What''s in your area jewelry store?

[jszweda]

Hi all..

I am a newbie to the forum, but not to gemstones persay. I have always had an interest in these things; especially colored stuff.

I am sure I am not the only one who watches some of these jewelry shows on satellite or cable, and I am sure I am not the only one who says they don''t have this my way. So I am curious as to what your local stores sell aside from diamonds and lab stuff. Do they have anything unusual or exotic? Is it good or garbage?

Also, is it just my way or is it anywhere you go that people work in these places and are clueless about things? For instance, you look at a piece and you tell someone you want to see the "channel sets" and the person blanks out on you? When you ask if they have a certain color sapphire, do they know what you''re talking about or do they know and they just can''t get it?

I live outside of Charlotte, NC. There are some really good jewelry stores, and then there are your more average places. I found one here that is really really awesome that has some nice stuff. You go to some of these other places and ask for a canary yellow sapphire; they think you''re insane and for some reason they can''t get it.

I wonder if there is simply no market for some of the more exotic stuff here locally, or what. So I figured I would ask what part of the world everyone is from and get a feel for things. I don''t see any good opals here usually, no tourmalines at all, no multi-colored sapphires, no natural rubies for the most part or anything of size, no tsavorite garnets, little if any amethyst, etc. There is a Tiffany & Co. here, and other than diamonds, forget it.

To be honest, it is coming to a point where you have jewelry stores that deal mainly in lab or meteocher natural stones, or the more high end stores that charge full list but don''t have a lot of variety. Is this how it is everywhere? Is the industry evolving that way or is it just dependent on the market for an area? I am curious.

 

[Cave Keeper]

Sounds similar. Most of the shops seem to be stocking diamond rings ranging from thousands of tiny diamonds to maybe a hundred diamonds of 1 carat size, tens over 2 carat size and a handful about 3 carat, all colorless. Those are the jewelry shops. Some department stores offer "Russian Diamonds". Perhaps only virgin young girls get engagement and wedding rings in this town (or all the girls in town are young and innocent). Rich ladies (or their guilt-conscientious travelling husbands) probably get their colored stones from more colorful out-of-town places.

 

[gemnut]

You would think that Athens, Greece would be a terrific place for variety, wouldn''t you? Not true. Plethora, yes. Designs, endless. Almost each and every jeweler has his own little "secrets" that makes his jewelry "better" that they guy''s next door. Lots of hand-made stuff (with the price tag to match) but boy, try to find some variety in stones and forget it! Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires in the more upscale stores, lab stuff everywhere else. If you are lucky, you may come upon a good aqua or a good amethyst or a peridot or two and there is one particular merchant that specializes in antiques and one of a kind pieces but that''s about it.
As for my neighborhood jeweler, he couldn''t even tell me about the diamonds in a pendand I asked about, other than that they were "good"!

 

[jszweda]

You have 3 carat solitares in your area? That''s more than I have seen anywhere here in the better jewelry stores. There is one store here that is a chain store that had a 0.99ct D color diamond that was flawless. I have seen bigger, but not in anything I would call clean.

On the Russian diamonds, there is such a thing. There is a small amount of diamonds that come from Russia that comprise 10% of the total market. The upside is that DeBeers doesn''t have rights to those mines, so those aren''t in controlled markets. They are notorious though for coming up with some awesome fakes though. I have heard that they are trying to come up with a good lab diamond, and they''re almost at the point where it''s so good, no test can tell the difference. The problem is for what it costs, you might as well get the real thing.

Here locally, I generally don''t see anyone wearing a lot of colored stones. Interestingly enough, I have class with this really hot blonde who just happens to have a cats eye chrysoberyl. I see lab stuff, and that''s about it.

 

[jszweda]

Gemnut,

I am suprised that a place like Athens doesn''t have anything either. That is mind boggling. You would think if for no other reason with the number of tourists that go through there, and the fact that the market is a little different there that you would find something else.

If you have peridot your way, you''re places already sound better than mine. LOL. If they do have it, it''s that Arizona stuff. I am not saying anything is wrong with the stuff from Arizona; don''t get me wrong. Personally, I like that candy apple green stuff from Pakistan and Burma. I have yet to see it this way.

