Have you ever bought gemstone parcel?

[Skylight]

Hi!
I've noticed that some vendors sell gemstones in parcel/lot/set (more than 2 gemstones in a parcel). I'm just curious, have any of you ever bought a parcel? If you did, how many gemstones were in the parcel, were they the same colors, and did you have them set in pendant/earrings/ring?

 

[Kevin Bryant]

I have bought both rough and cut parcels, it all depends on what you are getting, quality, quantity, and from who and ware. I am a part time cutter, I have a small gemstone business, I buy estate and I also help with gold and silver buyers with liquidation and break out. I am almost done with my online GIA classes and should have my GG soon. I have been buying and selling for a few years and collecting for over 20 years, and am a very small fish in a big pond. Unless you have money to waist or someone to hold your hand in something like that I would save your money

 

[Skylight]

@Kevin Bryant Thank you for sharing! It's great to hear you're going to get your GG soon. When I saw the different parcels of gems, it just made me really curious about what people do with them (since sometimes they have around 7-15 gemstones in one parcel).

 

[chrono]

Bought a parcel of tsavorite to make a DBTY necklace. Very even and well matched. However, after finding out the labour cost was more than the cost of the parcel, it didn’t make any sense to complete the project so I returned the parcel for a refund. My fault since I didn’t do my homework upfront.

 

[Burmesedaze]

My tale is similar to Chrono's. I've been buying lots of spinel with plans for DBTY necklace, bracelet and earrings. They are still in the safe unset

 

[Seaglow]

I usually pick from a parcel. I also buy matching sets up to 4 to make matching rings, earrings, and/or pendant.

 

[Arcadian]

Gosh, I feel kinda guilty as I have SEVERAL parcels!!!! I have tsavs (50), pink sapphire(50), paraibas(10), which I will set into something someday (I've been saying this for years. Someday has yet to come!!)

Then I have parcels that I bought because...they were cool looking? thats the moonstone parcels (its like 6 so not a big deal). I also bought parcels of cabs because of the same reason. Oh and pearls. 4 parcels!

Honestly, don't buy parcels unless you really plan on doing something with them. Otherwise you'll end up like the rest of us.

 

[Skylight]

@chrono I'm so sorry it didn't work out for you. It would have been a beautiful tsavorite DBTY necklace.

@Burmesedaze Wow..I hope you get to set them someday soon!

 

[Burmesedaze]

Oh yes my latest was a parcel of star sapphires. I forgot.

See what we mean?

 

[Skylight]

I usually pick from a parcel. I also buy matching sets up to 4 to make matching rings, earrings, and/or pendant.

Do all vendors usually let buyers pick from a parcel? I would loooove to see your matching jewelry, do you mind posting some pics?

 

[Skylight]

Gosh, I feel kinda guilty as I have SEVERAL parcels!!!! I have tsavs (50), pink sapphire(50), paraibas(10), which I will set into something someday (I've been saying this for years. Someday has yet to come!!)

Then I have parcels that I bought because...they were cool looking? thats the moonstone parcels (its like 6 so not a big deal). I also bought parcels of cabs because of the same reason. Oh and pearls. 4 parcels!

Honestly, don't buy parcels unless you really plan on doing something with them. Otherwise you'll end up like the rest of us.

Well if I have the money, I would buy parcels because of their cool looks, too! Someday is always just around the corner
Haha..thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that in mind the next time a gorgeous parcel catches my eye.

 

[Skylight]

Oh yes my latest was a parcel of star sapphires. I forgot.

See what we mean?

You can always use them as spectacular backgammon checkers

 

[Canuckgemgeek]

I have aquired many "parcel" lots over many years. Quite a number of these are "mixed" lots, so various sizes and shapes. Ranging from just a few stones, as in three, to many hundreds of stones per lot, maximum of around 800 for mele cut. Some have been set into a multitude of items, and some due to the nature of the lots were just passed on to others. I tend to "high grade" and only keep the very best out of a lot. Say the best 10 stones out of a small lot, to the top 100 out of a larger array of goods. Some number of these "parcels" were from salvage items.

 

[Skylight]

@Canuckgemgeek You must have sorted through countless stones
I've never seen a parcel with various shapes, must be interesting. Some of the parcels I've seen have visibly worse stones in the lot, so it's no surprise people would buy the parcel just to get the good ones.

 

[Nosean]

Small enough with uniform quality and fun to collect with a better price - yes sometimes...

Remember a small lot with tanzanian kornerupine with 8 stones and a fantastic price - sold two of them to another vendor - rest for free...

 

[cflutist]

Do fancy intense yellow diamonds count? 8.94ctw used to make a bracelet, there were 9 left over that went into a pendant.

