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Vendor pictures and owner pictures of PS stones

voce

Ideal_Rock
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
5,161
:kiss2: Thank you! Gary had informed me that the color combination is very rare in sapphires and that he was lucky if he saw only one sapphire with this parti-color of blue and purple that can be seen in all lighting on his buying trips to Sri Lanka. I don't know much about what is common or not (obviously haven't seen as many sapphires as Gary), but I love it regardless which is all that matters.

I'm very excited about figuring out how to set this for an engagement ring!

Ooh, are you getting engaged or just got engaged? If so, congratulations. I'd love if you'd start a thread to discuss ideas for setting it!
 

etherealhav0c

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
15
Ooh, are you getting engaged or just got engaged? If so, congratulations. I'd love if you'd start a thread to discuss ideas for setting it!

We are getting engaged! Thank you! I knew that I didn't want a diamond center stone so my partner and I thought it'd make sense to choose the center stone and design the ring together then leave the proposal as a surprise (although who knows what that'll look like in light of this pandemic and being at home all the time).

And that's a great idea! Will do that now...
 

scouty

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jan 26, 2019
Messages
744
We are getting engaged! Thank you! I knew that I didn't want a diamond center stone so my partner and I thought it'd make sense to choose the center stone and design the ring together then leave the proposal as a surprise (although who knows what that'll look like in light of this pandemic and being at home all the time).

And that's a great idea! Will do that now...

How exciting! What a beautiful and unique stone. I also love hydrangeas! Can't wait to follow your setting journey. Congrats! =)2
 

Cina_s

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jul 2, 2020
Messages
217
Pakistan Peridot cut by Jeff White supacpackperi.png

Yes, if possible, are there more photos of this? Peridot is my birthstone, and I never find anything I like in it. This is beautiful!
 

paragon1234

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Mar 8, 2020
Messages
206
I bought a 6mm umbalite garnet from Jeff Davies on eBay. It was an auction where I got it quite cheaply. I wanted see how his darker stones look in real life after previous posts about how his stones look in real life Vs his photos. So for your edification I took some photos.

This is his image:
$_57.jpeg

These are mine:
Indoors in shade
IMG_20200821_091943__01.jpg
Back of stone
IMG_20200821_092002__01.jpg
Indoors in sunlight
IMG_20200821_092151__01.jpg
Indoors sunlight with camera flash on. This is the closest to his photo. He is clearly using very bright lighting.
IMG_20200821_092157__01.jpg
Hand shot indoors shade. As you can see, my blue sapphire is almost black, but this is not.
IMG_20200821_093959__01.jpg
Indoors flash
IMG_20200821_093932__01.jpg
 

paragon1234

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Mar 8, 2020
Messages
206
Following on from the garnet, which I was reasonably happy with because I knew it would be a lot darker than depicted, I decided to buy this mint tourmaline from Jeff Davies. It's still showing as available on his Etsy page but I think he just hasn't updated it.

In overcast daylight it looks like his photo and I have no complaints.

My plan is to set it into JuliaB's French cut classique moissanite ring.

Vendor pic:
il_794xN.1986902291_bxsz.jpg

Mine indoors:
IMG_20200825_121141__01.jpg
IMG_20200825_121410__01.jpg

Outside on an overcast day:
IMG_20200825_121310__01.jpg

The JuliaB setting I want:
il_794xN.1341775651_hieb.jpg
 

peppermintpatty

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
May 15, 2008
Messages
1,270
Thought I’d throw this on here after making a post about it already.

Bought a 4.37 carat particolored Montana sapphire from Jeff Hapeman of Earths Treasury.

his pic:

1596195476784.jpeg

stills from the 3 videos he sent me:

“outsidelight”

9C2B8EAD-8B2D-4D7E-823A-24E682199F8A.png
Indoor LED light:

CE624D3C-A227-4E29-8951-A3FAB0046A14.png
Indoor Incandescent Light:

B1CAEDD3-2F3E-44E0-898A-BD868BDC0AF9.png
My pics:

indoor

C1AF032F-E48C-4FD5-A9D1-33510EFFB8CC.jpeg
Outdoor(overcast day)

491DD836-399B-4350-A66F-7C2BEC79E6A4.jpeg
indoors but only natural light from windows on a sunny day
1596195908136.jpeg

all-in-all I’m happy with the color, but very rarely are the conditions he presents what you see in the stone. I also just may be terrible at photography. Maybe there is one, but someone should post a tutorial on how to take pictures of stones!

