Somebody's Gotta Buy This Stone!

[soberguy]

um... WOW!

http://rwwise.com/products/id%7C625

 

[Arkteia]

Jordan Wilkins is an excellent cutter - anybody interested in this stunning 20.12 ct amethyst for $403? A bargain for a stunning stone with brilliant (pun intended) cutting. Jordan explained that the background color being pink is a product of his modifying the color so at to get accurate stone color; it appears that PS intensified it a bit more...

Woah, I LOVE the cut of these stones!! Where does one find other pieces cut by this Jordan Wilkins guy? I'd love a smaller one of these to have for a ring!!

Sorry - just now seeing this. He's on facebook. I think this link will work: http://www.facebook.com/jordan.wilkins.16?sk=photos

Is that where he sells stuff? I feel weird sending him a FB message about buying his work, LOL!

Just wanted to add, I bought an amethyst from him, and the cut is gorgeous. His picture was also very true to life. A beautiful stone, and he is a very, very good cutter.

 

[Arkteia]

And Chrisa... thank you for the offer. I gave a 3d degree search to my smaller gembox... did not find it. My only hope is looking among jewelry, I took it out of a ring to replace for another stone. Too bad, this chrome tourmalne was of no use to me. I bought it from a jewelry store that was going out of business... Barney, Banks and Biddle. So I assume it must be a decent stone... or must have been. I shall post it on DB if I find it.

 

[Arkteia]

First of all, Minous, I apologize for autocorrect...the question re. demantoid referred to you.
Chrisa, I understood my mistake but was too tired to repost. I have a Chrome tourmaline...hopelessly dark-bottle-green, I might have lost it already but if so, I do not care... There is a better one, but in general, you have to be lucky to get a good one. Trouble is, there are so many fakes! And testing costs..., plus they are soft.

It's quite simple to distinguish a Chrome tourmaline from a typical green tourmaline. Use a Chelsea filter. The green tourmaline will look green under it, the chrome will be red. Just make sure you use a real incandescent light bulb, florescent light doesn't work will with the filter.

Chrome tourmaline in the rough, costs about 8 to 10 times what green tourmaline does. Often when buying chrome, I'll see some green tourmaline mixed in with the parcel. I always dump out the parcel, look at the entire parcel with the filter and pull out the green ones. The reddest red ones have the best "chrome" look to them. I believe that true chrome tourmaline only comes from East Africa.

I know how to use Chelsea filter, but I think I should stop posting at nighttime, or at least use eyeglasses... That day I made a comment about chrome tourmalines, then proceeded with Russian chrome diopsides, that part was erroneously deleted and I never saw it. By saying, "fakes" and "soft", I meant Russian chrome diopsides... But PG, your post gave me an idea... anyone knows if I could use Chelsea filter to distinguish between real and fake Russian chrome diopsides? I have three stones that I once bought as chrome diopsides, and they are beautiful, but I do not want to pay for testing of inexpensive stones...

 

[ChrisA222]

Ark,
Chelsea filter would also work for Chrome Diopside...if its red, it will be colored by Chrome, so it would be a Chrome Diopside. But, what are you thinking the stone could be, if fake? Chrome Diopside or...? Chrome Diopside isn't a very expensive gem, much cheaper than a Chrome Tourmaline/Tsavorite or most any nice green gem. The only cheaper green gem that might be confused for being a Chrome Diopside would be a regular green Tourmaline, which wouldn't be red under the Chelsea.

I have to admit you lost me a bit with this post. Do you mean Russian vs ?? As far as I know, most all of the Chrome Diopside comes out of Russia, but if you have nice color, and a different Origin, I don't think there's any premium for Origin with Chrome Diopside. If you mean fake, like colored glass-fake, then that wouldn't be red under chelsea filter either, as far as I know.

