RedSpinel
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 211
***First topic: Peridot......
I remember hearing and reading that Arizona Peridot were nice, but cheap. On the other hand, I saw that Pakistani Peridot was often very expensive(for peridot). So early on I bought some little .5ct AZ Peridot for like $3 apiece. Then I bought a matching pair of 2 AZ Peridot(1.7ct apiece rounds) for about $20. Later, I won an auction on Ebay from Thailand for a Burmese Peridot of 3+ct for about $45. All of these 3 stones are clean, well cut and have the stereotypical apple-green Peridot color.
So then I'm looking at a UK Ebay dealer's store, and he is selling Pyang Huang Peridot on regular auction starting at only about $9 or so, and the stones are around 2.7ct - 4ct and they some were up to about $60 on auction with hours to go. At the same time, he also had Mogok Peridot that WAS NOT on auction and had a "buy now" price of $599 - $799 for 4ct - 5ct stones. The odd thing was, that all the stones were well cut, very clean, and they all had the exact same color, regardless of whether they were Pyang Huang(wherever that is), or Mogok(Burma). The color was more lime green and maybe a tiny bit less apple green than usual for Peridot, but still the Pyang ones were just as nice as the Mogok ones, so why the HUGE price discrepancy? Besides, I thought Pakistan was the "Mecca" of Peridots, not Mogok!
***2nd Topic: Color Change Garnets......
For a few years, I would occasionally see these color change garnets that supposedly went from blue to raspberry red depending upon the light source, but they were usually small, and usually very included, and usually expensive. But I finally bought 2 of these blue-red CC Garnets. Then came the disappointment..... On the sales pictures of the stones, they clearly went from blue to raspberry red, but when I got them home and tried them under many different lights(sun, fluorescent, incandescent, flashlight, etc), but I could not get them to go red OR blue! So I sent both of them back for refunds! I paid over $125 for one of them that was only 1ct too! I keep seeing these things, but I dont know what light they are using, only that it must be some unusual, uncommon light that if you wore the stone, you'd never run into that light, so the garnet would never be either red or blue!
Now. before I bought those 2 tiny, overpriced stones, I bought another CC garnet that has a different color change. It is a Marquise cut 2.8 ct stone, that changes from a pretty raspberry pink to a bright, shiny metallic copper brown. It is a HUGE change in color, and it does so under normal light, either fluorescent or incandescent. Also it is either raspberry pink in sunlight or copper brown in sunlight, I dont remember which. Its a very clean, well cut stone, no eye visible inclusions. I love it, and it always gets oooohs and aaahs when I show it to people under those different lights. I got it from a reputable dealer on auction for about $75.
So my question is, whats the deal with the red-blue color change garnets, are they for real? What possible light source do you have to go and find in order to actually get them to change from red to blue? It seems to me that if they arent common lights, then it kinda defeats the purpose of even having them if they are some ugly greyish brown most of the time!
Secondly, how much would a stone like mine, which I described above be valued at roughly? I have no idea what the value of a 2.8ct CC garnet is worth. Obviously the color is important.... I dont plan on selling it....
I remember hearing and reading that Arizona Peridot were nice, but cheap. On the other hand, I saw that Pakistani Peridot was often very expensive(for peridot). So early on I bought some little .5ct AZ Peridot for like $3 apiece. Then I bought a matching pair of 2 AZ Peridot(1.7ct apiece rounds) for about $20. Later, I won an auction on Ebay from Thailand for a Burmese Peridot of 3+ct for about $45. All of these 3 stones are clean, well cut and have the stereotypical apple-green Peridot color.
So then I'm looking at a UK Ebay dealer's store, and he is selling Pyang Huang Peridot on regular auction starting at only about $9 or so, and the stones are around 2.7ct - 4ct and they some were up to about $60 on auction with hours to go. At the same time, he also had Mogok Peridot that WAS NOT on auction and had a "buy now" price of $599 - $799 for 4ct - 5ct stones. The odd thing was, that all the stones were well cut, very clean, and they all had the exact same color, regardless of whether they were Pyang Huang(wherever that is), or Mogok(Burma). The color was more lime green and maybe a tiny bit less apple green than usual for Peridot, but still the Pyang ones were just as nice as the Mogok ones, so why the HUGE price discrepancy? Besides, I thought Pakistan was the "Mecca" of Peridots, not Mogok!
***2nd Topic: Color Change Garnets......
For a few years, I would occasionally see these color change garnets that supposedly went from blue to raspberry red depending upon the light source, but they were usually small, and usually very included, and usually expensive. But I finally bought 2 of these blue-red CC Garnets. Then came the disappointment..... On the sales pictures of the stones, they clearly went from blue to raspberry red, but when I got them home and tried them under many different lights(sun, fluorescent, incandescent, flashlight, etc), but I could not get them to go red OR blue! So I sent both of them back for refunds! I paid over $125 for one of them that was only 1ct too! I keep seeing these things, but I dont know what light they are using, only that it must be some unusual, uncommon light that if you wore the stone, you'd never run into that light, so the garnet would never be either red or blue!
Now. before I bought those 2 tiny, overpriced stones, I bought another CC garnet that has a different color change. It is a Marquise cut 2.8 ct stone, that changes from a pretty raspberry pink to a bright, shiny metallic copper brown. It is a HUGE change in color, and it does so under normal light, either fluorescent or incandescent. Also it is either raspberry pink in sunlight or copper brown in sunlight, I dont remember which. Its a very clean, well cut stone, no eye visible inclusions. I love it, and it always gets oooohs and aaahs when I show it to people under those different lights. I got it from a reputable dealer on auction for about $75.
So my question is, whats the deal with the red-blue color change garnets, are they for real? What possible light source do you have to go and find in order to actually get them to change from red to blue? It seems to me that if they arent common lights, then it kinda defeats the purpose of even having them if they are some ugly greyish brown most of the time!
Secondly, how much would a stone like mine, which I described above be valued at roughly? I have no idea what the value of a 2.8ct CC garnet is worth. Obviously the color is important.... I dont plan on selling it....