Speaking of price hikes..

[MJO]

Date: 3/6/2006 7:20:45 PM
Author: jszweda

Date: 3/6/2006 5:50:57 PM
Author: MJO
Hello Joe and all,

AJSgems.com has alot of mandarin orange spessartite for way under $2,000/ct. Even the 25ct on Cherrypicked.com is under $2,000/ct

Regards,
Maurice

Maurice,

He has a lot of other really nice stuff for way below what you''d pay at a retail level-that material included. I also talked once not too long ago to Richard Homer about a recut or just cutting up some rough of that material. While his cuts may have a lot of waste to them because they are premium quality, you could probably get a mandarin/spess/whatever you want to call it from him for way less than 2 grand a carat too.

I can also say this about AJS (who I refer to as Uncle Arnie). The cuts are really good. The polish and symmetry are perfect. The proportions are very good on his stuff. His lighting can be a little off, but his stuff sometimes looks better in person than in the pictures. I found something for my mother from his site once, and we were blown away as to how good it was, and I was completely impressed with the ''trinket'' I got from him.

Ironiclly, you might like the customer feedback. Someone bought a mandarin from him. She said she had to after she bought one from a show (I don''t know for sure which one but I think I have a good idea). She said that Uncle Arnie charged light years less than the show, and she ended up taking the one she paid light years more for back. The one from Uncle Arnie was that much better in her opinion. That''s a tall claim, but it says something for Uncle Arnie.

I can personally attest to that vendor and their merchandise, and if you''re a collector, this is a reasonable source for some things. I can''t say anything bad about that vendor.

I have purchased quite a few things from Uncle Arnie and have never been disappointed. The only disappointment I have had is I was too slow to decide to purchase things at times and they were gone when I went back.

Regards,
Maurice

 

[valeria101]

Those TV shows seem to do a good job at hiking prices ... from what there is on this thread, don''t know anything else about them. If they could be successful to permanently rise the price of the items they sell, that would OK, but ... why on Earth would I believe that? That a TV channel can reach well beyond the informed public is worrisome - they indeed may have the opportunity to claim anything and charge according to what the most gullible of their listeners can possible find palatable on a whim. It doesn''t sound like the best arrangement for a buyer to start a gem interest - and that these channels are precisely targeting such audience feels chilling. Good for them... However, the (perfectly valid and viable) ''business model'' itself makes me sick

At least this understanding of it does, if wrong - I''d be happy to be rid of an unpleasant illusion.


Perhaps the merchandise is nice, but it doesn''t feel too rewarding to buy something OK at the highest price possible just because. There may be no option for some rare item bu to take the first (and last) offer... but few things are in that category anyway, and I doubt that many make their way in TV shows, let alone get sold and bought via such outlet.

My 2c

 

[jszweda]

Date: 3/6/2006 10:37:41 PM
Author: valeria101


Those TV shows seem to do a good job at hiking prices ... from what there is on this thread, don''t know anything else about them. If they could be successful to permanently rise the price of the items they sell, that would OK, but ... why on Earth would I believe that? That a TV channel can reach well beyond the informed public is worrisome - they indeed may have the opportunity to claim anything and charge according to what the most gullible of their listeners can possible find palatable on a whim. It doesn''t sound like the best arrangement for a buyer to start a gem interest - and that these channels are precisely targeting such audience feels chilling. Good for them... However, the (perfectly valid and viable) ''business model'' itself makes me sick

At least this understanding of it does, if wrong - I''d be happy to be rid of an unpleasant illusion.


Perhaps the merchandise is nice, but it doesn''t feel too rewarding to buy something OK at the highest price possible just because. There may be no option for some rare item bu to take the first (and last) offer... but few things are in that category anyway, and I doubt that many make their way in TV shows, let alone get sold and bought via such outlet.

My 2c

You kinda have a point with some of these shows. I am not saying all are like this, but some are.

I remember seeing something the other night as a matter of fact. They were saying the list price on some diamond bracelet with 2 carats of H color/I clarity diamonds was $7890. Give me a freaking break! If they were D-F/VS1+, maybe...and even then I say maybe. H color and I clarity? Please. I am amazed the FCC hasn''t shut them down for this.

Some of what these show say you will find in retail, I''ve seen myself personally. I can''t say that applies to every last thing, but that''s how it is. When you look at what the retail world charges, and then someone like any of us who like to collect these things find someone that sells wholesale, it''s night and day difference. I think that''s part of the issue.

