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Can anyone give me a ballpark blue Sapphire value?

JackTrick said:
Glad to hear you're going with a lab. A GIA report with origin will answer most of our questions with certainty. When last I checked the turnaround time of the Carlsbad lab was about 1 month.
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Should I send it to Carlsbad instead of NYC? I don't know how this works.
 
Daisys and Diamonds said:
I don't like to see people getting their hopes up and then being dissapointed but im still an optimist at heart
I look forward to looking back at this thread and your estate sale find was an investment worthy of envy !
Its a beautiful colour and i do not understand why that one person that you saw told you it was too pale
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I assume he told me it was too pale because he was trying to rip me off. I am no expert in jewelry, but I assume men who own chains of jewelry stores do not normally get really excited about gems that are valued at $1,200 to $2,000 wholesale, and he was really excited, and that is what he claimed it was worth.
 
Its certainly pretty but worth getting an independent report on. He probably called it "pale" because its not trade ideal. At this point, you'd do better having an independent lab take a look, which is going to matter most if you want to sell it.

GIA Locations - hours and services

GIA Locations - hours and services
www.gia.edu www.gia.edu

You may want to just check with both offices to be sure they'll be able to see it in a timely manner.
 
Yes, I agree with @Arcadian and think that he called it "pale" because it's not the super-saturated cornflower/royal blue trade ideal. I think it has a nice color, but I see a fair bit of gray here on my monitor. If not synthetic, it is likely worth somewhere around $5k, I think, assuming it's heated. If it comes back as unheated, the value would be more than $5k and possibly near $10k. However, in my opinion your stone is grayish and not that saturated (less blue-blue because of the gray), and to me does not have the appearance of a top quality unheated corundum specimen.

A lab report is a must given the variation in value between heated and unheated.
 
Tribalypredisposed said:
Should I send it to Carlsbad instead of NYC? I don't know how this works.
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When last I checked the NYC lab was closed due to COVID, but that may have changed in the last few months. Do give them a phone call and they should be able to help!

And I think the reason why a lot of people are jumping to synthetic is because of the longgggg and endlesssssssss line of people who often post in this (and other forums) asking how much the sapphire they just bought at an auction/estate sale/guy under a bridge, with appraisers/jewelers claiming its real, that usually ends up as synthetic.

It's certainly possible to be natural and fantastic (and I certainly have my fingers crossed for you there), but it's more common to find synthetic than natural.
 
Tribalypredisposed said:
Should I send it to Carlsbad instead of NYC? I don't know how this works.
Click to expand...
The GIA labs in both Carlsbad and NYC are open, albeit not operating at top capacity; additional info on this COVID-19 Update page:

GIA Locations - hours and services

GIA Locations - hours and services
www.gia.edu www.gia.edu

Estimated turn-around times here:

Return Dates

View estimated return dates for items submitted to GIA for analysis.
www.gia.edu www.gia.edu
 
Yes. IF it is natural and you want to sell it and get what it's worth you have to get grading report. No way around it, unless you are fine with just selling it to a jeweler, etc who tested it as sapphire and is gambling on it being a real sapphire and taking on more risk.Did they say what they were willing to buy it for?

The argument for synthetic sapphire is that synthetic sapphires (as well as spinel) have been around for quite a long time. We don't know how much you bought it for. Estate sellers USUALLY know what they are selling so they are priced accordingly or the ring would be sold as a separate lot. The size of the stone is large with a standard cut and good color. And the stone itself is extremely clear (I can't see any inclusions). All those are suggestive of synthetic, but NOT definitive. I do hope you scored a treasure.

So I'm not going to say what it is or not. But if you goal is to sell the ring instead of speculating that's what you need to do (get an independent grading report). Gubelin is another great place to get a gemstone grading report. And please post back!

For example if it was a real sapphire it should be in the 10s of thousands range.
If synthetic like this below in the hundreds of dollars range. Does that answer your question whether you should get a lab report?
www.rubylane.com

Victorian Synthetic Sapphire Ring

Antique Victorian synthetic sapphire ring, circa 1895. This Victorian 14 karat yellow gold ring features a rectangular synthetic blue sapphire with a .35 carat white sapphire center. The center stones
www.rubylane.com www.rubylane.com
 
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Tribalypredisposed said:
I took a gamble on an online estate sale on a lot described as a "grab bag of vintage jewelry." No description, bad photos, but, it was an estate of really old money going back to 1710..
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If the story is as you say, then I seriously doubt that this is anything. No one would go to the trouble of online-auctioning antique jewelry and yet still manage to know absolutely nothing about potential value. Story sounds very fishy.

