Teaser pics of red spinels available!

[Aoife]

Isn't that Asscher beautiful? Unfortunately, it's not mine, but one day I have to get an Asscher from Jeff. My spinel will be a few weeks out, and will be a round for the ring project I'm doing with my daughters and one of my sisters.

 

[bright ice]

Isn't that Asscher beautiful? Unfortunately, it's not mine, but one day I have to get an Asscher from Jeff. My spinel will be a few weeks out, and will be a round for the ring project I'm doing with my daughters and one of my sisters.

Sorry, I was not very clear with my question. I know the asscher is not yours but I was wondering if you are getting from the same color parcel as it?

 

[Aoife]

It was probably more me being dim than you not being clear! Yes, it is from the same parcel. Interesting really, because Jeff said all the colors have been so consistent. I almost went with the mint garnet, instead, but decided that the spinel fit into the parameters of the project better. When is your spinel going to be ready?

 

[bright ice]

It was probably more me being dim than you not being clear! Yes, it is from the same parcel. Interesting really, because Jeff said all the colors have been so consistent. I almost went with the mint garnet, instead, but decided that the spinel fit into the parameters of the project better. When is your spinel going to be ready?

He had told me 6 weeks when I put my deposit so should be 4 more weeks

 

[talamasca]

I bet that red pear will be gorgeous IRL

Sorry for the TJ, but Aoife and brightice - can't wait to see your pinks from Jeff

 

[bright ice]

Beginning to look around for setting ideas

What about something like this? Of course not rose gold.

 

[bright ice]

Just to update everyone. Doug got the spinel sent out yesterday which was 5/16 AUS. Hopefuly I will have it in 5-7 days or so.

I have this gut feeling that it is going to be a RARE find. I want to thank HotPozzum for posting the headsup about them becoming available, otherwise I would have never known. I guess it was just finders luck.

I will keep you posted.

 

[Harriet]

One should note that pinkish reds command a higher price per carat (all else being equal) than orangey reds.

That may be true of the Mahenge material, but is not necessarily true of the Burmese reds. Try pricing a "flame" spinel.

 

[T L]

One should note that pinkish reds command a higher price per carat (all else being equal) than orangey reds.

That may be true of the Mahenge material, but is not necessarily true of the Burmese reds. Try pricing a "flame" spinel.

What is the difference between an orangy red spinel from Burma vs an orangy red spinel from Mahenge? Please educate me, as I don't know.

 

[Harriet]

Tone, for one.

 

[T L]

Tone, for one.

???? Can you be more specific. I don't mean this to be rude, I'm just curious, as I don't really buy a lot of Burmese spinels, and I don't know much about them, let alone "flame" spinels. Thank you.

 

[Harriet]

TL,
I'll try my best. The Mahenges are an extremely saturated pink that approach red. The Burmese, on the other hand, are a darker red. To prevent them from looking like garnets, a secondary orange or pink is required. A "flame" is a Burmese-red with enough orange that it looks like a glowing ember. Hence, the preference for a pink secondary (if one chooses to distinguish pink from red) in a Mahenge spinel and the preference for orange in the Burmese material. Hope this helps.

 

[AGBF]

TL,
I'll try my best. The Mahenges are an extremely saturated pink that approach red. The Burmese, on the other hand, are a darker red. To prevent them from looking like garnets, a secondary orange or pink is required. A "flame" is a Burmese-red with enough orange that it looks like a glowing ember. Hence, the preference for a pink secondary (if one chooses to distinguish pink from red) in a Mahenge spinel and the preference for orange in the Burmese material. Hope this helps.

I am not sure what would constitute a threadjack of this thread, so I am not going to apologize for one! I want to congratulate bright ice on her purchase, which I will be very interested to see when it arrives! I also want to say that while I understand why Burmese spinels might be more valuable when more orange-toned (they tend, in general, to be more purple than the Vietnamese orange hued stones, after all), I still do not understand why the Mahenge stones would be more valuable when pinker. Sorry, Harriet.

Deb, dullard

 

[bright ice]

TL,
I'll try my best. The Mahenges are an extremely saturated pink that approach red. The Burmese, on the other hand, are a darker red. To prevent them from looking like garnets, a secondary orange or pink is required. A "flame" is a Burmese-red with enough orange that it looks like a glowing ember. Hence, the preference for a pink secondary (if one chooses to distinguish pink from red) in a Mahenge spinel and the preference for orange in the Burmese material. Hope this helps.

