Facebook colored gem finds- post them here!

[fredflintstone]

Here is some age statics of both IG and FB in the US. You can google to find much more in depth analysis.


"40.5 years old

Recent Demographics
In the U.S., the average Facebook user in the U.S. was 40.5 years old, while it's 29 years old in Lebanon. Fewer than 10 percent of U.S. users are 17 years or younger, and even fewer are 65 or older, but 65 percent are 35 or older."

"As of April 2021, 31.5 percent of U.S. Instagram users were between 25 and 34 years old. The second-largest user group was 18 to 24 year olds with a 22.9 percent share.
...
Distribution of Instagram users in the United States as of April 2021, by age group."

 

[ShinyPink]

@LD I can't stand it when a vendor on IG says they're having an xx% off sale, yet they've never posted prices!

 

[LD]

Thanks for posting that! Nothing to be ashamed of by being a FB member.


That happens on Facebook too. As soon as the source dealers see who you are and know you buy stones, they follow you and if you are a dealer, they hound you to death. Use to get up 20 different source dealers (there is thousands of them out there) a week send me messages trying to sale me stones. Some of them would only put the picture of the stone(s) up and nothing else, LOL! Most that would tell you what the stone(s) are would have to be asked for the carat weight, dimensions, and price.

This is how they do business over there, but some have found out that is not how the western world does business and have changed their tactics.


The same happens with IG. You see all these followers but many are other source dealers following them, not actual customers. Though just like FB, customers or potential customers do follow too.

I used different names on different platforms and because I have NOTHING on my Facebook page regarding gemstones I have never attracted sellers even though I’m in several groups.

Similarly there’s nothing on my Instagram page but after following one gemstone vendor, I was followed by 6 or 7 others so I’m pretty sure Instagram are way above Facebook in that regard.

My daughter is not on Facebook anymore and none of her friends are. They consider it for older people! However they are all on Instagram, Snapchat and Tiktok!

With regards to age, I was a proliferate gem buyer in my 30s and 40s but far less now I’m in my 50s so either I buck the trend or I’m more sensible with my cash!

 

[westofhere]

Having a FB account doesn’t mean that one uses it, of course. I’m sure some of my students lurk on FB, but they’d be embarrassed to admit they post there. And yes, they have lots of disposable income as the result of having no intention to marry, own homes, or have kids until in their 30s (and many consider all of those things optional, not required for a happy life). They buy jewelry, just often at a lower price point—they used to be avid Etsy-ers, but now they shop on Instagram, or I assume on Tiktok? Habits change—my 80yo father still shops by looking at...paper catalogues! and gets a constant stream of them, whereas I at 50 get...zero . And my students Venmo like crazy. Makes me feel ancient!

 

[icy_jade]

With regards to age, I was a proliferate gem buyer in my 30s and 40s but far less now I’m in my 50s so either I buck the trend or I’m more sensible with my cash!

I think as I grow older I will buy less, simply as my collection is already quite big… maybe that one or two major item a year or some cheap baubles, but few that will make sense doing through a FB seller given the price/risk.

One more thing to add… many near-source vendors I know are on IG or wechat (ok some on FB live chat). So it doesn’t make sense for me to use FB when I can go nearer source for the stuff I’m looking for… and having had a look at the links… pricing seems very US-centric so I guess doesn’t make sense for me since I’m from Asia.

As for spending real money on bling… well… I like to think I’ve been to enough gem shows and spent enough over the years to think that I do. Not your small gem shows, I’m thinking the biggest in the world Hong Kong type.

 

[fredflintstone]

Having a FB account doesn’t mean that one uses it, of course. I’m sure some of my students lurk on FB, but they’d be embarrassed to admit they post there. And yes, they have lots of disposable income as the result of having no intention to marry, own homes, or have kids until in their 30s (and many consider all of those things optional, not required for a happy life). They buy jewelry, just often at a lower price point—they used to be avid Etsy-ers, but now they shop on Instagram, or I assume on Tiktok? Habits change—my 80yo father still shops by looking at...paper catalogues! and gets a constant stream of them, whereas I at 50 get...zero . And my students Venmo like crazy. Makes me feel ancient!

I used different names on different platforms and because I have NOTHING on my Facebook page regarding gemstones I have never attracted sellers even though I’m in several groups.

Similarly there’s nothing on my Instagram page but after following one gemstone vendor, I was followed by 6 or 7 others so I’m pretty sure Instagram are way above Facebook in that regard.

My daughter is not on Facebook anymore and none of her friends are. They consider it for older people! However they are all on Instagram, Snapchat and Tiktok!

With regards to age, I was a proliferate gem buyer in my 30s and 40s but far less now I’m in my 50s so either I buck the trend or I’m more sensible with my cash!

You had your run in your 30's & 40's. Many do. Many finally get over their spending habits and move on to new ones. It happens to most people. You get burnt out. Does not mean you still do not love gemstones, but it is not a priority in your life anymore I would guess.

