Under-Cover

[Edward Bristol]

I had a free afternoon at the Emirates Mall in Dubai, the biggest, most expensive-and-all-superlatives mall of the world; the one with the ski slopes inside.

Gemoholic I am, so I didn't ski but went to search for colored gemstones. I was wearing a dark suit; and pretended to have recently defrauded Kabul Bank out of $50 million.

All the big names are there: Moussaeiff, Van Cleef & Arpels, Graff, Tiffany and the rest. I pestered them all. I played dumb, but not too dumb to raise suspicion. I didn't take my own lens and as they offered me one, I worked it tourist-stile.

The jewelry gorillas occupy the entrance of the mall; an area the size of Luxembourg. Retail professionals know top-margins get the entrance. Low-margins, like electronics or food, go higher up: To buy cheap DVDs or milk you have to run the jewelry gauntlet.

There was lots of cabochon amethyst, so-so tourmaline, plastic citrine and nasty magic topaz, mountains of filled rubies and deep fried sapphires, some set nicely, some cheesy, but all at painful prices.

I must admit today's sellers know about gemstone treatment. When I did a similar excursion in 2004 I got raised eyebrows, ignorance or flat lies. Today, the staff is as well informed as you may expect. They know most gems are treated somehow, they are not always sure how (who is?) or why, some get it wrong, but I heard no more all-our-gems-are-natural-guaranteed-bla-bla.

When I asked for untreated gemstones the branch manager usually entered scene. He knew the real stuff:
"This ruby is only heat treated but not filled" or
"This is GIA certified untreated sapphire".
With certificates ready in hand - a real improvement from 2004. Great. My compliments!

Here is what I found:

A pair of blue sapphires, each 6 carats, pear-shape, set in earrings. Good color, a shade too inky perhaps but clean and GRS certified unheated Madagascan, precision cut to match. The pair, set with some gold and small diamonds, was on offer for $480.000. I calculated down to $35.000/carat for the stones. Solitary each gem was top-notch, as a pair they were quite remarkable.

Next, I found an emerald shaped, vivid red, AIGS certified unheated Mozambique ruby of 1.21 carat, lightly included, square-ish but not fully symmetric "native" cut, rather a color-stone with little or no luster, some window but still fully red in the center. Price tag: $139.000 set in a ring. Minus small diamonds and gold I estimated it at $80.000 per carat. A good stone, but way overpriced.

Then, I got to see an oval 4.6 carat pink sapphire with a window. It was a good hot pink and GIA certified, no origin, but the fish eye was bad. Set in a rose gold pendant with many small calibrated pink sapphires (no certificates), it went for $95.000. The big sapphire must have been under 15.000/carat. Given that the pendant itself looked pretty, this price seemed Ok-ish to me, under the circumstances.

I continued my search. Some shops I left without seeing anything worth mentioning. There was no untreated emerald, no Paraiba, no good Alexandrite, no Padaparadscha, nor tsavorites or such, at least no exceptional ones. As always, I ignored diamonds. All-in-all I must have been in ten+ high-end joints.

Finally, late in the day: A dream of red spinel, round, 3.2 carat, absolutely flawless, no window, no inclusions, perfect hue, tone, great luster and all, GRS certified Burma, set in a simple platinum ring. This was a master gem. Selling for: $180.000. Totally fat ruby-priced but very nice. Loved it.

That was my last find. After five hours I ended the tour due to exhaustion and low sugar levels. I hate wearing a suit; and pretending. I also felt sorry for the branch managers.

I allowed myself a HägenDazs ice cream and called it a day.

 

[y2kitty]

Your use of "." instead of "," is confusing. I read this thinking the sapphires were $480.00 and was surprised/confused by the bargain wondering if you bought them.

Interesting stuff though!

 

[Kismet]

Heh, sounds like a fun time was had by you. But, no pictures? I'm sure you could have made up some story about having to clear it with the wife before giving it to the mistress or something.