Hope this helps another buyer! Jeff was very easy to work with and very responsive! Would recommend him to anyone. Definitely seems like his prices are a little inflated, but I was okay with it due to the unique coloring he offers!

I couldn't agree more! My stones are beautiful. Then I take a photo and they are typically dark. They don't sparkle, and for crying out loud what do you do when they are small? How do you take a picture of it out of the box? Then I have finger prints on them. I definitely need a tutorial!!!
 

emeraldhummingbird

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 25, 2020
Messages
315
I ended up getting an amethyst from Jeff Davies after all. Here is his vendor pic:

icm_fullxfull.274220839_nb07iofeadc0soocs044.jpg


Dan M set the stone. This is his pic:

il_794xN.2544373325_k9r5.jpg


And this is mine:

20200925_223114.jpg

The cut is beautiful and surprisingly sparkly! I wasn't really expecting it to be.
The colour is a touch darker than Jeff's photo and the pink is not as obvious with your eyes. It's a light to medium purple.
I am actually very happy with it, but when buying from him again would expect 1-2 shades darker than his photos.
 

voce

Ideal_Rock
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
5,161
when buying from him again would expect 1-2 shades darker than his photos.
Glad you are happy with the amethyst, but I think that 1-2 shades darker is an understatement. All the stones I've seen here are 40-50% darker tone than his pictures, if you are looking on a scale where 0% tone is white and 100% tone is black. I'd say his pictures of the amethyst look 30%-40%, and your picture looks 70%-80%, and Daniel M's picture looks like 85% tone. Although the difference could be that I'm looking at PS through a different monitor than I usually do.
 

JackTrick

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jul 23, 2019
Messages
592
Grossular mint garnet from Jeff White!

GAR602.jpg

Once again, I state that photographing green gemstones is virtually impossible. The color in Jeff's photo is very true to life, but my phone refused.

IRL, the color was perfect. My photo has it a lot more yellow green.
mint3.jpg

Finally managed a closer approximation, but the tone is a bit off. Slightly richer in color in real life and a bit more blueish to the green.
mint1.jpg

I'm absolutely thrilled! Just as clean, well-cut and beautiful green (with slight blue greens) as I was looking for.
 
Last edited:

LIGemzGal

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Sep 19, 2020
Messages
202
That's a nicely cut stone.
 

LD

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
10,261
I don’t like to criticise gemstone vendors but I don’t like feeling I’ve been conned either. So imagine my surprise and upset when this horror showed up.
16E07F64-7E18-44DF-AF34-2B7391272F1E.jpeg EED75A47-EDC3-4336-A5D5-A1634FBAC8B7.jpeg
 

minousbijoux

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 5, 2010
Messages
12,804
I don’t like to criticise gemstone vendors but I don’t like feeling I’ve been conned either. So imagine my surprise and upset when this horror showed up.
16E07F64-7E18-44DF-AF34-2B7391272F1E.jpeg EED75A47-EDC3-4336-A5D5-A1634FBAC8B7.jpeg

Aw, c'mon now, @LD , they look just alike! :lol-2: Seriously, that is shocking. Does it ever even come close to its glamor shot?
 

emeraldhummingbird

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 25, 2020
Messages
315
I don’t like to criticise gemstone vendors but I don’t like feeling I’ve been conned either. So imagine my surprise and upset when this horror showed up.
16E07F64-7E18-44DF-AF34-2B7391272F1E.jpeg EED75A47-EDC3-4336-A5D5-A1634FBAC8B7.jpeg

Hrrrrrmmmm..... just how many floodlights were on that stone?!

Are you able to return it? I too would have been expecting something very different based on the vendor photo.
 

