Well, I waited this long but none of you ebay stone buyers ever
answered. I’m still curious how you market your stones to customers,
and do you tell them the source?
I’m now curious how many are making jewelry using ‘Jewelry
Television’ stones… (ugh)…
Don’t be shy, speak up! If you’re buying on ebay chances are you’re
buying on jewelry television as well… I’d like to see some pieces
with these stones just to see what they look like.
Thanks,
Craig
www.creativecutgems.com
I have not yet bought any stones from either Ebay or any of the TV
shows. I do a bit of business on Ebay, often finding some pretty
good deals on recreational equipment & other odds and ends. Have had
pretty fair luck selling on Ebay, except for my jewelry. Most of the
offers I get don’t even cover cost, and I feel that the average Ebay
buyer is more often looking for the ‘deal’ rather than the unique.
That is off track for this post though. I have, when I was working
in a retail repair environment, been asked on many occasions to set
stones that customers brought in from either Ebay or TV marketing.
Mixed bag. On the higher end, the stones were attractive, reasonably
well cut and make nice jewelry. On the other end, some horror
stories. Poor quality material, poorly cut. Occasionally even
outright fraud. Remember one ‘topaz’ in particular that was a
wonderful orange color. Washed right off in mild soapy water, though,
and turned out the material was basically colorless. Worst nightmare,
though, is trying to find replacements for a lot of the stuff they
buy as finished goods. The stones have mysterious names, none of the
regular suppliers have heard of them. Most cannot be matched even if
I send in a sample. If the material is available, it is often an odd
size that suppliers don’t have, and often it is treated material that
cannot be cut down. Yes, some pretty stuff is out there, makes up
into nice jewelry. Just be aware of what you are getting and who you
are dealing with before you commit any serious money for stuff you
can’t see first.
I buy about 75% of my stones on ebay but what I buy is usually
jasper. I have 4 favorites; I like the shapes, colors and polish of
the stones they cut. I haven’t gotten anything that has disappointed.
The other stones I use come from a lapidary in CA who makes the
shapes I need and has interesting jaspers and opal. I design my
pieces around these stones. For faceted, I buy from Ahmed Shareek’s
Cresent Gems (found here on Orchid) who has great natural stones in a
variety of prices. I do tell my customers that I get my stones from
ebay. You can see some of what I’ve used from these sources on my
website (which needs an update and I need to learn a new
program…when I have time 
)
Donna in VA
I no longer buy stones on eBay, but no, I don’t say anything about
the source. A stone is a stone. As long as I’m sure it’s genuine, or
sure it’s synthetic (I believe in full disclosure), I don’t need to
say anything. Does any jeweler divulge which wholesaler or cutter
their stone came from ?
As for Jewelry Televison, I don’t even watch TV, so there’s no
problem there…
Brian Corll
Vassar Jewelers
Does any jeweler divulge which wholesaler or cutter their stone came from ?
On this forum I have given recommendations for sources for gems that
I use. I have no issues with referring others to my sources. I have
given sources for inexpensive calibrated gems, hard to find colors
or sizes of fine quality gems, briolettes, and synthetics. There are
specific gems I collect and I have had good success on Ebay, I would
not want competition to bid these gems up higher, so I would not
give up this source.
Richard Hart
I give a brief certificate with every stone I provide listing it’s
properties, design it was cut in, the designers name, and sometimes
a copy of the design as well as long as I have permission. Most pass
this along to the customer and has been given a lot of positive
feedback.
Craig
I bought a few stones from ebay, and ‘sniped’ at the last minute and
got a good deal. I bought at at price that didn’t matter if I got
junk or not, I paid a junk price, and got a good deal.
That is not where I would go for quality stones that I was going to
put my name on.
I buy all my stones from eiher Robert Lowe in Brasil, or from Ahmed
Shareek in Sri Lanka. Both of these gentlemen have been guests in my
home and I cant say enough a bout them, their honesty, the quality of
their stones, their prices, it jus t dossent get an better than
Robert and Ahmed. Between these two dealers, I cant think of any
stone that they couldn’t pro vide, and at the best prices. I have
asked Robert for Rutilated Amethyst, and he found it. (Bet you’ve ne
ver seen rutilated Amethyst…) Last year, I asked Robert to find me a
really good blue tourmaline. He fou nd it and it was beautiful. I
have
asked Ahmed for special cut Sapphires, Peridot, and Moonstones.
If they don’t have the stone, they both have been around the colored
stone business long enough, and know enough people, mine owners, and
other dealer s, both in Brasil, Sri Lanka, and the US, that they can
find anything you n eed.
For any stone, any quality, any cut, try Robert and Ahmed.
Robert P. Lowe Jr.