The other thing is like you said, these shows have a valid business model. The hype gets a little boring and aggrevating to be honest. Some of what they ask for to me is unreal, but when you figure they had to buy a certain amount of material, and they have costs with that, they have to employ people, make a profit...it''s going to be more than what you would find it for in someplace like Bangkok or Ceylon, etc.

I did remember walking into that one guys store here locally, and I asked about something Mom was looking for out of curiosity. He had something nice indeed, and then he showed me this Tanzanite. He had what I think was either an emerald or radiant cut stone (I think) mounted in a very nice setting. The diamonds were all D-F/VS+. He told me the price after I guessed a certain amount. I then said to him, you''re charing list for the setting and wholesale for the stone and that''s how you get that price. So I figured his price on the tanzanite (block D material, intense blue with just a tint of reddish violet) was about $1000 a carat. He sells wholesale. He asked if I was in the business to know this. I just knew enough, but he confirmed my logic. So you figure $1000/carat to the jeweler, $2000/carat to the consumer.

There is one way to tell for sure what is BS and what isn''t. If you can prove proof of trade, or if you know someone who is in the business who has a subscription to someplace like Paragon, that tells you the retail prices per quarter of various items. I don''t have one of those subscriptions, but I am sure someone on here has access to something like that.

Here is another theory of mine. Some of these stones you see that are in fact rare, don''t make it to the majority of US markets. So when they are in the US, they end up in some botique or high end retailer, and because they are rare as they are, the jewelers ask a premium for the item. Some guy who has the money to pay for it, goes for it...BAM! This stone that someone bought wholesale overseas for peanuts (maybe because over there they think it''s a cheap stone) puts a huge markup on it. The vendors like that almost have to in order to survive, so I don''t really fault them for it. Like you say, it''s a viable business model.

Now, knowing that you have some store in LA, or NYC that charges a premium for a given item, it''s not going to come to your average jeweler. The average jeweler either doesn''t know about it, or is uncertain as to how well it will do in their store, so they don''t bother with it. If that''s not the case, they know what it is, they know it''s a fortune, and they doubt they have the clientelle to buy it. So they won''t sell it.

So now all of the sudden, one of these shows goes over seas, buys a whole load of stuff, and they get a huge discount on the stuff. They mark it up, pay for their expenses, and voila! Sure some of them are going to hype things up to no freaking end just so they can stay in business. You never see any of that stuff in a retail store, and I would love to see a store that has some of these things. Actully I have, and they''re not cheap. LOL. Well...some of these things at least.

Here is a perfect example with pink sapphires. Some of these shows are saying pink is the in color. Maybe it is, but they''re making money off it. You can go online, and you can find a pink sapphire for a given price, or you can go to someone on here, or whereever. We know who has what stone for what kind of money. Then you turn on some show like...let''s say GSN for example. I am just using them for this particular example as reference.

They sell you a nice pink sapphire for some rediculous price. They tell you the list is (or was) something like $3000+ a carat. Is that insane? Absolutely. It''s a rock! It''s a nice rock, but a rock nonetheless. There is a jeweler in my area that is a large uspscale retailer in the south eastern US. They advertise in Town and Country. They have some really nice stuff. I saw some pink sapphire rings they had. This was maybe about a year ago. They had a 14K or 18K band, with 0.25ct in diamonds. They were H-I/SI1. They were accent stones, and decent. The sapphire was just under 1.5 carats. There wasn''t a whole lot of gold in there, and they wanted $4500+ for that ring. You figure the math. If I ran a given network and I could sell pink sapphires for under $1000 a carat, I''d be jumping up and down. LOL.

Here is another example of price hikes. I know someone who walked into a somewhat upscale retailer you probably heard of. They had a nice ring with a nice tanzanite in it. It was a Levian piece. If you know who that designer/manufacturer is, you know what kinds of stuff they have. This person said they liked the ring, but they were curious if the could special order that ring with a 2-3 carat cornflower blue sapphire.

The manager said that might be tough because that is a rare color for a sapphire, but they might be able to do it. The guy said he would call the manufacturer and ask, and get a quote. Now, I don''t know if someone figured the same physical dimensions as the tanzanite which would have put this way past the 3 carat mark, I have no idea. Levian said the could custom make that ring with the setting in the store with a cornflower blue sapphire. From a few grand with the tanzanite (I think it was near 4 grand) it went to $18,000.