I am not sure what would constitute a threadjack of this thread, so I am not going to apologize for one! I want to congratulate bright ice on her purchase, which I will be very interested to see when it arrives! I also want to say that while I understand why Burmese spinels might be more valuable when more orange-toned (they tend, in general, to be more purple than the Vietnamese orange hued stones, after all), I still do not understand why the Mahenge stones would be more valuable when pinker. Sorry, Harriet.

Deb, dullard

Thank you AGBF. I would be interested to get your thoughts on this one since you were looking for a very specific red.

Interesting discussion going on here, more please

 

[T L]

TL,
I'll try my best. The Mahenges are an extremely saturated pink that approach red. The Burmese, on the other hand, are a darker red. To prevent them from looking like garnets, a secondary orange or pink is required. A "flame" is a Burmese-red with enough orange that it looks like a glowing ember. Hence, the preference for a pink secondary (if one chooses to distinguish pink from red) in a Mahenge spinel and the preference for orange in the Burmese material. Hope this helps.

I am not sure what would constitute a threadjack of this thread, so I am not going to apologize for one! I want to congratulate bright ice on her purchase, which I will be very interested to see when it arrives! I also want to say that while I understand why Burmese spinels might be more valuable when more orange-toned (they tend, in general, to be more purple than the Vietnamese orange hued stones, after all), I still do not understand why the Mahenge stones would be more valuable when pinker. Sorry, Harriet.

Deb, dullard

Thanks Harriet for the explanation.

Deb,
I can only speak for Mahenges, but the orangy red ones tend to have more brown in them from what I have witnessed (maybe there are a few without), so perhaps that's why. A very prominent Mahenge dealer also told me that the pinker red Mahenges are more valuable than the orangy reds, and he prices them accordingly. Perhaps the Burmese "flame" spinels show no brown, and give off this illusion of "burning embers" as Harriet speaks to, so that's why they're more valuable than Mahenge orangy reds. I don't believe I've seen a Burmese flame spinel in person. Almost all of the orangy reds I have seen, from any locale, have brown in them, and some are so dark in tone and so lacking in saturation, they can even look like garnets. Therefore, the fine Burmese material must be very rare and pricey. Since much of my spinel collecting has been concentrated on Tanzanian and Sri Lankan stones in various colors, I do not have much experience with Burmese material.

 

[chrono]

I have noticed that the Burmese red spinels have a tendency towards a darker tone, usually closer to a pure red or showing some orange secondary, and some showing a purple secondary. Vietnamese red spinels show a stronger orange secondary almost consistently. The Mahenge spinels tend towards pink in general . These days, I am seeing more Mahenge spinels with an orange secondary. It has become somewhat expected to see a certain hue from certain regions, hence pricing are biased towards that.

 

[T L]

These days, I am seeing more Mahenge spinels with an orange secondary.

I've noticed that as well, as I'm seeing less and less pink reds. Rarity of the pinkish reds is probably also a factor in their price. I could be wrong, but it seems the orangey red Mahenges are more abundant (?????).

 

[chrono]

It could also mean that the pinkish Mahenges are getting less plentiful, and more orangish Mahenges are coming out of the ground these days.

 

[LD]

Orangey pink Mahenge/Tanzanian spinels are relatively easy to find at the moment - the hot pink/reds from Mahenge are drying up I think. In my experience, the price for orangey-pinks isn't as expensive as the fluorescent hot pinks (ignoring flames of course). By way of an example, this is a quite large stone and is very reasonably priced.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-65ct-Unbelievable-Gorgeous-Intense-Orangy-Red-Spinel-/370415212741?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563e7798c5

Slightly bigger but pink/red (from the same location)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-29ct-Topnotch-Heart-Natural-Vivid-Pinkish-Red-Spinel-/230440515444?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35a7533774

 

[bright ice]

So, what do you all think is a fair price for this particular stone if all holds true for it's description?

 

[LD]

So, what do you all think is a fair price for this particular stone if all holds true for it's description?

The problem for me is that while this is a very pretty stone, the description doesn't match the photos. The description says pure red but I see a lot of orange in the photos. IF it is pure red with no orange then it will be worth much more than an orangeish red. However, beauty/love is in the eye of the beholder. You obviously felt that the price you paid was right so don't worry about it now. It's more important that the gem leaps out of the package and you are bowled over by it. If that happens then it's priceless. If it slinks out of the package and you go "oh, ummm, not sure" then you may have paid too much. That's how I assess value and whether I've got a good deal or not!

 

[bright ice]

So, what do you all think is a fair price for this particular stone if all holds true for it's description?