 

[Indylady]

Thanks for the post! Great story. I loved seeing loose gemstones in Dubai, but didn't venture to buy any because I was limited on time and I didn't think the sales associates would be able to answer questions about treatments.

 

[JewelFreak]

Sounds like an enjoyable way to while away an afternoon, Ed -- a busman's holiday. Loved the deep-fried sapphires. I guess it's a sad truth that untreated, reconstituted stones are a rarity -- but encouraging that the store personnel were more informed and more upfront about it. I'm surprised -- though maybe I shouldn't be -- that even at the high-end guys you get windows & wonky cuts. But the spinel must have been fun to find & I hope the ice cream fixed the day up perfectly!

--- Laurie

 

[pregcurious]

Thank you, Ed. This was an extremely interesting post, and it made me realize the amazing bargains to be had on untreated stones. I nearly yelled out "what?!" when I read the $180,000 for the red spinel, though I am sure it was dreamy.

 

[SB621]

I did somethign semi similar is Thailand in 2008 when I was there with my DH. It was a lot of fun to tour all the jewelry stores. I only wish DH could have lasted 5 hours. He was done after 1 hour!!!! I could have stayed all day!

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Your use of "." instead of "," is confusing. I read this thinking the sapphires were $480.00 and was surprised/confused by the bargain wondering if you bought them.

Interesting stuff though!

Not all countries use a decimal point - many use a comma for the decimal indicator and a period for the thousands. I know that I often have to stop and think before writing because of this.

Here, we write $1.000,00 for a thousand dollars. In the US, it would be $1,000.00

 

[kenny]

Great post. Thanks!

 

[LD]

A fun afternoon topped off by ice cream! Heaven!

It was interesting the gems you DID find and the ones you didn't. It really reflects, I think, what we see and talk about here on this forum.

Thanks for the great post Ed.

 

[y2kitty]

Your use of "." instead of "," is confusing. I read this thinking the sapphires were $480.00 and was surprised/confused by the bargain wondering if you bought them.

Interesting stuff though!

Not all countries use a decimal point - many use a comma for the decimal indicator and a period for the thousands. I know that I often have to stop and think before writing because of this.

Here, we write $1.000,00 for a thousand dollars. In the US, it would be $1,000.00

Even more confusing!

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

Thanks Ed, I love to hear stories such as yours. I was interested in your comment about these high end stores selling treated gemstones. I have maybe 10 glass filled rubies of nice size and decent color that I was going to toss a few months back, but LD commented that I should keep them. I'm glad I did. So Ed, is there a market for glass filled rubies in Dubai? What are they going for?
It seems funny to ask that as Dubai is one of the most expensive malls in the world.

I know you only deal in untreated stones. Did you come home thinking you would raise prices? Or is this market quite different from the rest of the world, except high end.

Thanks very much.
Annette

 

[lelser]

Your use of "." instead of "," is confusing. I read this thinking the sapphires were $480.00 and was surprised/confused by the bargain wondering if you bought them.

Interesting stuff though!

Not all countries use a decimal point - many use a comma for the decimal indicator and a period for the thousands. I know that I often have to stop and think before writing because of this.

Here, we write $1.000,00 for a thousand dollars. In the US, it would be $1,000.00

That's what I'm used to, although I spend most of my time in Canada anymore and have switched back. Last time I was in Dubai was before I'd gotten serious about gems, so it was more a gaping in wonder than an informed hunt but what fun to do what Ed did! Bravo!

Cheers,
Lisa
www.lisaelser.com
www.greengemfoundation.com

 

[texaskj]

Fascinating. (Next time put a granola bar in your pocket.) We'd love to hear more.

 

[Arkteia]

Your use of "." instead of "," is confusing. I read this thinking the sapphires were $480.00 and was surprised/confused by the bargain wondering if you bought them.

Interesting stuff though!

Not all countries use a decimal point - many use a comma for the decimal indicator and a period for the thousands. I know that I often have to stop and think before writing because of this.