Aqua''s are becoming more and more scarce in general from what I hear. Over here, Mom wanted one and we looked. The ones I see are generally very pale in color, and they''re not very large at all. I saw one nice trillion, but when I louped it, I figured if I took a penlight to it that it would have been an SI without the loupe. They wanted a small fortune for it. Then again, this is the store that also specailizes in I1 diamonds and they try to talk you out of SI or better.

I think there is maybe one store here that has good amethyst. That''s it. I think that same one might have had some green tourmaline and maybe some small chrome tourmalines; but that was it. I think no sooner the stores got that stuff, because it was so inexpensive at first and so much like what an emerald wants to be that the price shot up to where the stores won''t sell it anymore.

 

[gemnut]

Actually, Athens - and even more so - Thessaloniki, in Northern Greece both have excellent reputations for jewelry making. The "traditional" and I guess "desirable" type of jewelry center around gold and workmanship, not stones. From the "cheaper stones", the most predominent that went through this past year were turquoise and pearls. From what I hear, almost the entire production of tourmalines is imported directly into the U.S. and finding one here is a big deal, something jewelers brag about. On the other hand, I have seen some of the BIG 4 that just are not available anywhere on the net and they are sold at a fraction of the cost!

 

[jszweda]

Gemnut,

This is interesting and I will tell you why. For one, I think I saw a hand full of stores here a few years ago that had some tourmalines. That''s it. I don''t know of anyone that has them now. So where they are in the US beats the hell out of me. LOL.

I can find pearls here; I can find some really nice ones. They''re by no means cheap though. They are rediculous in price and they seem to be going up and not down. I did find a store when I was in Orlando that had the most gorgeous strand of black pearls you''ll ever see. They were 25 grand back then but the luster was just exceptional.

The only place I have seen turquoise is on the jewelry shows here; particularly Gem Shopping Network. There is one guy on there constantly pushing turquoise and beads. If it''s cheap there, that''s interesting as when that guy sells it, it''s NOT cheap. Supposedly it''s starting to become popular here, but who knows. At first I thought maybe he overbought them and that is why he pushes that turquoise. Now I wonder if he just has a feddish with that stuff.

 

[WTNLVR]

I''m in Mass. I just found a 3 stone beautiful pink tourmaline ring on the cape. I was shocked to find such a "rare" stone. Most of the stores here (not Boston) carry standard issue rubies sapphires (usually black

) and lab emeralds.Blue topaz, amethyst and the "lesser" stones are very common and good quality no matter where you go. The smaller mom and pop places (where I found my ring) tend to have a bit more exotic selection such as yellow and green sapphire although in tiny carat wt. I asked if they had any purple sapphire at one store and they at least said they could get some in if I was really interested. Diamonds tend to max out at 2 ct and they are rare to see. Most of the stores carry 1ct and less.

 

[jszweda]

You have a place that has some green sapphires?

Those are rare supposedly. I have seen some smaller ones, but not anything larger that appealed to me. If you''re really lucky here, you can find some tiny yellows in a piece, but that''s it. When Mom asked around for something of ring size in a canary yellow, this one woman looked at her like she was nuts.

Strangely enough, I found one place in NJ online that actually has some mandarin garnets. I think that there is one smaller local chain here that might have some amethysts. Other than that, there is one higher end store that has some nice one''s, but that''s it.

Over here though, if you want a ruby, good luck. I find some now and then but they''re not black. However, they are very small and they have some silk in them. I did manage to come across one that was a Burma ruby (it looked a little like a Thai ruby) that had a little bit of silk in it, but not as much as others. That''s it though.

I don''t know if the pink tourmalines are rare though. They are nice. There is no doubt about that. I don''t know about rare though. I have yet to see any here though, then again be it pink or any other color I don''t see any here.

Over your way in whatever you see, how are the diamonds in the stores you''re seeing? Are they good?

 

[WTNLVR]

The diamonds I see are all in the SI or I3 category and god forbid you ask to see a certificate in most stores. Again,the smaller stores are more knowledgable. As for the tourmaline, I should have stated that I meant rare as in you don''t see them in stores here at all. They usually just have standard issue stuff like amethyst, citrine, perido, and aqua. Anything out of the norm is "rare" to find. Of course, I only want the "rare" stones

I do almost all my gem shopping on line and am shocked at the prices I find in the stores for substandard goods.

 

[jszweda]

I hear you on both counts there. LOL.