The manager got a good laugh at that one and thought they needed their head examined. You want to talk about price hikes? That''s a hike and a half right there.

I remember when I was looking at some rough to get some ideas to possibly resell certain things. I figured pending certain things longer term, it was something to consider. I found someone online selling premium rough-sawed up and clean. This vendor had some copper bearing tourmaline rough from Nigeria. The rough was $3,000 a carat. I looked the other day for someone else to shed a little insight on things, $600 a carat for spinel rough. He has some smaller premium rough of sapphires for $25/carat.

Now here is what really kills me. I saw a vendor online who is a German owned company based out of Bangkok. They had a flawless portuguesse round pink tourmaline. It was something like 10 carats or better. They wanted $180 for it.

Go to one of these shows on the tube, $300/carat easy. The same company has some completely eye clean imperial topaz that are red and peach. The 17 carat and change stones are well under $200. You turn on one of these other shows who deals direct with the mine in Brazil, and it''s $800-$900 a carat, $2000 carat list.

The same company claims to deal with the source as well. Barring certain overhead expenses, what gives?

When it comes to shows, there are some deals to be had. I know that some of them are outright frauds, and I know of one that isn''t on the air anymore possibly because of that. I also think that some of these shows sometimes are just gouging people on certain things. They don''t always do that all the time but it happens. For instance, after talking to someone on here, I would go to Wink for a demantoid before I went to one of these shows. Why? If I had the money, and I wanted one, I know he would give me a better deal through a jeweler than these shows, and his demantoids blow away anything the shows have! I don''t know his prices on those things either, but I saw pics of what a customer bought from him.

I say if you want a deal, buy wholesale and forget the jeweler. Some of these jewelers are rediculous in what they charge for things. I would trust a wholeseller before some other vendors. You dont'' get all the hype from them like you do some other people. Some of these shows have some really inflated list prices too if you ask me, but not all are like that. I think they take hype to a new level though, and with it maybe comes some of these price hikes aside from simple supply and demand of a given networks sucess.

I usually don''t mention names, because I just don''t like to. However, there isn''t much way around talking about some of these price hikes without making concrete comparisons. That''s just me, but talk about a fraud, and I have no qualms about spelling out details.

 

[jszweda]

Date: 3/6/2006 10:06:34 PM
Author: MJO
I have purchased quite a few things from Uncle Arnie and have never been disappointed. The only disappointment I have had is I was too slow to decide to purchase things at times and they were gone when I went back.

Regards,
Maurice

Maurice,

I have seen that happen too in just looking at things. There is something he has on there that I would love to have, and the price is dirt cheap. I also just spent the last money I had in fixing my rear air strut (#3 of 4), and I need a new set of tires. For the money those things are, they should throw in the stone I want. I fear that by the time I get the money for it, it will be gone. He might have something else comparable to it later on, but who knows. I was eyeing some chrome diopsides when I was on that kick, and the first batch of nice ones sold out. He then didn''t have as many, but he eventually got some more inventory in. When I had the money finally, he got some more nicer ones in...and I jumped on that one. After I got had at the local jeweler on the one, I said I am going back to Uncle Arnie.

My biggest dissappointment with Uncle Arnie is that I am broke, and I can''t afford to get a freaking thing from him.

This is cruel and unsual punishment I say to deny a man his shiny rocks! LOL

 

[Linda W]

Hi Joe,

I agree with what you and Ana have said. Remember the emerald ring I told you about that we purchased on my favorite shopping network? LOL.. Now That is beautiful. 2.7 dark green Colombian. Clear, very few inclusions, it is set beautifully. When I took it to a jeweler for an appraisal, his eyes fell out of his head. In jewelry stores here, we would never find an emerald like that, unless we went to a high end store, like Tiffany, etc. I did luck out finding that ring.

Also, my Andesine one, was not expensive and looks like a beautiful stone as well. If not, back it goes.

We can get good deals. As with Andesine and Labradorite, we won''t find them in our jewelery stores in California where I live. For that matter, mandarin garnets either.

