How much of a premium should an award-winning cutter get over the cost of a gemstone? 20%, 50%, 100%?

[smitcompton]

Hi,

Gemstones cut by some award-winning cutters appear to be priced rather high. While most people appreciate the excellent cutting, I am trying to understand how much of the cutting pirce goes into the cost of the stone. Roger Dery has a 3.27 ctw tsavorite on his side and wants $18.000 for it.. Dery is using the TV jewelry outlets to sell his stones. I'm not sure about JYV, but I think his name was mentioned there. If not there, its the more expensive channel. So that means he is giving them a cut.

I have noticed some gemstones have increased , not due to their color, but just bumped up by ??what. This is my new theory.

Several yrs ago I enjoyed watching a show where two guys went to garage sales and thrift stores to buy items for re-sale. They go find their items and then go home and find the going rate for the items on ebay.. Then they post them or sale, getting the price right off the internet. It works.

So, when a Gem seller posts his price he may do exactly the same. But the award winning cutter prices their goods higher than the average gem-seller. However when gem-sellers look on line for their price-points, they see these high prices, and conclude they can sell for the same deal. It has nothing to do with their costs, it only has to do with what that internet market is telling them. I know its convoluted, but I honestly don't understand how gemstones have gone up so much. Aquamarine is driving me crazy.

Back to the original question. How much extra for award winning cutters??

Annette

 

[fredflintstone]

Hi,

Gemstones cut by some award-winning cutters appear to be priced rather high. While most people appreciate the excellent cutting, I am trying to understand how much of the cutting pirce goes into the cost of the stone. Roger Dery has a 3.27 ctw tsavorite on his side and wants $18.000 for it.. Dery is using the TV jewelry outlets to sell his stones. I'm not sure about JYV, but I think his name was mentioned there. If not there, its the more expensive channel. So that means he is giving them a cut.

I have noticed some gemstones have increased , not due to their color, but just bumped up by ??what. This is my new theory.

Several yrs ago I enjoyed watching a show where two guys went to garage sales and thrift stores to buy items for re-sale. They go find their items and then go home and find the going rate for the items on ebay.. Then they post them or sale, getting the price right off the internet. It works.

So, when a Gem seller posts his price he may do exactly the same. But the award winning cutter prices their goods higher than the average gem-seller. However when gem-sellers look on line for their price-points, they see these high prices, and conclude they can sell for the same deal. It has nothing to do with their costs, it only has to do with what that internet market is telling them. I know its convoluted, but I honestly don't understand how gemstones have gone up so much. Aquamarine is driving me crazy.

Back to the original question. How much extra for award winning cutters??

Annette

Whatever the market will bare. Always.

Look at colored Diamonds.

 

[Rfisher]

If I were an award winning lapidarist
How much I value my time - I guess?

If no one buys them - that’s on me
and since it’s not buying my groceries, paying my bills and letting me live the same lifestyle as the clients I want to have - then I find something else to do for a living.

 

[T L]

I think it depends on the material. If it’s quartz or some inexpensive synthetic, for example, you almost have to charge way over 100% to make $$ from your time to cut the stone. It also depends on the shape, rarity, material lost, etc…

That being said, some lapidaries charge incredible prices for their work, and they feel they are an artist, so it’s worth the price. As a person who buys gems more for the gem, not the cutting, that isn’t important to me, but for some it is.

 

[icy_jade]

From a resale point of view (not that I plan to sell but eventually we will all die), I think the premium paid for the “award winning level” cut is not recoverable. So maybe an unpopular opinion in this forum but the huge premium is not worth it imo. I do think it is worth getting a well cut gemstone but a well cut gemstone can be from the perspective of preserving the color vs a precision or fantasy cut gemstone.

This is different from gemstone carvings that can be works of art and is in a different category imo.

JMHO.

 

[dk168]

Some lapidary artists trade on their "award-winning" label a lot more than the others IMHO.

If they can get away with the prices they charge for their named/trademarked cuts, they will.

I asked a lapidary artist who has won multiple awards himself how come he does not charge as much as another award-winning artist for his stones, and he was very diplomatic about it in the same line.

It is up to me to decide whether I would want to spend a lot more for a named/trademarked cut from an award-winning lapidary artist.

I may if I am madly in love with a stone and its colour, size, clarity and cutting and can afford it.

DK

 

[Bron357]

I honestly think the “name” of the cutter will matter little in time to come, who? It’s not as if they put their signature on the gemstone,
What will always matter is the quality and beauty of the cut.
So I think paying extra for a particularly beautiful gemstone that has been superbly cut is worth it. If it’s rarer gem in a larger size, untreated, together with superb cutting the price will be the price.
As with all things, the price is ultimately what the market will pay.

 

[fredflintstone]

There are those that love colored gemstones but their essential reason for buying them is to mount them in jewelry. If it was not for mounting them, I doubt they would be buying loose colored gemstones, though many times they buy so many they never get them mounted.

Then there is those who just appreciate colored gemstones for their beauty and rarity as just colored gemstones. They do not buy colored gemstones with the thought in mind to mount them, though some eventually do, but with the intent of just looking at them in their pristine condition that only unmounted gemstones provide. These are the purist collectors and the ones that will pay the high price for award winning gems as a meeting of mother nature’s art and man's art. These stones will never depreciate in value.