tanzanite from deluxegems?

[dm-smith]

I'm not sure about the quality of these tanzanite, but it look cheap to me. Do you think this is some kind of scam?
http://www.deluxegems.com/tanzanite-5/where/price/500,1000.html

 

[chrono]

I've never heard of this vendor before. Their return and review policy is reasonable although I don't think their photography looks natural and do not trust any in-house A, AA, AAAAAA grading.

 

[LD]

I've never seen Tanzanite look like that! I wouldn't even think of buying from this vendor based on those photographs that look highly manipulated.

 

[minousbijoux]

The good news is that they can be found on ebay and the first gem of theirs I looked at had a GIA lab report (it seems that many of theirs do): http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-40-ct-GIA-Certified-AAA-Beautiful-Cushion-Cut-9-72-x-6-63-mm-Tanzanite-/351185292059?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item51c4464b1b

The bad news - it appears that they have many unhappy customers:
http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=deluxegems&Dirn=Received+by&ref=home

 

[dm-smith]

Honestly, I don't get this vendor. for example this item:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-79-ct-GIA...r-Cut-10-12-x-7-50-mm-Tanzanite-/311114565405
he ask for $251 for the stone with GIA cert. I suspected either the gem is worthless or the stone doesn't match the cert. what do you think?

 

[Marlow]

Look at this...

http://www.deluxegems.com/5-79-ct-gia-certified-aaa-elegant-cushion-cut-11-85-x-9-60-mm-tanzanite-44719.html#!prettyPhoto

You see that this a so called "mardi gras" tanzanite - a mix of blue-violett and green areas - they sell it as a blue-violet stone!!

They can be nice but it is not what you will purchase - a triple A tanzanite with a fantastic color!!

 

[chrono]

Problem 1. What is their definition of AAA? It isn't explained anywhere
Problem 2. I have no idea how accurate their photography is - the picture isn't what I would expect a tanzanite to look like in person. A good bit of tweaking has taken place.

GIA doesn't assign colour grades and both the lab picture and video show a desaturated stone, which would account for the low price.

 

[Marlow]

AAA

Think Top color, top clarity and top cutting....

Look at the axinite they offer - I know this material - the pictures are (primitive) fotoshopped!

 

[chrono]

Marlow,
Not necessarily. This is an in-house standard so it will vary from shop to shop. One shop's AAA could be a whole lot better than another shop's AAA. I've also seen AAAAAA. Seriously, what's the maximum number of A's? Don't even get me started on the +, ++, and +++.

 

[LD]

I've seen A, AA, AAA, AAAA, AAAAA and AAAAA+ It's all complete nonsense because it's subjective.

Lapigems have a good explanation of the grading system but unfortunately it's so misused by unscrupulous sellers that it's meaningless. Oh and the worst offenders used to be TV shopping channels who assigned an A rating willy nilly!

 

[Marlow]

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