wear parts of crab, but such things happen WWW; I am quite sure I have seen outrageous jewelry made because of that piece, but cannot recall whodunnit off the bat.

Everything in jade can be based on a pun. Hence you have bats, lotus, frogs, etcetcetc and creepy things like hands holding pearls/balls!

 

[Burmesedaze]

They are dispatching my first 14 live stream items tomorrow. Hope I get them by end of the week!

 

[prs]

Mine auntie's new shop opened today. Other than their own sapphires, also older stock collected over the years. I came away with this lavender jadeite necklace. Kahuna size a la ChaiK teeheehee. First sale so no profit taken. US$500.

Bottom lavender strand as its most uniform with fewer cracks.

I was patting myself on the back for my $5K necklace purchase, but Wow @Burmesedaze $500 for that necklace is just insane! You are a buyer extraordinaire!!!

For comparison this necklace just sold at a Heritage auction for $15K

 

[prs]

Putting this here for anyone looking for a huge lavender ring. It’s not saturated but it’s huge. Price seems ridiculously high though.
https://www.cynthiafindlay.com/jewellery/rings/jade/vintage-lavender-jade-and-amethyst-ring.html

My lavender jade research indicates the US market can be divided in two. The first part is about 5% of the total market and consists of certified type A pieces that sell in the thousands of US$. The remaining 95% are uncertified pieces that sell in the hundreds of US$.

It costs less than $100 plus postage to get a GIA or MK cert, so there's no excuse for knowledgeable vendors not to get a cert. IMO those pieces without certs are not type A. Of course there are some pieces that show up from vendors who don't know much about jade and are not certified. Our necklace was in this category, so I explained the importance of a cert, and they had no problem at all getting it certified.

@peacechick the piece in your post doesn't seem to be certified, so maybe the vendor is not knowledgeable, or they are looking for a sucker.

 

[Burmesedaze]

I was patting myself on the back for my $5K necklace purchase, but Wow @Burmesedaze $500 for that necklace is just insane! You are a buyer extraordinaire!!!

For comparison this necklace just sold at a Heritage auction for $15K

I think it was sheer luck. I hadn't seen any this size and colour over the past years, though my smaller strand has better colour and translucency.

I suspect yours might be a better colour and perhaps translucency too.

Auntie offered me a good price so I didn't bargain. I was eyeing the ruby yellow gold bangles. Old smith work, over 20 years old. Unfortunately it has to be sold in a set of 3 and I only want 1.

 

[Burmesedaze]

I keep getting side-tracked. I want cab. But there are so many things on wechat and it is difficult to gauge quality because of the phone pictures. You read my mind exactly.

K. I managed to download the video of the pair of icy pendants I bought. They have bits of green floating in them. She said after polish, it would be cleaner and clearer. I don't know.

And three buddhas which are icy with green tummies.

I'm curious to know the colour and translucency after polishing.

My jeweller keeps telling me it's a gamble because many are lighter in colour after polishing.

 

[peacechick]

My lavender jade research indicates the US market can be divided in two. The first part is about 5% of the total market and consists of certified type A pieces that sell in the thousands of US$. The remaining 95% are uncertified pieces that sell in the hundreds of US$.

It costs less than $100 plus postage to get a GIA or MK cert, so there's no excuse for knowledgeable vendors not to get a cert. IMO those pieces without certs are not type A. Of course there are some pieces that show up from vendors who don't know much about jade and are not certified. Our necklace was in this category, so I explained the importance of a cert, and they had no problem at all getting it certified.

@peacechick the piece in your post doesn't seem to be certified, so maybe the vendor is not knowledgeable, or they are looking for a sucker.

I don’t know about the US market but most of the jade sellers I know in Singapore only send the pieces to the lab for certification after the purchase is made. It’s only $70, so very inexpensive also.

But I agree, anyone trying to flip a piece for over 10k should already be presenting the GIA cert along with the listing.

 

[Burmesedaze]

I don’t know about the US market but most of the jade sellers I know in Singapore only send the pieces to the lab for certification after the purchase is made. It’s only $70, so very inexpensive also.

But I agree, anyone trying to flip a piece for over 10k should already be presenting the GIA cert along with the listing.

Think they don't want to bear the unnecessary cost till a sale is made. Most traders here don't have lab memos till a sale is made and they send it in.

 

[ChaiK]

I'm curious to know the colour and translucency after polishing.

My jeweller keeps telling me it's a gamble because many are lighter in colour after polishing.

Someone had bought it and she had made an error and said it was available. So now I don't have these anymore. Not a problem. I am looking for a pair and it will come around again maybe in a different colour or texture.

I know for lavender, the colour won't be so good. I know this because J offered me a lavender unpolished item and it was cheap so I bought it. Terrible colour. I go and find it. I probably tossed it somewhere.

I do like the white pale green semi-translucent dragon from J. It did not turn out all that translucent but I like it for a cuff.

And I like the green pair of butterfly wings from J, but there were veins in them.

And the buddhas from J are what I want. At white and green, the not too expensive type and no change in colour. But I paid more for them with J. A lot more.

I know for these unpolished items, J has grown very expensive recently. The exact thing I wanted cost 600 USD more with J.

 

[ChaiK]

@Burmesedaze and @Seaglow , I know for sure YY is cheaper for the smaller stuff and for quality pieces and cabs.


I also think YY has good bangles at good prices. So you can nab a bargain piece. So for example, similar quality between YY and Nandar, YY checks out cheaper.

I am wondering if YY is cheaper for the larger more expensive items, compared to J. Now for one item, J wanted 9 800. But YY wanted 59 800 RMB. Same item. That is 1200 USD cheaper for YY and before any transaction fees. But with YY you can bargain a bit and get a better discount. With J, that same 9800 USD cab ring that YY had at 59800 RMB, J would have given me maybe at 9700 (she became very tight with discounts - probably to do with the Christmas season) and then slapped a fee on top of it so I would eventually have paid 10 050 had I gone for it. This is because I pay by Paypal with J. I did not buy it because it sold whilst I was dithering. Probably sold by YY.

With YY, the pictures are harder to see because on Samsung, all looks wonderful. This is for items on wechat. On FB or her live streams, you know exactly what you are buying, so that does not count.

What are your thoughts regarding more expensive items? I ask because I am after the more expensive items for the moment.

 

[Burmesedaze]

I think YY would have more access/variety even for the larger ticket items. But do check the return policy on them. Best you can do short of seeing them IRL before buying is to ask for natural light videos w/ no adjustment to colour if possible. But you already know all these, right?

How expensive is expensive? Why not ask for their physical shop(s) in HK/China and just take a trip there and buy them in person. Wouldn't that work out better and with more assurance of mind?

Nandar's stuff looks like recent stock from Myanmar that you can also find here. So they are priced way too high imo. Better rough is really in HK/China/Tw.

 

[Burmesedaze]

Even better, time it with one of the HK gem fairs?