Linda W

 

[MJO]

Maurice,

I have seen that happen too in just looking at things. There is something he has on there that I would love to have, and the price is dirt cheap. I also just spent the last money I had in fixing my rear air strut (#3 of 4), and I need a new set of tires. For the money those things are, they should throw in the stone I want. I fear that by the time I get the money for it, it will be gone. He might have something else comparable to it later on, but who knows. I was eyeing some chrome diopsides when I was on that kick, and the first batch of nice ones sold out. He then didn''t have as many, but he eventually got some more inventory in. When I had the money finally, he got some more nicer ones in...and I jumped on that one. After I got had at the local jeweler on the one, I said I am going back to Uncle Arnie.

My biggest dissappointment with Uncle Arnie is that I am broke, and I can''t afford to get a freaking thing from him.

This is cruel and unsual punishment I say to deny a man his shiny rocks! LOL

Hi Joe,

I had to cut back alittle also. I had to buy 4 cars last year. Got mine for ME on Christmas. A 425HP, 6.1L, Dodge Charger SRT-8. I guess I''m going through my midlife crisiss.

Regards,
Maurice

 

[Linda W]

OK guys, speaking of "mid-life crisis", being our daughter is married, out of the house and we have 2 grandchildren. My 53 year old hubby thought it was about time to have some fun. So last year he bought a used Harley-Davidson motorcycle ha ha ha ha ha.

Linda W.

 

[MJO]

Date: 3/7/2006 5:43:28 PM
Author: Linda W
OK guys, speaking of 'mid-life crisis', being our daughter is married, out of the house and we have 2 grandchildren. My 53 year old hubby thought it was about time to have some fun. So last year he bought a used Harley-Davidson motorcycle ha ha ha ha ha.

Linda W.

Hi Linda,

Harley's aren't my style. I like a big hunk of metal around me when I'm doing 140MPH. A freind of mine in town does have a garage full of 20 Harley's and 1 Indian. Of course he also has 2 Bentlys and a jet.

Regards,
Maurice

 

[jleb]

Re: Buying stones @ 2k a carat..

I just scored a 21 carat pure orange (mandarin, fanta whatever) spessarite garnet for $299.00 ! This is a very nice piece of rough. I dropped it in refractol, which is a cheap liquid that lets you see into the stone by matching the R.I. stone surface interface (which air does not). The piece is internally flawless..

I cut my own stones, so I''ll get somewhere between a 10 and 15 carat pear out of this one, or maybe a barion cut. Haven''t pulled up the cutting diagrams to finalize the yield..

The point of this post is that you can buy a jar of refractol and buy the rough as well, drop it into the refractol, and if you see any cracks or flaws in the stone, send it back! Ask for Top Gem grade or IF stones when you buy.

The next step is to pick one of the many many folks who sell cut stones AND rough on their site. Ask them to suggest a design and pay them to cut it.. your cutting fee will be between $50 to $250.00 depending upon the cut you choose.

Now you have a stone in the $1k to $2k per carat range and a cut and polish far superior to what you''ll buy commercially.

( I don''t do this service, but there are plenty out there who will ). To get you started you can look at the designs @ www.faceters.com or http://www.gemcutter.com/

Now i''ve let the cat out of the bag...

 

[jszweda]

Date: 5/3/2006 11:10:39 PM
Author: jleb

Re: Buying stones @ 2k a carat..

I just scored a 21 carat pure orange (mandarin, fanta whatever) spessarite garnet for $299.00 ! This is a very nice piece of rough. I dropped it in refractol, which is a cheap liquid that lets you see into the stone by matching the R.I. stone surface interface (which air does not). The piece is internally flawless..

I cut my own stones, so I''ll get somewhere between a 10 and 15 carat pear out of this one, or maybe a barion cut. Haven''t pulled up the cutting diagrams to finalize the yield..

The point of this post is that you can buy a jar of refractol and buy the rough as well, drop it into the refractol, and if you see any cracks or flaws in the stone, send it back! Ask for Top Gem grade or IF stones when you buy.

The next step is to pick one of the many many folks who sell cut stones AND rough on their site. Ask them to suggest a design and pay them to cut it.. your cutting fee will be between $50 to $250.00 depending upon the cut you choose.

Now you have a stone in the $1k to $2k per carat range and a cut and polish far superior to what you''ll buy commercially.

( I don''t do this service, but there are plenty out there who will ). To get you started you can look at the designs @ www.faceters.com or http://www.gemcutter.com/

Now i''ve let the cat out of the bag...

You''re 120% correct on this! LOL. I agree with you totally. Faceters get''s a little pricey on some rough IMO. However they do seem to have some nice rough. There is a guy near my way who at least had some really nice rubelite tourmaline rough that had me interested but oh well.