If, on the other hand, it "fell off a truck" or you acquired it from your mates in some other way, then get a legit appraisal and stop putting it through the wrought-iron garden table.
 
So surprising, if it is indeed natural, it would be thrown into a grab bag of vintage jewelry.
 
I have not sent it off yet...any opinions about the benefits of sending it to AGL instead of to GIA? Looks like GIA would be $250 and AGL would be $635...is there a difference that makes AGL worth so much more?
 
LilAlex said:
If the story is as you say, then I seriously doubt that this is anything. No one would go to the trouble of online-auctioning antique jewelry and yet still manage to know absolutely nothing about potential value. Story sounds very fishy.

If, on the other hand, it "fell off a truck" or you acquired it from your mates in some other way, then get a legit appraisal and stop putting it through the wrought-iron garden table.
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Yeah, I understand it sounds wrong unless you saw the auction. You know that early colonial New England furniture that makes the Keno brothers on Antiques Roadshow flip their lids? Several museum quality pieces were in the cluttered shed with the rusty bicycle and falling apart trunk. They were sold at the in-person auction I could not go to because it was in Massachusetts, on the family farm established in 1710. This was an auction done by CTBids which is basically a collection of locally owned estate sale companies that do in person sales and online auctions that one can bid on around the country, but the auctions can be anywhere from 4-9 days and so it is easy to miss things. Most often, they do one estate a week and in this case the auction ended Thursday and the in person started that Saturday and another estate was the next Saturday.

I paid $3,750 for the lot, which included five mourning lockets one of which has inset seed pearls, another has a heart shaped emerald, another has a little diamond. There was also a garnet ring (12K), a wedding band with worn inscriptions (19K), another ring with five very small sapphires (10K), etc. I took a gamble. There was also a small mesh bag that I hoped was solid gold that turned out to be plated, sadly. Purchased in a separate lot I got a pair of Tiffany and Co cuff-links that tested 18K with turquoise cabs from the Royston Tiffany Tunnel, circa 1900-1908 that I paid just under $500 for.

There was a fair amount of Tiffany silver in the auction, lots of other top end stuff. Miniature portraits signed by famous artists, dating to around 1790, that kind of thing. The famous member of the family was Orville Dewey who was a prominent Unitarian minister, who Orville Wright of the Wright Brothers was named after. So it seemed worth the risk to me to assume the sapphire was real and take the chance, with so much quality high end material. As much gold as I saw I figured the melt value was at least $1200 and at worst I would lose $2,500 or so. But yeah, scary because absolutely no description of anything in the lot, and the photos were really bad...like they never showed the side with the inset diamond on the one locket...why would you not show that it had a diamond? No rulers or anything to judge size by either. It was nuts.

Here, this is the auction lot: https://ctbids.com/?fbclid=IwAR1H3V...GBebpScnhjW86HL3Is#!/description/share/519600
 
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Tribalypredisposed said:
Yeah, I understand it sounds wrong unless you saw the auction. You know that early colonial New England furniture that makes the Keno brothers on Antiques Roadshow flip their lids? Several museum quality pieces were in the cluttered shed with the rusty bicycle and falling apart trunk. They were sold at the in-person auction I could not go to because it was in Massachusetts, on the family farm established in 1710. This was an auction done by CTBids which is basically a collection of locally owned estate sale companies that do in person sales and online auctions that one can bid on around the country, but the auctions can be anywhere from 4-9 days and so it is easy to miss things. Most often, they do one estate a week and in this case the auction ended Thursday and the in person started that Saturday and another estate was the next Saturday.

I paid $3,750 for the lot, which included five mourning lockets one of which has inset seed pearls, another has a heart shaped emerald, another has a little diamond. There was also a garnet ring (12K), a wedding band with worn inscriptions (19K), another ring with five very small sapphires (10K), etc. I took a gamble. There was also a small mesh bag that I hoped was solid gold that turned out to be plated, sadly. Purchased in a separate lot I got a pair of Tiffany and Co cuff-links that tested 18K with turquoise cabs from the Royston Tiffany Tunnel, circa 1900-1908 that I paid just under $500 for.

There was a fair amount of Tiffany silver in the auction, lots of other top end stuff. Miniature portraits signed by famous artists, dating to around 1790, that kind of thing. The famous member of the family was Orville Dewey who was a prominent Unitarian minister, who Orville Wright of the Wright Brothers was named after. So it seemed worth the risk to me to assume the sapphire was real and take the chance, with so much quality high end material. As much gold as I saw I figured the melt value was at least $1200 and at worst I would lose $2,500 or so. But yeah, scary because absolutely no description of anything in the lot, and the photos were really bad...like they never showed the side with the inset diamond on the one locket...why would you not show that it had a diamond? No rulers or anything to judge size by either. It was nuts.
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It's making for excitting reading in these otherwise dreary times
 
Tribalypredisposed said:
I paid $3,750 for the lot,
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Got it -- makes sense. Sorry for the suspicion.