I myself started out as a collector many moons ago. I turned in to a seller. I bought hundreds, even thousand or more stones at my height a year in my career, many I coveted, but the more I did it, the easier it was to let go and sale the ones I really liked. It is the way of things. You move on.

 

[fredflintstone]

I think as I grow older I will buy less, simply as my collection is already quite big… maybe that one or two major item a year or some cheap baubles, but few that will make sense doing through a FB seller given the price/risk.

One more thing to add… many near-source vendors I know are on IG or wechat (ok some on FB live chat). So it doesn’t make sense for me to use FB when I can go nearer source for the stuff I’m looking for… and having had a look at the links… pricing seems very US-centric so I guess doesn’t make sense for me since I’m from Asia.

As for spending real money on bling… well… I like to think I’ve been to enough gem shows and spent enough over the years to think that I do. Not your small gem shows, I’m thinking the biggest in the world Hong Kong type.

The near source and sources vendors are on both Facebook and Instagram. I been contacted by a 1000 or more through Facebook over the years. One is no different than the other as far as that goes.


I will show all of this later for those who are willing to see.

 

[fredflintstone]

So it doesn’t make sense for me to use FB when I can go nearer source for the stuff I’m looking for… and having had a look at the links… pricing seems very US-centric so I guess doesn’t make sense for me since I’m from Asia.

You had to join to look at most of those links. Did you really join?

But you are right, those links I provided are for the most ran by Americans and are predominated by western sellers and the prices will be higher for the most part.

The sales groups I will give links to tomorrow if I have the time, (did not today) will be a totally different thing. They will have many source dealers on them, just don't expect to see prices, as it is just like most IG source country dealer pages, they don't show prices. You will see nice stones and you will see junk, as these selling groups are not policed and some have hundred or more different sellers that utilize them. I will also give links to stores on FB. This all will take time. I invite all to see.

 

[fredflintstone]

Having a FB account doesn’t mean that one uses it, of course. I’m sure some of my students lurk on FB, but they’d be embarrassed to admit they post there.

That goes both ways, FB and IG.

This is what I found out from a dealer’s perspective about so called followers, likes, members. By far the vast majority will never buy anything. A good part of those followers, likes, members, are other members of the trade to either see what you are up to and what is working for you sales wise, and even more are source country dealers trying to sale you something. I would go as far to say they make up 30% of any established western gemstone dealers’ followers. Many of the sales come from people out of the blue, not just followers, likes, and members.

Many dealers on FB sale more stones from their own private pages per ratio than anywhere else, but utilize stores, sales groups to supplement that income. But the good thing with closed or private FB groups is that you vet who you let in even if that keeps the member numbers smaller. You keep out the source dealers and add who you think will be customers. This is done by several ways. You can see if they are jewelers, you can see if they are jewelry designers, you can see if they are just potential customers by who they are friends with and what groups they belong to and even go by where they live. 70% of my business was selling to the trade out of 1000's of customers over the years. The trade loves Facebook.

But getting back to followers, likes, members. I will use Pricescope here as an example. How many 1000's of members are there? I don't know, but I do know the far, far, majority never post but just lurk, and that is true of any forum no matter that forum's subject. Same is true with sellers followers, likes, and members.

You cannot count on having massive followers to be a true denominator on how many sales you make, though it does not hurt. I know FB sales groups with 2000 members that sale a lot more stones than ones with 20,000. It is all in who you target,

You mentioned this earlier - "It’s interesting that the FB groups are so tiny compared to IG. On IG, Dan Lynch has 11k followers; David Klass 47k; Dalan Hargrave 90k. Maybe FB sellers prefer much smaller client bases for some reason?"

This could not be further from the truth, there are many large FB gemstones sales groups and I promise I'll get them listed soon. But here is another perspective with two very well-known dealesr here on Pricescope. David Weinberg's, Multicolor has 99,385 followers of FB. On IG he has 1599 followers. Jeff Davies & Son Gemstones & Faceting UK has 37,438 on FB. He has 1694 on IG. I could go on, but I really do not have the time. One thing is for sure here, these exceptionally large worldwide known dealers (not hobby dealers) prefer FB well over IG. Do much more business on FB and that in part is because FB is set up so much better to do business. When I have more time, I will tell you all the ways. Facebook wants business, IG just wants users (users are their business), I mean, I am sure they are doing huge business with the smart phone companies these users use. IG makes it very hard to use with home computers if you want to sale with pictures and video, they’re all about smart phone pictures, apps, and texting and it is a boon to the smart phone industry as everyone has smart phones.. Where FB is set up for all of that, most dedicated businesses use computers. Most dedicated colored gemstone dealers at least in the west and Thailand that brokers 80% of the world colored gemstones use standalone cameras.

Now I’m running out of time again. Writing these long post are not letting me put up all the FB links I want to as they are time consuming. Next, I’m heard from it will be links.

Everyone have a great day or night, whichever it may be!

 

[fredflintstone]

The sales groups below are almost like going to a rock/gem/mineral show online. You will find faceted stones, rough, jewelry and mineral specimens’ and since most of these groups are not policed well, you’ll find things totally unrelated to gemstones. You will find very nice gemstones and you will find junk (a lot of junk on the largest groups). On these huge groups you cannot have one with out the other, unfortunately.



