RedSpinel
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 211
They limit the size your thread question can be, so here is the question made more specific: What is the difference in value/price between a sapphire that naturally has a top color and saturation, as opposed to a sapphire that started out as a potentially ugly color, maybe brown or gray, but through heating its color is changed to a top color?
I clicked on GSN last night before going out to get dinner, and the host is setting out a 4.32ct padparascha sapphire that was requested by a lady. He gives us the usual spin about how its true price is over $50,000, and he talks about it for a few minutes, mentions its certification, but never mentioning anything about heat treatment or lack thereof. Then of course he does us all a favor by dropping the price to around $21,000. It appeared to be almost pure lightish pink, but clean and fairly well cut oval.
The lady says its out of her pricerange, so he comes up with 2 other padparaschas, both around 2.2cts. These 2 stones have a more pure, bubblegum pink color, with no secondary colors like peach, orange, red, etc. That first 4.32ct sapphire appeared to be more of a pure, light pink, but once he set out the 2 new stones beside the first one, the original 4.32ct stone seemed to have a little peach hue that you'd see in flashes. Its funny how your perception of colors can seem so accurate until you see a stone of a different hue nearby, then you notice the hues you may not have noticed before.
He sets down one of the smaller "pads", and one of the first things he points out about this 2.2ct padparascha is the fact that its certified as unheated, natural colored. He mentions it several times when talking about that stone. He' claims this 2.2ct stone is worth over $20,000. Nobody buys it, and he puts up the 4.32ct original stone again. he talks about it and its cert all over again, but no mention of it being unheated. He does at one point or 2, say that its a "natural sapphire". But thats vague, and just because it occurred naturally, doesnt mean its color wasnt enhanced after being mined....
Now he predictably does us a bigger favor, and opens it up on auction for $7,000. Someone makes the opening offer, and it sells for $7,000, and he tells the buyer how she's the luckiest person in America for buying the 4.32ct padparascha. But was she really?
Years ago I read that in general, unheated sapphires are worth approx 30% more than heated ones. Example: If you see a nice, 2ct medium blue unheated sapphire for $4,000, that means an identical colored, identical size sapphire that was heated is worth $3,000. But is it really true that a clean, bright 4.3ct sapphire that may have started out as brown and wasnt worth much at all, can be heated to padparascha color, and automatically its now worth somewhere up to tens of thousands of dollars ??
If so, I have a near 3ct orange sapphire that was heated, and we'll call it "padparascha", since thats so subjective, and I just realized that it must be worth $30,000 !! Any buyers?? LMAO
I clicked on GSN last night before going out to get dinner, and the host is setting out a 4.32ct padparascha sapphire that was requested by a lady. He gives us the usual spin about how its true price is over $50,000, and he talks about it for a few minutes, mentions its certification, but never mentioning anything about heat treatment or lack thereof. Then of course he does us all a favor by dropping the price to around $21,000. It appeared to be almost pure lightish pink, but clean and fairly well cut oval.
The lady says its out of her pricerange, so he comes up with 2 other padparaschas, both around 2.2cts. These 2 stones have a more pure, bubblegum pink color, with no secondary colors like peach, orange, red, etc. That first 4.32ct sapphire appeared to be more of a pure, light pink, but once he set out the 2 new stones beside the first one, the original 4.32ct stone seemed to have a little peach hue that you'd see in flashes. Its funny how your perception of colors can seem so accurate until you see a stone of a different hue nearby, then you notice the hues you may not have noticed before.
He sets down one of the smaller "pads", and one of the first things he points out about this 2.2ct padparascha is the fact that its certified as unheated, natural colored. He mentions it several times when talking about that stone. He' claims this 2.2ct stone is worth over $20,000. Nobody buys it, and he puts up the 4.32ct original stone again. he talks about it and its cert all over again, but no mention of it being unheated. He does at one point or 2, say that its a "natural sapphire". But thats vague, and just because it occurred naturally, doesnt mean its color wasnt enhanced after being mined....
Now he predictably does us a bigger favor, and opens it up on auction for $7,000. Someone makes the opening offer, and it sells for $7,000, and he tells the buyer how she's the luckiest person in America for buying the 4.32ct padparascha. But was she really?
Years ago I read that in general, unheated sapphires are worth approx 30% more than heated ones. Example: If you see a nice, 2ct medium blue unheated sapphire for $4,000, that means an identical colored, identical size sapphire that was heated is worth $3,000. But is it really true that a clean, bright 4.3ct sapphire that may have started out as brown and wasnt worth much at all, can be heated to padparascha color, and automatically its now worth somewhere up to tens of thousands of dollars ??
If so, I have a near 3ct orange sapphire that was heated, and we'll call it "padparascha", since thats so subjective, and I just realized that it must be worth $30,000 !! Any buyers?? LMAO
He's not lying but neither is he telling the entire truth either.
Doesn't matter what he asked, it only matters what it actually sold for, that's the 'market value'. There still aren't hundreds of thousands of clean bright 4+ ct sapphires after heating, the way there ARE, say, 1 ct near colourless diamonds, so rarity still plays a role, it's just less rare than an unheated stone. Similarly, calling it padparadscha isn't meaningful all by itself - it's the look that sells more than anything, which is why people buy glass filled rubies or irradiated topaz at huge markups.
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