Pros who buy stones in parcels talk about the "eyes" -- salting junk with just enough good stuff that the whole looks promising. I think these guys are pros and know what they are doing. That ring elevated the status of the other low-value pieces (hard to sell mourning jewelry, for example). Moving big brown furniture out of the place is hard, but setting aside the "good" jewelry from an estate is not. Pretty sure these famous rich people had lots of goodies that were not on the tables for the hoi polloi.

I liquidated a low-end estate on the other side of the country and the folks in charge knew exactly what they were doing.

At estate sales in my current area, the stagers even bring in shiny stuff from outside to spark a quick sale in the feeding frenzy.

All that said, I think you ended up with a lovely ring.
 
Tribalypredisposed said:
I have not sent it off yet...any opinions about the benefits of sending it to AGL instead of to GIA? Looks like GIA would be $250 and AGL would be $635...is there a difference that makes AGL worth so much more?
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For your purposes, GIA w/origin report would suffice imo
 
Assuming the sapphire is natural, it looks like it may be from Sri Lanka (Ceylon). I'm fascinated to see if you get a report and what the results will be.
 
Even a non-origin report would suffice, and save you a few dollars. IMO its not a color where origin is going to have an impact on resale $.

Like, if it was a top colored blue, origin of Kashmir vs Madagascar could change the $ multiplier. But here the synthetic/treatment is going to have a bigger impact.
 
If it was a top color, origin of Burma would also give it a premium, but it's not.
 
Okay, I got the email from GIA this morning, and they say it is a natural sapphire, transparent, blue, no treatment, size 12.45 X 8.99 X 6.77! So, good news I think, it is what I hoped and no further doubts. The Excel spreadsheet they sent doesn't give me the carats... anyone want to take a stab at that? It says 4.87 grams, but surely that is for the whole ring? Because I don't think it could be a 24 carat stone.
 
Tribalypredisposed said:
Okay, I got the email from GIA this morning, and they say it is a natural sapphire, transparent, blue, no treatment, size 12.45 X 8.99 X 6.77! So, good news I think, it is what I hoped and no further doubts. The Excel spreadsheet they sent doesn't give me the carats... anyone want to take a stab at that? It says 4.87 grams, but surely that is for the whole ring? Because I don't think it could be a 24 carat stone.
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Wow. That really is fantastic news! You couldn't really ask for anything better.

Did they give an origin at all?
 
Tribalypredisposed said:
Okay, I got the email from GIA this morning, and they say it is a natural sapphire, transparent, blue, no treatment, size 12.45 X 8.99 X 6.77! So, good news I think, it is what I hoped and no further doubts. The Excel spreadsheet they sent doesn't give me the carats... anyone want to take a stab at that? It says 4.87 grams, but surely that is for the whole ring? Because I don't think it could be a 24 carat stone.
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Great news on your beautiful ring. Looks like your gamble was a good one! Congrats!!

I’m not sure how to calculate ct weight from the dimensions of a stone, but I can tell you I have a Ceylon sapphire that weighs 8cts and has dimensions of 12.40x11.95x6.00.

Not sure exactly how to extrapolate that info for your stone, but I’m wondering if yours is somewhere between 6-7cts, maybe edging closer to 7?
Hope that helps.
 
Ladygrey said:
Oh wow, that's amazing!! Congratulations on an amazing score!
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Thanks! I was dumb but lucky. If I had known how common manmade ones were I probably would have stopped bidding and let the other guy have an even better score...
 
Pinkmartini87 said:
**edited, op requested**
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Thanks, yeah, it is darned hard to figure values on these, seems to me. "What someone will pay" is not as satisfying with items this valuable.
 
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Tribalypredisposed said:
Okay, I got the email from GIA this morning, and they say it is a natural sapphire, transparent, blue, no treatment, size 12.45 X 8.99 X 6.77! So, good news I think, it is what I hoped and no further doubts. The Excel spreadsheet they sent doesn't give me the carats... anyone want to take a stab at that? It says 4.87 grams, but surely that is for the whole ring? Because I don't think it could be a 24 carat stone.
Click to expand...

An emerald cut sapphire measuring 12.45x8.99x6.77 estimates out at 7.58ct. =)2
 
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