I have seen some smaller stores that certify their diamonds, and some of them aren''t worth certifying. I know of one around here in particular that is like that, but they have another store at another mall and it''s a whole other story. I asked this woman one time what the clarity of a certain solitare was, and she said I1. I was saying to myself, they act like they''re proud of that?

I don''t even know if they have peridot here locally. I know they used to, but I don''t see much of it anymore here.

As for buying online, I myself learned about that too. I know how the pricing works by the time a wholeseller gets their markup, and then a store multiplies that by 2 or 3 or something in between. Some of these places you get stuff from online are the same places that some of these wholesale people go to; I am sure at some point at least.

The one problem with buying stuff online if you want to put it in something is finding a setting. A lot of times the stuff you get online from whomever isn''t calibrated. So if you want to find a setting, it''s a custom job. I learned that one the hard way. I think pending on what you want, for women''s stuff it''s easier to find something. If you want something in a mans ring, forget it.

If you buy a stone of some kind, and you can put it in a regular 4 prong round setting, you may have it easier. In the worse case they can just modify the basket-end of story. If you want something bessel set or something along those lines, or you need to round a head out a little more, it''s seemingly tough to do.

I will say this though. If you find a stone you like and you know someone who does wax carvings and such, you can come out way ahead of the game. If you luck out and find a setting that works that is pre-fabricated, it will save you some headaches for sure.

I do have to agree with you on the "rare" stuff. LOL. There are a lot of nice things out there that you don''t see in most retail places and I think part of it is price and the other part is called that certain markets just aren''t as aware of other stuff. So as opposed to taking the risk of selling something new and unusual, they would prefer to just sell bottom of the barrel quality and make something.

Out of curiosity, have you seen any enameling your way? I have seen some Bailey, Banks and Biddle stuff from their site in which they have some nice enameling. I haven''t seen it here or anywhere else. Have you seen anything like that your way in any piece of anything?

 

[WTNLVR]

I have not seen any enamaling, but I haven''t been looking for it either.

 

[gemnut]

OK, OK, I didn''t say it was IMPOSSIBLE to get some great stuff here, and to prove it, here is my latest little eye candy, I just SNATCHED when I saw on a jewelry TV show from Thessaloniki. It''s a .60 ct table cut diamond on one side set in gold... very "classical"...

 

[gemnut]

... with a 3.6 ct pink tourmaline on the other side, in case you ger bored with diamonds...

 

[gemnut]

... and hand-painted enamel on the sides

This little treasure is all hand-made, which is one thing I truly appreciate about this country.

if you keep looking with a passion you can find anything!

 

[gemnut]

Joe,

Turquoise is by no means cheap here either... it just depends where you buy it from. Good, "Persian" turquoise in large pieces and a nice setting can cost you a fortune. Pearls have been hitting the market lately like crazy, however, especially fresh water pearls at a fraction of the normal cost. Even akoyas have slid down in price. I forgot to mention the other very popular semi-precious stone for wide consumption here, which is agate in many, many colors and shapes. In combination with other stones, pearls or gold it makes some stunning jewelry.

 

[jszweda]

That is nice.

I like that green.

 

[jszweda]

Gemnut,

I agree with you. Personally in what I have seen for torquoise, I like to see a little vien. I know that Iranian stuff isn''t coming out of the ground anymore, and I know that there is some stuff coming from Arizona. It is by no means cheap though, granted. There is one network that is selling pieces of it in jewelry that is a lot cheaper than you might expect.

I have heard of some people using dyed agate to emulate that robin egg blue. Some people won''t disclose that and say it''s turquoise, and others will tell you it''s dyed.

As for pearls, it''s rediculous anymore for what places want. I have seen some freshwater pearls locally, and some south sea and a few nice Tahiatian pearls in rings and things. I don''t think anyone here has any akoya pearls though. I have seen some of Mikimoto''s "Sea Magic" line which are not AAA, but they are very round and have a nice luster to them. They are still nice pearls and gem quality by any stretch of the imagination. If you want a nice strand but don''t want to pay a fortune for them, those might be a good option-IMHO.

I do have to admit though, I really love the platinum and green south sea pearls.

Locally I have seen some nice ones in rings, but that''s it. As for blacks, I saw a gorgeous strand in Orlando a few years back.