LD

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
10,261
Aw, c'mon now, @LD , they look just alike! :lol-2: Seriously, that is shocking. Does it ever even come close to its glamor shot?

Nope - never! It's not often I'm completely had over but this was one of those times. I'm still puzzled how they managed to make this manky stone look so good!

Hrrrrrmmmm..... just how many floodlights were on that stone?!

Are you able to return it? I too would have been expecting something very different based on the vendor photo.

Honestly, I was so disgusted I nearly put it in the bin. Yes I should return it. I told the seller how disappointed I was and he just said I was looking at it in the wrong light lol I took it into direct sunlight and it didn't look any better.
 

Musia

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Mar 28, 2020
Messages
1,073

LD

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
10,261
@LD Here is a thread, https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/anyone-ever-buy-from-ig-seller-leenagemslk.250513/ and none of the stones looks like the vendor's picture IRL. I believe one of PS's recently bought a pad from them. I am very intrigued to know how much she likes the stone. She didn't mention who the vendor was but today I checked Instagram and recognized one of the pictures. Hope it is going to work for her.

you’re not going to believe this but I ran a check in their name here before buying and that thread never came up. In fact I only found positive threads! I’m just going to write their name again here so hopefully it pops up in future searches.

Leenagemslk
 

emeraldhummingbird

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 25, 2020
Messages
315
Glad you are happy with the amethyst, but I think that 1-2 shades darker is an understatement. All the stones I've seen here are 40-50% darker tone than his pictures, if you are looking on a scale where 0% tone is white and 100% tone is black. I'd say his pictures of the amethyst look 30%-40%, and your picture looks 70%-80%, and Daniel M's picture looks like 85% tone. Although the difference could be that I'm looking at PS through a different monitor than I usually do.

You're probably right. I meticulously studied the photos in this thread before buying so I perhaps mentally calibrated for the level of brightness I was expecting. The one positive thing the vendor photo doesn't capture though is the sparkle, so that was a very nice surprise :)
 

Ionysis

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Oct 1, 2015
Messages
1,908
So having resisted the huge 8ct violet star sapphire I really wanted I had to make it up to myself. So I bought this teeny weeny cute one. It’s VS clarity and a really sharp star but it’s a baby one. Might have it put in a little cluster for one of my daughters. 0B12C11A-6890-4049-B560-D023777F03F9.jpeg FCFAE1C3-7A1E-43B4-999C-D1F1730B58FD.jpeg
 

MillieLou

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 27, 2020
Messages
824
This is my 2ct unheated light blue sapphire from Deliqa Gems in Australia. The left picture was taken outdoors in the Aussie sunshine. The right is on my hand indoors on a rainy October day in the UK, under nasty cheap office lighting. I'm happy with the representation ;-)

Sapphire.jpg Sapphire on hand.jpg
 

Polyhex

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Sep 18, 2003
Messages
550
After reading about the issues with Jeff Davies' darker stones, I was curious and so I bought these citrines from an eBay auction from him.

The problem is not exactly that the stones are darker, it's that this particular otherwise beautiful precision cut is NOT appropriate for the citrine. I believe it's intended for gems with higher refractive index. Because of the cut, the citrines have terrible tilt windows, the worst I have seen so far. Moving them even a fraction of an angle, and the stone descends into dark mush. I know that citrine is prone to tilt windows because of the low RI, but I have other citrines that are cut more appropriately and they don't develop the tilt window until they are REALLY tilted. It's really unfortunate, I can't use the stones for anything.

Jeff's photos:

s-l1600 (5).jpg
s-l1600 (4).jpg


My photos showing terrible tilt window:
20200927_015013165_iOS (2).jpg
20200927_015014757_iOS (2).jpg
20200927_015207874_iOS (2).jpg
My photos carefully calibrated to hit the stone perfect center. Still a darker but the tilt window is the really bad problem.
20200927_014917642_iOS (2).jpg

For comparison, here is a well cut citrine head on and tilted in same lighting conditions:
20200927_014806667_iOS (2).jpg
20200927_015039836_iOS (2).jpg
20200927_015052884_iOS (2).jpg
 

Polyhex

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Sep 18, 2003
Messages
550
I will now add some GOOD vendor vs. reality photo examples. I have particularly had good luck with close-to-source IG vendors and cellphone photos.