Lowe Associates - Brasil
robertplowejr@juno.com
Ahmed Shareek
Crescent Gems
crescentgems@gmail.com
Love and God Bless
http://www.rocksmyth.com
i have purchased parcels of stones from jtv and loose stones from
eBay. all are fully returnable after inspection and some are quite
good values. I have had a few problems dealing with misrepresented
stones so if you have a question for a seller on eBay be certain to
express it before bidding. Most sellers resent the notion of
canceling the transaction , particularly if they are listing a stones
or stones fraudulently ( i.e- “genuine Loose 10mm Alexandrite
,brilliant cut” ) and the stone turns out to be lab created which was
not mentioned any advertising/listing the seller entered into
descriptive info. Ebay saw it as i did…genuine =genuine…and the
seller was forced to refund my money remove my non-paying bidder mark
and retract their negative feedback…some sellers of stones are
simply jerks that buy wholesale lots of miscuts, chipped, fractured
and flawed stones then resell single stones or similarly sized
stones of a single variety as a ‘parcel’ those sellers haven’t a
clue. there are however a few loose stone sellers on EBay that are in
fact with scruples- that know stones and list them at fair prices in
detail and with reasonable representations. I bought some sea blue
diamonds from a seller in Africa that had wonderful pictures of the
“.11ct” stones well, the deal was great, the shipping fair ( always
check shipping charges prior to any eBay trade and steer away from
sellers not offering pay pal )- the product when i received it was
.011 ct stones so minuscule i could barely set em, and it turned out
the photos were with a high powered stereoscopic zoom
microscope…pay pal forced them to send stones as advertised. So be
sure to ask your seller some question you deem representative of a
gem dealers knowledge prior to bidding…they either know their stuff
or not…With the proliferation of really fraudulent sellers it is
wise to always check one out beforehand. i have had the best stones
coming out of India, Thailand and Africa- most others seem to be
resells from JTV parcels.As for jewelery TV they offer some good
deals on parcels of smallish stones in run-of-the-mill varieties;
almandine ,pyrope,and hessonite garnets,amethysts, tourmaline,
jasper’s,carnelians, turquoises, citrines ( true and heat
treated),sapphires,topaz, etc. all returnable, and
refundable…generally both venues offer both good deals and really
awful rip-offs…do your homework and read the postage policies on
EBay before bidding and you can often score some excellent stones
with a last minute bid…and by the way, 8.00 is reasonable from
Thailand- more is not reasonable and some sellers list under many
company names. If you suspect that they are doing so, ask, if you
plan on taking advantage of any of the combined shipping over x
number of days offers, as there is a good chance that they are in
fact coming from the same location under a different seller name-
they are not quick to admit this, but with a bit of prodding will
concede to combining all items into one posting. If you find a seller
fraudulently listing stones please report them to ebay - i am trying
to get them to set up guidelines for listing gemstones that eliminate
any potential for misleading the buying public including restricting
the use of the terms genuine, authentic and certified as descriptors
for lab created stones, and other commonly used deceitful
terminologies and ‘certifications’ from authorities that simply don’t
exist. though it is the buyers duty to know what they are purchasing
, repercussions from fraudulently listing stones are the sellers
resposibility to make right. Sellers that use and accept PayPal offer
a little more protection than those that don’t . Paisa is the Indian
branch of PayPal if you are looking at buying stones from Indian
sellers. If you get a parcel of stones that you have been charged
international postage rates/ high costs for stones supposedly being
mailed to you from overseas, and the parcel you receive was cancelled
at a post office in Iowa, I urge you to contact the seller and
request a refund of other than actual postage and report this to
ebay. this is an emerging scam; the buyer agrees to pay let’s say
15.00 for postage and handling and insurance from Jaipur India and
you receive an an envelope with a small zip lock bag, unpadded, and
without insurance on the package which was posted from Chicago…that
equals misrepresentation at least and more likely fraud…so the
seller makes over thirteen bucks mailing you a stone or stones
weighing less than an ounce in addition to the price paid for your
win/purchase…Another tip is to ask that the seller pack your stones
with the utmost care before posting them to you to avoid recieving
mdse. that has been chipped in transit due to really bad
handling(which indicates sellers that are not gem dealers) and is
therefore unusable , has to be returned and then becomes a hassle in
the long run.
I was hoping to hear more views on some aspects of this post and,
hence, held off until now.
....If you get a parcel of stones that you have been charged international postage rates/ high costs for stones supposedly being mailed to you from overseas, and the parcel you receive was cancelled at a post office in Iowa, I urge you to contact the seller and request a refund of other than actual postage and report this to ebay. this is an emerging scam; the buyer agrees to pay let's say 15.00 for postage and handling and insurance from Jaipur India and you receive an an envelope with a small zip lock bag, unpadded, and without insurance on the package which was posted from Chicago..that equals misrepresentation at least and more likely fraud...so the seller makes over thirteen bucks mailing you a stone or stones weighing less than an ounce in addition to the price paid for your win/purchase.
I’d like to give our background as diamond and gemstone jewelry
manufacturers based in Mumbai, India. This is relevant since we know
a little bit about international shipping costs.
First of all, I have no problems with the packing and packaging
materials mentioned above. Yes, I agree that for international
shipments the packing and the packaging materials have to be good.