 

[chatoyancy]

Do fancy intense yellow diamonds count? 8.94ctw used to make a bracelet, there were 9 left over that went into a pendant.

I couldn’t find the fainting smiley, so this one will have to do. These are amazing!

 

[Skylight]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences, it's really so much fun hearing about all of them!

@Nosean Did you end up setting the 6 Tanzanian kornerupine in your possession?

@cflutist Definitely!! I think I'll just have to join chatoyancy and faint over here...

 

[Nosean]

No, I collect and will never set my gems.

 

[Canuckgemgeek]

You are correct, most parcels are matched or similar stones. I have aquired two very small parcels that were returned to a seller, after they were acid recovered out of items sent to a refiner, these lots were to mixed and small to sell to one of the big buyers of breakout stones. These were returned as a bag of mixed stone, everything from pearls, to synthetic sapphires to 1/4 point diamonds, mixed types, shapes, and conditions, from crushed to pristine. Also returned to the oridginal sender were refined slugs of recovered precious metals, along with the slag percentages of mixed metal, aka the elements used for the aloys of the lot smelted. Crazy amount of work to calibrate, sort, grade and test the stones out of this. On of the large buyers of "breakout" stones like this is White Pine, I believe that they purchase in the range of 40 to 45,000ct a month of assorted parcels. They then sort, calibrate, grade, re-polish, and auction these sorted lots to commercial buyers.

 

[Skylight]

You are correct, most parcels are matched or similar stones. I have aquired two very small parcels that were returned to a seller, after they were acid recovered out of items sent to a refiner, these lots were to mixed and small to sell to one of the big buyers of breakout stones. These were returned as a bag of mixed stone, everything from pearls, to synthetic sapphires to 1/4 point diamonds, mixed types, shapes, and conditions, from crushed to pristine. Also returned to the oridginal sender were refined slugs of recovered precious metals, along with the slag percentages of mixed metal, aka the elements used for the aloys of the lot smelted. Crazy amount of work to calibrate, sort, grade and test the stones out of this. On of the large buyers of "breakout" stones like this is White Pine, I believe that they purchase in the range of 40 to 45,000ct a month of assorted parcels. They then sort, calibrate, grade, re-polish, and auction these sorted lots to commercial buyers.

Thank you for imparting your knowledge, I didn't know about any of that. This is why Pricescope is the best; people generously share their knowledge, you can always learn something new here.

 

[Seaglow]

Do all vendors usually let buyers pick from a parcel? I would loooove to see your matching jewelry, do you mind posting some pics?

Nothing fancy. Just halos and solitaires. I’m drawn to classic settings. If you get calibrated parcels, you can make pairs or suites of which I keep for future use as side stones. I also like to keep some melees. But now rather than sets of matching sizes, I like to collect rings...(thus making pairs as side stones)....on the side of the gem box in the photo is a lot of unheated African sapphires...I plan to set them as a bracelet but haven’t started. Lol. The thing is when I see a nice finished jewelry I tend to buy than do the pending project....also I like setting nice individual stones that are difficult to match like FCDs, paraiba, pads, etc.

Yes, many times you can select from a lot with a premium, sometimes, not if the stones are not the really valuable ones.

Uncalibrated stones in a lot, I keep as individuals and the rest sometimes, my friends buy them. Sometimes, I get the parcel really below cost when local cutters say they need money (mostly garnets and tourmalines, just like a hundred bucks or so) and I buy to help but quite honestly don’t really need the stones but they’re decent so I have no problem with it.

 

[Skylight]

My, those are mag.ni.fi.cent! I especially love the emeralds.
Sorry for the late reply, just got back from vacation.
That's very nice of you to help the local cutters. Those African sapphires would make a showstopper bracelet for sure, I hope it's next in your list.

 

[chatoyancy]

Nothing fancy. Just halos and solitaires. I’m drawn to classic settings. If you get calibrated parcels, you can make pairs or suites of which I keep for future use as side stones. I also like to keep some melees. But now rather than sets of matching sizes, I like to collect rings...(thus making pairs as side stones)....on the side of the gem box in the photo is a lot of unheated African sapphires...I plan to set them as a bracelet but haven’t started. Lol. The thing is when I see a nice finished jewelry I tend to buy than do the pending project....also I like setting nice individual stones that are difficult to match like FCDs, paraiba, pads, etc.

Yes, many times you can select from a lot with a premium, sometimes, not if the stones are not the really valuable ones.

Uncalibrated stones in a lot, I keep as individuals and the rest sometimes, my friends buy them. Sometimes, I get the parcel really below cost when local cutters say they need money (mostly garnets and tourmalines, just like a hundred bucks or so) and I buy to help but quite honestly don’t really need the stones but they’re decent so I have no problem with it.

I love your collection Seaglow! I’m just going to keep staring at it for a while.