Here, we write $1.000,00 for a thousand dollars. In the US, it would be $1,000.00

Same in Europe, I presume. So am I correct in understanding that the sapphire earrings cost 480 K? (otherwise, it would have been 480.00, not 480.000?)

 

[Edward Bristol]

Thanks everybody,

No, they wouldn’t give me a HäagenDazs for free. I think they have bottles of Champagne waiting if you put 480k on the table.

Photos were absolutely impossible. I even remember signs in the windows that you were not supposed to make photos of the stuff they have on public display.

The pricing was as expected, good sapphire and ruby are already high-up and top spinel is a new-comer to the market. If you consider the cost these people have (rents and full page ads in all magazines worldwide every week) they need have good margins.

Also, they do buy expensive - they don't travel their heels off (like me) to find a single good stone but the seller comes to them; and then they buy at the ask-price, without discussion.

My last project on that high-end-planet was a pair of ruby earrings in 4 carats (GRS certified Burma pigeon blood) with lots of diamonds.

We came out with 120k, though I really worked hard to stay under 100k but we couldn’t. The rubies were 70k already. I think in the mall those earrings would have gone for a million plus.

The Grand-ma I bought those rubies from, an old as-hard-as-steel Burmese gem-veteran, said something along the lines:
"You small fry are lucky no big buyers are here this week. They buy this for 250k."
She was too rich to be bluffing.

 

[JewelFreak]

Amazing! You should write in your blog about some of the characters you've encountered. I'm sure it would be fascinating. I know I'd love to read it.

Can we expect to see those spectacular rubies on your site or were they bought for somebody in particular? I'm not a major ruby fan but the first time I saw true pigeon's blood rubies, I almost died & went to heaven.

--- Laurie

 

[yennyfire]

Wow! What fun! I too, did a double take at the pricing. Yikes! For that kind of $$$, I expect a lot more than champagne!

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Thanks everybody,
The Grand-ma I bought those rubies from, an old as-hard-as-steel Burmese gem-veteran, said something along the lines:
"You small fry are lucky no big buyers are here this week. They buy this for 250k."
She was too rich to be bluffing.

I love this.

 

[gongli]

super cool to see things from a professional perspective! thanks very much!

one thing i still can't get over is the pricing. at the usual sites mentioned here, from what i've found over the last month of looking and learning (im a noob), i don't think ive seen a single certified unheated ruby or sapp at 80k/carat, 35k/carat or even 15k/carat. now granted ive been focusing on things that i can afford, which has been sapphire in the <1.2carat <$1.5k range. but what kind of color (can't be the cut i would think? and he says clarity is LI!) must the 1.21carat unheated mozambique ruby in this post to even be in a $139k ballpark? i know edward said it was way overpriced, but from what i can tell, that's an understatement! is this a case of (as they say in some markets ive read about) cutting someones eyes out? would a normal person pay, say, $3000 for that ring, while some person with too much money would pay $139k for the same ring? can the quality gap really be ~50-100x between what the popular (and some agta award winning) gemcutters we see on this forum and what sells at these high-end shops? another possibility that comes to mind is the "name brand" - you stamp lee on some jeans and they're $20 at target, and stamp armani on the same jeans and they're $2000 on 5th ave... is that part of it?

again please understand im a real noob, so almost certainly i have no idea what im talking about

-neal

 

[Edward Bristol]

Neal,

It is the branding; absolutely.

What they offer is not a “ruby ring” but a “Graff ring” with a ruby. That makes the difference. In many ways the price itself makes the value here.

Probably it is not fair to calculate a brand name down to material cost as I did. If you do that with designer jeans it will look even worse.

Yes, I will make a photo of the pigeon blood ruby earring. It was a gem hunt and then custom made.

 

[Edward Bristol]

Here is one of the two. Not for sale.

Twice 2 carat ruby - GRS certified unheated Burma pigeon blood with twice 3 carat diamonds

 

[pinkjewel]

that is breathtaking...