Hope this helps, if I totally read your post incorrectly, sorry...lol

 

[Arkteia]

Well, I just like the name (Russian chrome diopsides). it has to do with the history of my collections... first, trying to find untreated Russian amethyst (good luck, Ark ), and being obsessed with Russian tourmalines, demantoids and chrome diopsides, and Russian alexandrites ... very patriotic. Of them, I have Russian demantoids and chrome diopsides. Everything else has been either mined out, or of very poor quality. I am now collecting charoites... they are going to be mined out, too. No comments on chrome diopsides, I have to find articles about imitation stones.

 

[minousbijoux]

Ark: PUHLEEESE post pictures of your Russian demantoids! You know you're killing me here!

 

[Arkteia]

I have an arrangement with a lady I know to make "glamor" shots of my stones, but it has to wait till I get at least one of my finished jewelry pieces back. We shall make photos of demantoids, too. BTW, how does one clean a demantoid?

And Chrisa - re. Russian chrome diopsides. I tried viewing mine under Chelsea filter. Two of three contained no chromium. I do not know where ebay vendors mined them at, m.b., recycled empty beer bottles?

 

[blithesome71]

blithesome: I'm in the market for morganites at the moment and that's an exceptional specimen. Do you mind sharing where it came from?

Hmmm I just saw it from JTV hehe it's irradiated Perhaps you might wanna consider this big, precision cut morganite from Jerry Newman's inventory: http://gemartservices.com/stones.php?id=mor002

 

[Mikla]

The MasterCutGem's unheated big sapphire is sold now...anyone have a confession to make???

I just checked his site and I don't see that it is sold?

I can't believe I missed this one! Been looking for a sizeable unheated blue sapphire for awhile now.

 

[beaujolais]

deleted, wrong thread, sorry

 

[wordie89]

Mikla (Bright Ice and HereKK) ~ I know, I know. I'd look at that stone about every day it's such a pretty color! And the 8.9 aquamarine I posted on this thread earlier is also marked sold. Glad that somebody has them and hope that they are PSers cuz I know they'll share irl pictures of stone and setting

Here's another sapphire, Jeff Davis on Ebay, 3.14 ct, heat no beryllium, $1350. It seems like a fair price....
I like this blue, too. I feel as if I'm seeing more nice stones in trilliant. I guess you cut the rough into optimum shape.

 

[ieatbugs]

How about this 159.7 Ct Cabochon Royal Blue Color Opal in a necklace worn by Princess Josephine




Yours for a cool $550,000

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mira-Paris-159Ct-Largest-Imperial-Blue-Opal-Necklace-/300576907771?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45fbc7a1fb!!

 

[Arkteia]

I am not an antiquarian nor an appraiser. I tried to pull out all portraits of Josephine known to me, and I did not find this one. Josephine's love life included several very important men, David and other outstanding artists drew her, and this portrait looks sloppy at best. Napoleon did give her an opal, a flaming "Helen of Troy". I am not commenting on the quality of the stone, nor the price, I doubt its provenance.

 

[ieatbugs]

I am not an antiquarian nor an appraiser. I tried to pull out all portraits of Josephine known to me, and I did not find this one. Josephine's love life included several very important men, David and other outstanding artists drew her, and this portrait looks sloppy at best. Napoleon did give her an opal, a flaming "Helen of Troy". I am not commenting on the quality of the stone, nor the price, I doubt its provenance.

Oh really? Too bad. Amazing opal, though.

 

[Jeweljunke]

I been spending too too much lately, but like the title says...somebody's gotta buy this (these) stones...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-54-Carats...0491?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item4ab9b498eb




http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-22-Carats...1830?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item3378a883e6

 

[Tuffy]

has the neon chysoberyl been returned? now it is much more expensive too...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-05ct-PRECISION-CUT-NEON-CHRYSOBERYL-MADAGASCAR-WATCH-VIDEO-/370627084052?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item564b187f14

 

[chrono]

I did a quick check and it's a different stone. This one is 4.05 while Erin's chrysoberyl is 4.15 carats.

