yellow sapphire unheated, how to price?

[neverness]

Hello,

I'm currently looking to purchase an engagement ring for my girlfriend. She fell in love with a pricey Tacori setting, however my budget doesn't allow me to get both this setting and a fancy yellow so we decided to compromise and look for a yellow sapphire with the expensive Tacori setting. What sort of questions should I ask my dealer as he is going to hunt some round yellow sapphires between 2.5 and 3 carats? I just don't want to get ripped off. I understand color is king and we may absolutely fall in love with the gem but I just want to know I'm getting it at a good price. Thanks for any replies!!

 

[OreoRosies86]

Pure canary vivid yellow will cost more than a yellow sapphire with that is pale, straw, or has brown modifier. Unheated sapphire might be priced higher and if this is important to you get certification. What kind of cut are you looking for (does it need to be precision?)

 

[GregS]

If you know what to look for, color, windows, extinction, inclusions etc... Then you can let an AGL report answer any questions you may have (i.e. treatment level, origin etc..). When purchasing high dollar stones from a jeweler I can't trust any answers and or information given to me by them.

An example, I was looking for an Alexandrite a while back, and I asked my jeweler if he could track any down for me. "Of course!" he replied, and it just so happened he had a source for all the Russian Alexandrite I could ever want. Needless to say I was skeptical, and low and behold they didn't look the part and he had no way of proving their origin. So I ended up buying a Brazilian stone with an AGL report from Multicolour.

 

[neverness]

I ended up pulling the trigger on an uncertified yellow sapphire. It is 3.71 carats and will be custom mounted on a Tacori 2620 setting. The stone is round, unheated and I paid $4,000 for it and $2,800 for setting (plus another $600 for Tacori to custom create the head to hold this thing). As I realize it's hard to price sapphires, I'm hoping I got it for a decent price. I would still like to take it to a gemologist just to verify it's 100% natural, though I do trust this guy (the owner is best friends with my boss). It did take my dealer a couple weeks to find this through one of his gem sources.

 

[digdeep]

What did the seller say was it's origin? Did you buy it contingent on a report that substantiates what they said? It's hard when sparkles hit our eyes to say "Wait, let's get this checked". Friends of friends doesn't mean it's true........the only way to know is have it sent to a lab for a report. This will be the cheapest thing of the amounts you mentioned. I hope it's what you think it is, but the only way to KNOW is to have a lab report done. OTOH, if the setting is more important than the stone, and you have her fantasy setting.....then you may not care about the stone so much.

 

[FrekeChild]

I would insist on the sale being contingent on the stone coming back from a laboratory as heated or unheated only and priced accordingly. And that needs to happen before you have an expensive custom mounting created for it!

If you have pictures, we might be able to point you in the general direction of comparable stones to see if it's a fair price. Yellow sapphires are lower on the totem pole with the royal engagement ring being all blue and stuff, but I think it's a really lovely engagement ring choice.

Pictures please!