The problem for me is that while this is a very pretty stone, the description doesn't match the photos. The description says pure red but I see a lot of orange in the photos. IF it is pure red with no orange then it will be worth much more than an orangeish red. However, beauty/love is in the eye of the beholder. You obviously felt that the price you paid was right so don't worry about it now. It's more important that the gem leaps out of the package and you are bowled over by it. If that happens then it's priceless. If it slinks out of the package and you go "oh, ummm, not sure" then you may have paid too much. That's how I assess value and whether I've got a good deal or not!

Thank you LovingDiamonds, you are right. I will certainly have to judge once in hand. In this photo, it looks RED

 

[LD]

So, what do you all think is a fair price for this particular stone if all holds true for it's description?

The problem for me is that while this is a very pretty stone, the description doesn't match the photos. The description says pure red but I see a lot of orange in the photos. IF it is pure red with no orange then it will be worth much more than an orangeish red. However, beauty/love is in the eye of the beholder. You obviously felt that the price you paid was right so don't worry about it now. It's more important that the gem leaps out of the package and you are bowled over by it. If that happens then it's priceless. If it slinks out of the package and you go "oh, ummm, not sure" then you may have paid too much. That's how I assess value and whether I've got a good deal or not!

Thank you LovingDiamonds, you are right. I will certainly have to judge once in hand. In this photo, it looks RED

Okay, well I'm going to sound like TL and her "grey" thing now! I still see a heck of a lot of orange in that photo. People see colours differently so who knows! It could be red, pink, orange, brown, yellow and to somebody colour blind it might look green For me, red would not have an orange tone to it at all. Pure red should be just red and you shouldn't be able to see purple or orange or pink in it. That's a rare animal!

 

[bright ice]

I will be sending it to AGL for certification. If it is not as described and I am not in love with it, BACK it will go

 

[T L]

BrightIce, I will differ with LD a little bit in the fact that if you're bowled over when you see it, it may still not be worth the price paid. When I first started collecting, I was bowled over with stones that I wouldn't even consider today. I think the reason it's important to ask lots of questions and opinions on PS and elsewhere, is that people that have been collecting a while, and have seen fine quality, can help you to asses if you did pay a fair price. If when you get it, and you post photos, perhaps we can help you with that. I wouldn't be so nitpicky but this stone was expensive, and you are new to colored gems (if not, please correct me if I'm wrong). Therefore, better safe than sorry. In the end, it is also your choice to dismiss opinions if you really love the stone, but they are opinions, and you can take them for what they're worth to you.

 

[bright ice]

BrightIce, I will differ with LD a little bit in the fact that if you're bowled over when you see it, it may still not be worth the price paid. When I first started collecting, I was bowled over with stones that I wouldn't even consider today. I think the reason it's important to ask lots of questions and opinions on PS and elsewhere, is that people that have been collecting a while, and have seen fine quality, can help you to asses if you did pay a fair price. If when you get it, and you post photos, perhaps we can help you with that. I wouldn't be so nitpicky but this stone was expensive, and you are new to colored gems (if not, please correct me if I'm wrong). Therefore, better safe than sorry. In the end, it is also your choice to dismiss opinions if you really love the stone, but they are opinions, and you can take them for what they're worth to you.

Thanks TL, I definetly trust the opinions of you PSers that are experienced in colored stones. Yes, I am new to this. I want and need all the help I can get. Yes, this is an expensive gem and if it is not a fair deal then I won't hesitate to send it back even with the cost to do so. I want to have a beautiful gem at a reasonable and fair price.

 

[LD]

I agree with TL and my reply to you about loving it is much more a heart reaction than a head one! IF you want to seek opinions on price and/or colour and then make an informed choice that's fine. However, please bear in mind that on this forum those who have been collecting for many years are MUCH more fussy and picky AND expect the value to match the gem. We also expect, if a Vendor has priced a stone as pure red, that's what we expect! Others may be much more flexible with their money and then it becomes a heart reaction.

I hope that makes sense?

 

[innerkitten]

I can't wait to see your spinel. I used to be friendly with David from Gemcal before he passed away. Several times I met up with him when he was hear in San Francisco. Once it was actually with a few other Pricescopers. Anyway each time I got to see like a table full of red Burmese spinels ( they have much more than is on their web site ). Sure a few were orange ones or dark toned ones and pinks but there was a lot of bright stop light red.

 

[Harriet]

BrightIce,
You are in good hands with Gemcal.

 

[innerkitten]

How come we can't edit posts anymore? I can't fix my post.