 

[erinl]

has the neon chysoberyl been returned? now it is much more expensive too...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-05ct-PRECISION-CUT-NEON-CHRYSOBERYL-MADAGASCAR-WATCH-VIDEO-/370627084052?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item564b187f14

Hi--

That is a similar but different chrysoberyl--I didn't return mine! I know that 4.05 one was listed at 1750--it hasn't sold, so interesting that the price has gone up.
I have been selling some items on ebay (not stones), and I do know that the fees to ebay are about 9-10%, so I would think if you can buy from a vendor elsewhere than ebay you probably have more bargaining room. Paypal fees are 2-3% too.

 

[chrono]

That's a 50% increase!

 

[Tuffy]

haa haa I see. Erinl, yours is much nicer!

 

[y2kitty]

UGHH. I love this but does it look like the facet junction on the left is a little chipped. Also, what do we think of the clarity? He calls it VVS.

 

[Kismet]

UGHH. I love this but does it look like the facet junction on the left is a little chipped. Also, what do we think of the clarity? He calls it VVS.

Isn't spinel a type II gemstone? So even at VVS I think it could still have eye visible inclusions. Also, it looks like the inclusions it does have are being reflected internally.

 

[ChrisA222]

Hey guys, the stone did go up in price, but it has a Make Offer option.

Here is what I've noticed with my own eBay page. (I've been selling stones to get my collection down from 6 trays to 2, lol). Anyways, I used to list my stones at the lowest price I would accept, as auctions, and then see and hope you get bids/bidding wars. LOL never happens for me, but I am new, yadda yadda yadda. Anyways, I ran out of my 50 free listings, so every stone I list going forward this month is 50 to 75 cents a pop. This is on top of the closing fees and the paypal fees. But anyways, eBay is running a promotion now where you can list fixed items for no listing fee, and you can use Make offer.

My point is this. When I switched to Make Offer, I put the same prices I had before, the lowest I would take. I put the Make offer there because I sometimes will take 10% off. Fine. What happened in reality? I am getting offers of HALF of what my starting amount is. LOL it is unreal. So maybe that is what Jeff is seeing too! Its crazy! I would price an 8MM Chrome Diopside for $39, which I think its great..the stone is clean, a large size, and then I get the offer for $19. I mean come on...

Just saying, there is more to it then just a guy wanting to jack up prices...

 

[chrono]

I am also not crazy about the abraided facet junctions. The clarity rating of VVS, VS and the such can get very confusing for gemstone noobs who are not familiar with the gemstone type (each gem family has its own clarity rating and definition). I'd rather go by eye clean / slightly included / included to keep things simple.

 

[JewelFreak]

Blithesome, been catching up on this thread -- that morganite of Jerry's is so nice! I like it almost as well as this one on Roger Dery's site that I visited constantly until it sold. Knew it was beyond my budget so never asked its price:

 

[Jeweljunke]

Ohhhh, you guys are right about that spinel, looked at it too fast, I wouldn't buy it with the chewed up facets either. Scratch that one.

 

[beaujolais]

Ryan Quantz has some beautiful pink tourmaline sugarloaves at great prices now:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RyanQuantzStudios?ref=seller_info

Yay ! Sugarloaves ! Wa-hoo ! And in a nice pink, no less.

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

UGHH. I love this but does it look like the facet junction on the left is a little chipped. Also, what do we think of the clarity? He calls it VVS.

I saw this stone and liked the color but not the clarity. I didn't even notice the chip.

Tan hasan unheated ruby that I thought about buying. I cannot see the video and don't know if it is too dark as I suspect it might be.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-39ct-UNHEATED-Notable-Oval-Natural-Pinkish-Red-Ruby-/330443910198?pt=Loose_Gemstones_1&hash=item4ceffdec36

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

The color is intense... it looks a little like a holiday shop ring my son gave me when he was little! (I still have it )

Here is a beautiful purple spinel from Art Cut Gems. It's 1.58 ct and asking $179. Nice addition to a spinel collection or if you're looking for purple stones.

Last night when I checked the website this stone was back up for sale.