On the 2K per carat, let me say this. I did find one RETAILER online in north or central NJ who had a mandarin/spessertite/whatever the hell you want to call it. 2K per carat was his asking price-before he marked it down.

Since we''re letting cats out of the bag, I came across a site that really intrigued me. I think I know exactly who is behind it, and they contradicted themselves between the site, what they say on air, and that entities employer says in an email. Check this BS out...go to www.mandaringarnet.com and tell me if this doesn''t sound verbatim like someone we''ll just refer to as "Fester" because he looks like Uncle Fester from the Adams Family. I would kill to see someone call in a request and say they want to see him with a lightbulb in his mouth. LOL.

All I am going to say is what Wink said earlier makes a lot of sense. This whole it''s not a mandarin if it''s not from here and this and that is complete BS. It''s all marketing! Either way, it''s still a tough comodity to come by, and it''s still an awesome stone no matter where it comes from if it''s clean, and we all know we can get the stuff for way less than 2 grand a carat retail, and I think some people stockpiled some stuff and they are making a living fortune out of it knowing good and well you can get as good elsewhere for light years less!

 

[movie zombie]

does this trick work with other gem rough besides spess/mandarain/whatever garnet?

movie zombie

ps you do know how to get my attention!

 

[jszweda]

Date: 5/3/2006 11:56:54 PM
Author: movie zombie
does this trick work with other gem rough besides spess/mandarain/whatever garnet?

movie zombie

ps you do know how to get my attention!

Let''s put it this way, if it didn''t you wouldn''t have jewelry stores. Here is how it use to work before the internet came along, and it still works like this but the retailers take a beating on this sometimes.

Someone goes to a place like...Thailand. They can get rough for really cheap. You bring it here, you cut it or you buy the stones there cut pending on the quality, etc. Then after that, you figure what you put into that trip, your rough, labor and a profit. You sell it to the jeweler. Then the jeweler marks it up to something unreal, and then someone buys it.

You can find rough for a lot of things, and if you can cut it yourself or you know of someone who can, it''s light years cheaper than buying it from a wholeseller in the US. I am not trying to ruin anything for the retailers or some people who do that as they are entiled to make a profit and a living. The reality is though that you can get rough from some places and do the same trick.

So you know, if I had the money I was going to try that trick with copper bearing tourmaline, but at a grand a carat for the rough...no no. Then again some people are making out like bandits with that stuff with some trade shows and very elite retailers.

 

[movie zombie]

you''re definitely giving me ideas, joe! i have two pieces of spess rough....no illusions though. rather ordinary, i think, and i bought them to learn from.

movie zombie

 

[jleb]

confession time ... I bought that spessarite off ebay... The primary problem with ebay is size.. goods are usually too small so you have to ignore the picture and pull out your tools... I have not yet gotten anything "bad" there, most of it was pretty good.. some quality issues but the vendor replaced/refunded instantly.

Top source in my opinion for quality rough, is Tom Schneider in san diego... I dropped about 5k on him at the tucson show 3 hours before they packed up.. it was a "quick" sale on rough.. but he does have top goods even if a touch on the high end, the value is there. I looked at the mogkok ruby rough he had ($80/ct) and there were some nice pieces. I bought a 21 carat chunk of unheated tanzanite, top prelim color for about 1k and two other 10ct and 9 ct pieces for another 1200.00 They''ll cut killer stones.. Got a nice spread of about everything at his booth, and I didn''t have to dig too hard... unlike the rest of the shows...


I did make the ungodly awful mistake of buying emerald rough at the show.. that was about 2500 I can''t really use, I didn''t appreciate the bitch/moan the cutters had about emerald until I started cutting it.. then I sounded like all of them.. now I just buy morion hydrothermal lab emerald and appreciate my flawless stones plus the price is right.. If you do have emeralds cut, tell the cutter to make SURE that the outer 1-2mm of the skin is on one side or the other of the pavilion. That is where most of the color is, and if you ever wondered why your stone looked straw green when it started out deep, you cut off the chromaphore layer.. ( why isn''t this taught in school!!! )

 

[PrecisionGem]

jleb, sounds like a bad buy on the emerald. Good emerald material will have color throughout the stone. What you need to watch for is that almost all the stones will be heavily oiled, and once you start cutting you will be cutting away the oiled material.
This is just an example of why it''s difficult to buy rough, and then have it cut. Typically, to get a good price on rough, you need to buy a parcel, or a large order from one dealer. To buy one piece, you will pay top price. Then if you are not very experianced in buying rough, you may end up with a piece that will not cut well.. maybe to dark, bad clarity, poorly shaped etc. I think for the inexperianced, it makes more sense to buy a finished cut stone, since you are able to see what your ending up with.

