Lab-grown sapphires

[Hongerhond]

My daughter has her heart set on a blue sapphire for her 9th birthday in three weeks. I want to get an inexpensive lab-grown sapphire of about 2 carats. (She''s only nine - she might lose it!) I have read all the posts on sapphires here on Pricescope and Chatham and Customgems.com were recommended. They are still too expensive however. I am looking for a sparkly, well-cut but inexpensive synthetic sapphire but I cannot find the name of a reputable company that sells them. Does anyone have an opinion on Optima Gem ? I couldn''t find any info on them at the BBB. E-bay is starting to look good... not.

 

[strmrdr]

Iv talked to a couple people that have bought from them.
What they got was as advertised and the right quality for the price.
In other words they arent offering a screaming bargain but you get what you pay for and its what they say it is.

 

[glitterata]

I highly recommend that you get in touch with Wink Jones, who posts here. I think his website is winkjones.com. A really nice, honest guy with a great eye. Give him a call--he often answers the telephone more quickly than email--and explain what you need. He has access to very nicely cut synthetic sapphires. If you do call him, make sure you explain your deadline, since it might take him some time to get the stone in.

 

[purduephotog]

ThaiGems from Ebay is one I've purchased from. Shipping is high, so buy a bunch. I've also used 'marsh-net' from Ebay, too- spent about 100$ on synthetics and diamonds (was searching for some blue fluorescent ones, heh).

The rubys I bought were nice and completely clean- perfect fluorescence, tho I'm still searching for some that are doped higher in chromium. I'm thinking about immersing one or two in a chromium bath and seeing if I can't get them to diffuse in .............

The synthetics I bought were about 5$ a piece.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10264&item=4908922429&rd=1

 

[Cave Keeper]

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On 7/6/2004 9:29:23 AM purduephotog wrote:
ThaiGems from Ebay is one I've purchased from. Shipping is high, so buy a bunch. I've also used 'marsh-net' from Ebay, too- spent about 100$ on synthetics and diamonds (was searching for some blue fluorescent ones, heh).
:
The synthetics I bought were about 5$ a piece.
:----------------

Isn't Ebay an auction site? How did you know how much to bid? Was it cheaper than buying directly from Thaigem.com at their own website? I'm wondering whether to bid for all those things that seem to be available at such low prices!

 

[Hongerhond]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I did call Wink Jones (what a nice man!), but he couldn't get the stone on such short notice. I then went to ALL of our local jewelry stores without success. Finally decided to take the plunge on E-bay. I chose a vendor with positive feedback in the thousands and bid on a natural Sri Lanka sapphire (1.53 carats) that looked great in the picture. When I won the auction at $33, I knew it was going to be frozen spit, so I lined up a backup birthday present for my daughter. The sapphire arrived yesterday via FedEx and lo and behold, it looks great! Eyeclean from the top, clear and sparkly. Granted, I'm no sapphire expert, but I am the proud owner of a E VS2 SuperbCert diamond, so I do know what a good diamond looks like. Compared to that, the little old sapphire pales a little as expected, but it still looks pretty good.

 

[Diamondsbybree]

You will have to post pics of your great buy~!