However, I would like to mention the actual costs if one is shipping
from India after following the relevant legalities. If one is
shipping gemstones and declaring them as glass pieces on the relevant
postal forms, then I guess USD15 is ok. But, if one follows the
rules, clears Customs and declares the items as gemstones and does
the subsequent post-shipment paperwork, then the actual cost would be
at least USD75!
In fact, many potential partners abroad familiar with the gemstone
trade have asked us to ship our products without declaring them to
the authorities. However, we have always told them that gold would be
caught in the post-office’s X-ray machines and, hence, we cannot do
that. Apart from being dishonest, we would not want to take such a
chance since there are heavy penalties and our export license would
be cancelled if we were caught shipping gold out of the country
illegally.
Next, why would USD15 be a high cost of shipping if the parcel is
shipped from within the US? May be, the seller has shipped multiple
items in bulk to a known person in the US who, subsequently,
dismantled the shipment and forwarded the items individually to the
winning bidders! Thus, the shipping and handling cost of USD75 would
be split among the individual winning bidders and the total shipping
cost would be part of this USD75 plus the shipping within the US.
In fact, from our personal experience, we can say that the high cost
of logistics has prevented us from offering our products on
international online auctions. We know that we offer excellent prices
and can certainly help if someone wanted to sell on online auctions
but, on our own, we cannot sell without logistics’ support in the
relevant foreign country.
Just my 2 cents!
Regards,
Rasesh Chasmawala.
Mumbai, India.
Rashesh
You are very correct. The actual mailing and physical shipping is
the least of my problems too. Once I had to send my “FREE-diamond
setting note” package directly to another country, the customs duty
and paper-declaration on it stated it was as a ‘gift’ even as that
stated cost me more that what I thought. Some of these internationaly
packages were in excess of $13.00 each! Then you multiply that number
by 8-9 and you see that the ‘going quoted’ rates of $10.00 is 'OLD’
already. If I wanted the package to arrive faster in 3 days, it would
have been ONLY $32-45.00 per delivery…and this is from Toronto,
Canada.
I cannot quote ahead of time, as I am not a postal office with all
kinds of postal at our tips. But my newer setting CD, due
for next year, will avoid all of these shipping and 'customs’
problems. Basically for my situation, its not the contents but the
weight and size of each mailing item…
Gerry!
well with such a response from rasesh i had to say a few things.
shipping is expensive if its a timely shipment say overnight or
something, buying 1 stone and paying the shipping fee sucks, no
question about it. sellers that are at least decent should have
bought more than one stone to ship to you to alleviate the shipping.
i sometimes ship strait postal mail well packaged of course to save
on shipping. many buying on ebay think they are getting a great deal
on a 99 cent stone but they pay 9.99 in shipping thats retarded. for
example i have some glacier blue topaz we all now its an inexpensive
stone so if i charge a buck for the stone and 9.99 for shipping i
have made money id rather see appropriate pricing and shipping but
ebay will never try to regulate this because its an auction site and
auctions are dishonest by nature. i sold on ebay but i tried to use
appropriate pricing but was not able to do so.
ken
i recieve parcels from India with 516r’s on the metered mailing
labels…none of your argument holds up…and of the lets say fifty
parcels i have recieved in the last two years none were higher than
525 rupees…so what 75 US dollars are you even referring to?, and
customs is taken care of on a label attached to the packages i have
recieved saying “sample goods” when they include gemstones.and the
post referred to gemstones not gold…
i recieve parcels from India with 516r's on the metered mailing labels...none of your argument holds up..and of the lets say fifty parcels i have recieved in the last two years none were higher than 525 rupees..so what 75 US dollars are you even referring to?, and customs is taken care of on a label attached to the packages i have recieved saying "sample goods" when they include gemstones and the post referred to gemstones not gold..
I know about the ‘samples’ racket too for small shipments.
Basically, the exporter declares the shipment as samples. Thus, the
consignee does not have to pay import duty, if any, when the parcel
clears Customs in the destination country since the goods are
‘samples of no commercial value’.
This also allows the shipper to circumvent the post-shipment
paperwork required by the Indian government for exports. However,
pricier goods cannot be shipped this way since insurance would not be
available for ‘samples of no commercial value’. For pricier goods, if
one wants insurance, they would have to declare the contents of the
shipment. In that case, as per the regulations, they would have to
clear Indian Customs which incurs additional costs.
Next, the mailing label that you refer to is very likely to be
pasted by the US Customs since no such label is attached by the
Indian authorities. And, by the way, the packages you have received
said ‘sample goods’ and not
Finally, I checked the costs for shipping merchandise out of India
and, if you like, I can send you a scanned copy of the price sheet
that I have with me. The INR525 mentioned above is close to the post
office costs. Therefore, there is no way the additional costs
incurred by clearing Customs would be included in this amount.
Regards,
Rasesh Chasmawala
Mumbai, India.