Vendor Question - The Sapphire Merchant, New Zealand, are they legit?

[theonequestion]

They operate http://thesapphiremerchant.co.nz and http://thesapphiremerchant.com

1) Are they legit, anyone bought from them?

2) They offer GFCO GEM LAB certification which is not GIA, are they reputable enough?

Thank you.

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

Can’t comment on the vendor as I’ve never bought from them.

Regarding the GFCO cert, all my stones with GFCO certs have had results that align with Lotus and GIA once I have the stones retested by those labs. Now that’s a very small sample though. Keep in mind it costs only $10 to get a GFCO but $100-$200+ for Lotus or GIA.

GFCO is a lab in Thailand.

 

[TheSapphireMerchant]

Hello Theonequestion, I am one of the owners of The Sapphire Merchant, and we are indeed legitimate. We operate our of Christchurch, New Zealand.

We offer GFCO as it's an affordable and acceptable for almost all of our customers. For our higher value gemstones, we always usually get GIA. We can also arrange GIA for anyone who wants peace of mine before purchase. When this happens we ship to GIA in Bangkok, and then directly from Bangkok to the customer, or back to New Zealand, then to the customer.

We get almost all of our gemstones checked through GFCO or GIA, unless they are a lower value gemstone like Amethyst.

>Thomas Brain

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

They operate http://thesapphiremerchant.co.nz and http://thesapphiremerchant.com

1) Are they legit, anyone bought from them?

2) They offer GFCO GEM LAB certification which is not GIA, are they reputable enough?

Thank you.

i cant open this article because its behind a paywall, but this is from one of, if not the biggest NZ news paper

The Sapphire Merchant: From pebbles on a beach to $90,000 gemstones

A fruitless search for a special sapphire led Gemma Brain to launch a gemstone company.

www.nzherald.co.nz

this one works
its a video you can see without the paywall
they do featiure in a very large wedding guide locally

Gemstones from The Sapphire Merchant

Gemma Brain and her brother Thomas source gemstones from all over the world to sell to Kiwis who want beautiful jewellery. Video / George Heard

www.nzherald.co.nz