Becareful if you shopping gem in Indonesia!!!

[Cognition]

I am not trying to bash nor insult Indonesian gem dealer, but you have to be very very cautious if you went shopping for gem in Indonesia. I have visited a lot of public gem market, and I know most of them are trying to sell undisclosed treated gem. However, Indonesians' gem market brought it to a whole new level!!! Here's the story:

I was on business trip in Indonesia when one of my Indonesian colleague knew that I was looking for a black opal. He claimed that Indonesia has the best opal in the world. So, he took me to a gem market in Jakarta called Jakarta Gems Center. My first impression was this market is the most crowded gem market I have visited so far. I skim through several dealers and saw a lot of dyed chalcedony which were common phenomenon in every gem market. Then, my friend started asking if any dealers have an Indonesian black opal. All dealers said they only had african opal (I bet they meant ethiopian opal). Since we could not find any indonesian black opal, we started visiting the higher end dealers. This was when things got complicated.

The first dealer (an english speaking arabs):
he sold a lot of higher end gem like sapphire, spinel, etc. He showed me several big indonesian black opals. Unfortunately, they require a high intensity light to show it's play of color. These opal even came with ridiculous price tags!

The second dealer (another english speaking arabs):
Similar to the first dealer, he also sold a lot of higher end gems. He showed me 4ct indonesian black opals. Like the opal from the 1st dealer, it require a high intensity light to show it's play of color, and it also had an illogical price tags. I felt pretty down. So, I asked if he had any australian black opal. Guess what! He laugh, and said that australia does not have any opal mines He also said that all australian opals are synthetic (WTF).

The third dealer (an indonesian dealer):
He showed me a descent quality black opal that he claimed to be an indonesian black opal. So, I took out my loupe and found out a lot of tiny burn residue. when I asked him if the stone has been smoked, he showed me two different certificate from two indonesian lab. Only one of them concluded that the stone has been treated. Unfortunately, when I asked him about this, he lightly said that there is no natural black opal. Every black opal come from a white one, and we have to treat it. Honestly, I never heard such BS in any gem market I have visited.

I will skip the 4th-13th dealers since none of them have indonesian opal and they all also said that all australian opal are synthetic.

The last dealer (another indonesian dealer):
he showed me a 6ct indonesian that require a high intensity light to how it's play of color, and it came with the craziest price tag. He asked for 1,500,000,000 IDR (around 110k USD). My friend and I immediately left him. Unexpectedly, he keep following and offering us the stone until we reach our car!!!

Honestly, I was thinking that either these dealer has been misinformed or something is wrong with these guys. Not only their price tags are insane, but also the fact that none of them know that australia (especially lightning ridge and coober pedy) produces the best natural opal.

 

[Arcadian]

That is freaky. Following to your car? Oh no, that would not go over well with me.

So weird they didn't know about Australian opals.... maybe sales tactic? some people probably believed them which is why they're doing it.

 

[chrono]

There are dishonest vendors in every country; sorry about your experience.

 

[minousbijoux]

Its a great example of how like lemmings we all are - you get one dishonest or ignorant vendor announcing and getting away with saying there is no such thing as Australian opal (!) and then everyone else will say the same and, I guess, buyers there believe it.

Sorry Cognition. I, too, would have been concerned were someone to have followed me to my car.

 

[Cognition]

dishonest vendors is one thing. However, something is fishy if all vendors agree on the same false fact

 

[chrono]

It seems to be pretty common that vendors/sellers in Asian market type stores are very pushy to the point they follow the customer out the door! I, too, have experienced this, although not with gem buying.

 

[Cognition]

being pushy is one thing, but following their potential buyer to their car might be a new "service"

 

[arkieb1]

I'm sure the miners at Lightening Ridge and Coober Pedy would get a good laugh from this if you are after a genuine black opal here is a link also try Aussie Ebay some nice pieces pop up from time to time;

http://lightningridgeinfo.com.au/buying-black-opal.html

 

[Cognition]

This week, my colleague took me to meet with nine other dealers in Indonesia. This time was different from before. The first several dealers located in shopping centers with a lot of high-end jewelry. Yeah, they are all jewelry instead of wholesaler or lapidary (except for one of the dealer I will tell later). Thus, the mark up is real. I saw a lot of low to descent semi-precious stones, descent sapphires and rubies. Unfortunately, only one dealer has a black opal, and it is an translucent welo black opal. As expected, the price tag of this opal and all stones are sky high

Among all of these jeweler, my colleague schedule me on an appointment with an unexpectedly very young dealer. He is in his mid 20s!! Unlike meeting most dealer, we met up in a Indonesian food restaurant. He showed me a lot of tiny (<1ct) lightning ridge and high quality coober pedy opal!!! Despite seeing a lot of tiny and thin opal, I finally learned that these materials exist in this country. After awhile, I finally found out that he made mosaic opal watches instead of selling solid opal (he just dropped me from my heavenly throne of happiness). Then, he took off his watch and showed me his watch. I had seen a lot of mosaic opal watches in the market, but this is the first time I saw one with a high quality lightning ridge black opal!!! Anyway, I ordered one and he said it will be done in 12 days (I hope he won't late as I will be leaving country on june 21st). I will post pictures here if any of you interested.

By the way, our dinner is average. However, I learned many things about gem in this dinner than what I had learned lifetime. He even threw me a free lesson on refractometer and chelsea filter I love freebies

 

[chrono]

I am delighted that you finally found a knowledgable and honest dealer, even though he doesn't have exactly what you are looking for. Still, I'd love to see pictures of your new opal inlay watch, if you don't mind.

 

[GliderPoss]

Gosh how utterly ridiculous - it's amazing how blatently people will lie.

I've literally just been to Coober Pedy and I can assure you the mines do indeed exist and the opal is totally spectacular... I was lucky enough to be spoilt by hubby - see my new solid black opal ring below.

 

[Cognition]

I almost forgot that I made promise to show my new inlay opal watch. The dealer apologized that he ran out of lightning ridge material while making my watch, so he had to mix it with some coober pedy opal. Surprisingly, he gave me a $200 off because of this!

Unlike most inlay opal that glue milky/crystal opal on top of black base, if the dealer really use the same rough he showed me, this is a real black opal doublet. and it looks much better than my 1k AUD pierre cardin opal watch. However, I wish this watch has a larger diametre for my large hand

The watch looks better in real life as it shows more orange and red.

 

[chrono]

Amazing! I wish I could see it in person.

 

[Lovinggems]

Love your watch!

 

[partgypsy]

Nice inlay work, really nice.

 

[Arcadian]

WHOA@ your watch! Thats really gorgeous! I could go for something like that!

 

[Cognition]

thanks
I really want to recommend this dealer, but he has no website nor shop

 

[LoversKites]

Stunning watch.

 

[vicky_spd15]

Your watch looks awesome...

 

[Cognition]

thanks guys. It look out of this world such that most of my gem loving friends are drooling over it

 

[_lovesvintage_]

Beautiful watch! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Cognition]

Beautiful watch! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks

 

[Cerahari]

Here is the sample of rough Indonesia Black Opal. I also send the picture of opal mine in Sajira, Lebak Banten. It's about 120 km from Jakarta, Indonesia.