As far as ebay goes, I think most (not all) is junk. When I buy a large parcel, I cut the best stones, and sell the ones I wouldn''t spend my time cutting on ebay. One thing in this business, no one gives anything away, and no dealer will sell a $1000 stone for $100.

 

[ger100]

Hi folks, Glad I found you. I spent the last hour or so reading your discussion on naming orange spessartites, tsavorite and andesine/labradorite. Great stuff. Wish I''d seen your tomes last week before I sent back a grossular garnet to JTV for being too dark!

I didn''t realize that it could be construed as a tsavorite...of course, the cut and proportion weren''t that great either, so I''m not totally bummed.

I got hooked on gemstones via JTV. They do hype like crazy. BUT, you should know that the auctions are NOT final. When they had their special gemstone weekend, I bid on 9 stones and wound up returning 8. Not the greatest average, but the one mandarin (to me it''s mandarin) trillion I got, was worth the postage for sending the other 8 back! The photo was ugly...the stone is gorgeous and over 1 cwt.

I also got a reasonably priced emerald ring on auction several months ago. I think that the auction is a good place to go. Another thing to consider is when they are on the "1 item left" sign...sometimes that shows a good buy. I got a color shift min .98 cwt green cushion cut Labradorite for $100 as the last item. It turned out to be 1.04 cwt, and is now listed in the $130-160 range. The MINIMUM cwt is where you can luck out on the regular items.

Also, the PARCELS. Wow, I sent back only one. Got some really neat gems in there, and they are not hyping when they say one gem could pay for the parcel. Sometimes 3 gems pay for the parcel, with a whole handful of other fun gems to try and ID...I am really green at this. But I''m starting to understand the importance of the "wow" factor of gems.

I may have outsmarted myself though. I just bought an almost 19 cwt "Labradorite" multi-color for $272 at auction. I am sitting here with sweaty hands waiting to see what it really looks like (this is way above my budget). The only saving grace is that it IS returnable, only losing the cost of postage. And for me that postage has been almost better than paying for classes.

I have some, but would appreciate any links to other sites which list stones with prices...mostly to see where I''m going and how I''m doing than anything else.

Also, I have been a collector of EAPG (antique pressed glass), and pretty much know the ins and outs of how and where to buy and sell that. BUT, I would be most grateful for any advice on how to sell stones. I sold on ebay for years, have an online shop for glass, but have not the vaguest idea of how to dispose of gemstones...and it makes me a bit nervous...I always like to know "the way out" (how to recoup what I''ve spent if necessary).

Thanks for your indulgence, and some really great educational posts! And any advice you can offer.
Ger

 

[innerkitten]

What do you look for in rough that tells you it''l make a good stone?

 

[MJO]

Date: 9/25/2006 10:45:38 AM
Author: innerkitten
What do you look for in rough that tells you it''l make a good stone?

Hi Innerkitten,

You look for the same things you would in a cut stone except of course for the cutting . Color, clarity and size. If the rough is dark the final stone will probubly be dark. Look for good crystal and avoid rough with alot of inclussions and internal flaws and pray alot. Rough is a crap shoot. I have had beautiful rough start to crack when put on a wheel.

Regards,
Maurice

 

[VRBeauty]

I just found this discussion and have enjoyed reading it all in one (somewhat long!) session. Thank you everyone for the enlightenment!

Now a question: Does anyone know anything about "yellow labradorite"? They''re now selling it on JTV for about $10 per carat, and the cutting looks pretty good. I''ve never heard of it before though, so I have to wonder it they''ve just found a way to market pale red labradorite!

 

[MJO]

Yellow Labradorite is ussually Golden or straw color Oregon Sunstone. It is beautiful if clean cut properly and large to build intensity of color. I like stones 10cts or more. Some sell Yellow Orthoclase from Mexico or Madagascar as Yellow Labradorite but the Refractive index is lower and it doesn''t "sparkle" as much.

Regards,
Maurice