Who is Tan?

[omc111]

I'm new to Pricescope and to the Colored Stone forum. I keep hearing an E-Bay vendor "Tan" mentioned and I'm wondering what the name of his store is? It's hard for me to know who is a trustworthy vendor and who isn't.

Thanks for the help.

 

[jstarfireb]

Welcome! Tan is a Thai gem dealer who runs the ebay stores gemburionline, odysseygem, and vvs1gem. You're right to be cautious, especially with ebay vendors, who tend to photoshop their items a ton. Tan's stones tend to look more like the videos than the photos, and they are what he says they are (natural, heated vs. unheated, etc.).

 

[kenny]

I'm not.
I avoid the sun like the plague.

 

[Justin_Cutter]

Just for community reference. The 4.32ct sapphire on the second page of my thread found here https://www.pricescope.com/forum/colored-stones/5-58-ct-blue-sapphire-gemsthailand-t163440-30.html Was from Gemburionline.

This was a guaranteed unheated stone by Gemburionline and AIGS. GIA later reported that the stone was actually heated.
Tan did give me a full refund including the cost of the GIA report. While this was unfortunate Tan did make it right so in the end it worked out.

~Justin

 

[Arkteia]

Tells me something about AIGS but it is still safer than other labs there. From my experience, his photos are usually true to life. As people have mentioned before, though, if there is a window in his pictures, there IS a window in real stone. I would ask for a cert. for more expensive stones, especially spinels. I had better luck buying directly from the website than when I started asking questions via ebay - each vendor tries to "push" his items, and Tan is no exception - but returns were smooth and easy, all items reached him, and he promptly issued refunds. For someone located that far away, I think, he is a safe vendor. And he has a large stock.