Would you buy this sapphire?

[harshilzaveri]

Hello Guys,

This is Harshil Zaveri from StarRuby.in replying to some concerns raised in this post.

Re: innerkitten / Chrono

Regarding the photography of the gemstones, sure enough the front photo of the gemstone is the same as that on the hand, however the intention is not to deceive the customer but rather only to indicate the size of the gemstone. The color and clarity of the gemstone it is very accurately shown in the front and side photos and also the clarity/color is described in detail on our website and on the eBay listing (the side picture has not posted been posted in this thread).

Anyone involved in photography of gemstones will know that it is very tricky and almost always the color of the gemstone appears quite different in the photographs than the true color. This is especially true for color change sapphires and/or sapphires with strong violetish hue, Alexandrites and emeralds. The inclusions also get enlarged in pictures due to high degree of magnification. Most of the pictures are shot at 1:1 macro, so many of the inclusions cannot be even seen with the naked eye. Photoshopping is inevitable and any dealer who sells gemstones online would agree with me. I cannot speak for other dealers but in our case, this is not done to mis-represent stones - instead it is done to make sure that the color/clarity of the stone visible in the pictures is matched properly to its actual appearance. We take utmost care to show the stone as it is in the pictures, neither better nor worse. The Front/Side photos on the website are photographed in daylight balanced lighting conditions with proper illumination portraying the light passage accurately within the gemstone showing any windows that may be present and also the actual colour (as best as technology allows).

For hand photos however the situation is a bit different. Photographing a gemstone on the hand neither depicts the true color of the gemstone nor the actual clarity of the gemstone since the reflection of the color of the hand greatly influences the actual color of the stone. For example a ruby would appear much redder on the hand because of the yellowish-red color of the hand itself which adds more warmth to the color of the gemstone. Same holds true for emeralds which would appear more yellowish-green than they actually are. Another big problem when photographing photos on the hand is that the clarity appears much worse than the actual because of the fingerprints which appear as inclusions even in transparent, flawless stones.

This is the reason why we do not use the actual photo of the gemstone on hand and rather cut and paste the front image on the hand. Also, since the front view accurately depicts the stone, we do not consider it unethical to cut and paste the same photo on the hand. We also have a practive of providing additional pictures and/or videos including rotating videos, video on hand and video of stone held by tweezers upon customer's request.

Besides, we also offer a 30-day return policy. So if a customer does not like the stone he can return to us within 30 day period for a refund. It would be illogical for us to misrepresent the stone because a returned stone is lost business for us. We have been selling on eBay since 2005 and have 100% positive feedback record till date. Rarely does any customer have a problem with their purchase because we do our best to depict it like its actual appearance.

Re: mamato3blessings, I intended to send you additional pictures on Friday but our photographer was on sick leave. I will arrange additional pictures on Monday morning.

Best regards,
Harshil Zaveri
StarRuby.in

Harshil,
Instead of cutting and pasting the stone on the hand to which I think you want to show the size of the gem (???), perhaps maybe putting it next to a coin, like a US penny, might help. Although you have some concerns about the true color of the stone on the hand, I believe many of us do like seeing a true photo of the stone on the hand (I know I do). If you do have a concern with hand photos, then perhaps you should just stick to tweezer photos, or to show general size of the stone, place it next to some common item, like a US penny. Videos are also really helpful, but I know that it's not feasible for some vendors.

Thanks for your response in this regard.

Hi TL,

Pictures next to a coin are a good idea but we sell stones to several countries, and Asian countries account for nearly half our business. Obviously, not everyone is perfectly aware of the size of a US penny so there is no standardization. Also the majority of inquiries we used to get was of customers wanting to see a picture of the stone on hand to get a rough idea of how big the stone appears (not everyone has a good measure of the dimensions). As I mentioned in my post, the intention of the hand picture is to give customers a rough idea of the size of the size because it is difficult to judge by stand-alone or tweezer pics because a 0.50 carat sapphire may look similar to a 2 carat sapphire in regular pictures.

I understand your point about customers wanting to see the true photo of the stone on hand but that would be true when the hand pictures are closely representative of the stone's actual appearance. I will try to post some unretouched hand pictures so you can make out how different stones look with skin as background.

We list videos for almost all items that are over $2k in value - for ones below that is it not practically and economically feasible.

Best regards,
Harshil Zaveri

 

[innerkitten]

Did you ever get those photos?