Leenagemslk on IG
Vendor photo of yellow sapphire
a925fffc2ebf5edd576a568ce1b41df8.jpg

My photo of yellow sapphire
38F2EDD6-E1CD-4370-9C73-D177A0BD5DD5.jpg

HarisGems on IG
Vendor photo of blue tourmaline - tropical daylight
haris_gem_blue.PNG

Vendor photo of blue tourmaline - bad indoor lighting
haris_gem_blue2.PNG

My photos of blue tourmaline
20200918_012021821_iOS.jpg

My photo in low outdoor light
20200927_225134823_iOS (2).jpg

My photo indoor lighting
20200928_004455915_iOS (2).jpg

Finestonepk on IG - lagoon tourmaline

Vendor photo
finestonepklagoon.PNG

My photos
20200907_022558251_iOS (2).jpg
 

emeraldhummingbird

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 25, 2020
Messages
315
After reading about the issues with Jeff Davies' darker stones, I was curious and so I bought these citrines from an eBay auction from him.

The problem is not exactly that the stones are darker, it's that this particular otherwise beautiful precision cut is NOT appropriate for the citrine. I believe it's intended for gems with higher refractive index. Because of the cut, the citrines have terrible tilt windows, the worst I have seen so far. Moving them even a fraction of an angle, and the stone descends into dark mush. I know that citrine is prone to tilt windows because of the low RI, but I have other citrines that are cut more appropriately and they don't develop the tilt window until they are REALLY tilted. It's really unfortunate, I can't use the stones for anything.

Jeff's photos:

s-l1600 (5).jpg
s-l1600 (4).jpg


My photos showing terrible tilt window:
20200927_015013165_iOS (2).jpg
20200927_015014757_iOS (2).jpg
20200927_015207874_iOS (2).jpg
My photos carefully calibrated to hit the stone perfect center. Still a darker but the tilt window is the really bad problem.
20200927_014917642_iOS (2).jpg

For comparison, here is a well cut citrine head on and tilted in same lighting conditions:
20200927_014806667_iOS (2).jpg
20200927_015039836_iOS (2).jpg
20200927_015052884_iOS (2).jpg

I see what you mean about the tilt windows, but the brightness and also colour of the vendor photo is extremely misleading. From the photo I would have expected an orange stone, but what you received looked closer to brown and amber?!
 

Polyhex

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Sep 18, 2003
Messages
550
I see what you mean about the tilt windows, but the brightness and also colour of the vendor photo is extremely misleading. From the photo I would have expected an orange stone, but what you received looked closer to brown and amber?!

Yes, the stone is significantly darker and browner, which is a problem. But the problem I find truly egregious is the cut, it's so bad that if I get the stone into perfect alignment for one eye, my other eye will see the tilt window that throws the stone into brown mush. The two stones look like the right-most photo 99.9 percent of the time. If it was reversed and they looked like the middle photo most of the time, I'd at least be able to set them even if they didn't look like the vendor photo. It's a beautifully executed cut that is 100% inappropriate for citrine. :(

1605546666928.png
 

CSpan

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Mar 7, 2016
Messages
1,293
Cheap Jeff Davies Umbalite. Wanted to see the cut mire than anything.
20201121_214643.jpg

Not quite. Granted the lighting isn't optimal but this is the only photo I took where you could any color at all. Versus a dark shaded blob
20201121_215031.jpg
 

CSpan

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Mar 7, 2016
Messages
1,293
Richard Homer Tourmaline
These are from a video, I was too slow to catch the side.
Screenshot_20201107-133825_Instagram.jpg
Screenshot_20201107-133844_Instagram.jpg

Proof that I am a terrible photographer. This stone is tricky, it actually looks like his photos, more purple in sunlight, more pinky orange indoors but my phone just makes crap up as it goes along.
IMG_0462.jpg IMG_0464.jpg 20201119_151021.jpg
 
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