The largest groups are by far the most diverse. The smaller ones are more specialized and may be of more interest to some here, but one thing is for sure, you can just about find it all below. I have tried to put the largest groups on the top working it way to the smaller groups. This is just a sample of what is out there on FB.



Later next week I will put up links to FB store and personal pages, as many of these dealers’ sale the most on these type of pages on FB. This will be of interest to all here I would think, because it will just concentrate on faceted gemstones and rough. This will take me by far the longest to put together considering the countless dealers I had associations with or the ones who tried to sale me stones.



Disclaimer:



I do not endorse nor discount any of the links below. Just like on IG, buyer beware.



https://www.facebook.com/groups/344354622406990



https://www.facebook.com/groups/58335102184 - This has a lot of interesting stones.



https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourmalinekings



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1542574772632913



https://www.facebook.com/groups/989464467781737



https://www.facebook.com/groups/195488973834807



https://www.facebook.com/groups/161526670650774



https://www.facebook.com/groups/11743993955



https://www.facebook.com/groups/CrystalDreams.Trade



https://www.facebook.com/groups/salejewellery



https://www.facebook.com/groups/bridgem1



https://www.facebook.com/groups/369110503149138



https://www.facebook.com/groups/151957571645298



https://www.facebook.com/groups/234421213333963



https://www.facebook.com/groups/gemsrocksconnections

https://www.facebook.com/groups/797536820342012



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1587084421515234



https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlineshoppinggemstone



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1488963334693148



https://www.facebook.com/groups/gemologist



https://www.facebook.com/groups/gemsminerals



https://www.facebook.com/groups/gembuyers



https://www.facebook.com/groups/226975157505392



https://www.facebook.com/groups/30205187429



https://www.facebook.com/groups/opalmarket



https://www.facebook.com/groups/469709023043144



https://www.facebook.com/groups/154711728043395



https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillyAdm



https://www.facebook.com/groups/565854240224507



https://www.facebook.com/groups/highgradecabs

https://www.facebook.com/groups/776482369092085



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1164361020340301



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1288479137878685



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1998549687040186



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1017512878390908



https://www.facebook.com/groups/549709808787108



https://www.facebook.com/groups/groupofgemsandjewelryartists



https://www.facebook.com/groups/faceting



https://www.facebook.com/groups/636573893455039



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1144461192603788

 

[fredflintstone]

For the trade members here. This is the link to Jewelers Helping Jewelers, the largest trade group on FB with 23,000 members and growing. Jewelers, jewelry designers, gemstone dealers, Diamond dealers, bench jewelers and more. This is an essential group to belong to if you are in the trade.

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com

 

[2Neesers]

Thanks for taking the time to share all of the links @fredflintstone ! I clicked on a couple of links and will look at the others out of curiosity. As someone who has been burned in the past, I wouldn’t take the risk and buy from the ones I did click on, but others here may. I have bought from Jeff Davies Facebook groups and also from John Heusler’s groups for cabs/slabs.
The ”Vendors for Reference” list has been helpful to myself and others over the years because we can buy from the sellers others here trust and have built relationships with. It’s been interesting to see how buying patterns have changed over the years I have been on here and with Instagram people seem to be more willing to take a risk than before.
It‘s nice to see you are so passionate about Facebook and are willing to share what you know about it with everyone.

 

[fredflintstone]

Thanks for taking the time to share all of the links @fredflintstone ! I clicked on a couple of links and will look at the others out of curiosity. As someone who has been burned in the past, I wouldn’t take the risk and buy from the ones I did click on, but others here may. I have bought from Jeff Davies Facebook groups and also from John Heusler’s groups for cabs/slabs.
The ”Vendors for Reference” list has been helpful to myself and others over the years because we can buy from the sellers others here trust and have built relationships with. It’s been interesting to see how buying patterns have changed over the years I have been on here and with Instagram people seem to be more willing to take a risk than before.
It‘s nice to see you are so passionate about Facebook and are willing to share what you know about it with everyone.

Thank you. I'm glad you took the time to look!

Yes, I am not voching for or condeming any of these sellers on these links. As I wrote buyer beware.

Mostly this is to show there is more to finding stones than just IG, Esty, e bay, what have you. The gemstone world of FB is vast. It is alway good to share information.

Thank you again!

 

[fredflintstone]

I was going to put up vendors stores and personal pages which there are countless ones on FB, but I've decided there is just not enough interest here to take the time to do it.

Thank you to everyone who did check the links out.

 

[Rfisher]

I was going to put up vendors stores and personal pages which there are countless ones on FB, but I've decided there is just not enough interest here to take the time to do it.

Thank you to everyone who did check the links out.

Hopefully someone that’s already on the FB accounts/stores you speak of will one day link to /show pic and price of actual stones that are great deals, great gem for the price, or just great specimen for the gem type that’s being offered on FB.
either on this very thread (the purpose for)
Or in the ‘looking for _______’ threads that show up periodically.