Hello Orchidland,
Speaking of "selling it" this is from this morning's Juneau
Empire. http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep821o
After reading the article in Juneau Empire that John mentioned, I
had to comment. Most likely everyone has had a customer bring a
stone bought during acruise, to be set. I recall on two occasions,
that the stones I saw were less than lovely. I mean poorly cut, not
to mention overpriced. I have beenon cruises and did notice that the
“lecturers” warned that purchases in jewelry stores other than the
ones that they promoted, were risky. Obviously, Idon’t buy jewelry
on a cruise, but I was interested to see what was said.
Any other commentse Just curious, Judy in Kansas, where the Monarch
butterflies have begun their migration to Mexico. Not near as many
as seen in past years. Sad, sad, sad.
Hello,
Okay, so my apologies because not really related to the article
directly, just to cruise ship jewellery.
A few years ago (before I was much of a jeweler, and I’m still a
relative amateur) my grandmother died and we had to go through her
belongings. One of the pieces she had was a gold-coloured chain. I
picked it up and immediately said something along the lines of " I
think it’s gold plated plastic. Why did she have this? I didn’t think
she had junk jewellery." Anyhow, turns out it was a gift from my
aunt, who was in the room and didn’t seem to appreciate the comment.
She had bought it for my grandmother while on a cruise.
So, that was where I learned to beware what I say about other
people’s jewellery.
Cheers,
Mark
makeyourmarkmetalwork.ca
My funniest experience with a cruise ship item was when a woman came
back from a trip that had docked a day in South America. She wanted
an appraisal of what was pretty obviously a man-made emerald. She
told us that she and her husband had hired a taxi to show them
around and the driver told them about a cousin that made a living by
digging in the tailings of the local emerald mine looking for
anything that was missed. He had to sell everything very cheaply so
that the “big mine interests” would not think he was competing with
them.
Of course they might be interested in seeing what he might have
found! So they leave the city and drive for an hour in the woods to
arrive at this little falling down shack. This cousin shows them
several small emeralds and then brings out a once in a lifetime
find. He pulls out a flawless, perfectly cut emerald about 3
centimeters long. He is loath to get rid of it but by having it he
is putting himself and his family in danger from the big miners.
Would they pay $10,000 American for it? They talk him down to $4000
American and pay for it.
SO fast forward a couple of weeks and I am gently telling this lady
that she might not want to spend the money to get the stone
appraised as the fee will be more then the value of the stone.
After she threatened to sue Visa, me, the owner of the store, the
cruise line, and the miner, I asked her why she had that much cash
on her as walking around money? Well, It seems she put the stone on
her Visa card…
She did not like it when I asked how a starving, working out of a
shack, no power, in the middle of the forest kind of guy could get a
business credit card account? That did not go well…
Gerald A. Livings