Hi, Andrew.
I have heard from a lot of people, such as at Gram Faceting that
any gem dealer selling on any auction site is inherently
non-trustworthy, and that I should only buy my rough through
word-of-mouth referrals built up over years of personal
relationships. Is that really true?
While the advice you quote is generally sound, it is more a
guideline than an iron clad rule. One way to help assure that your
auction dealer is honest is if you recognize them as members of
Orchid, or some other gemology or jewelry forum whose membership you
trust. In my case, I just read the auctions carefully, looking for
inconsistencies, vagueness, or other indicators that things might not
be as represented, and I had pretty good luck with that.
Other good advice is, always pay with Paypal or a credit card, since
those methods help with recovering disputed items. If you are buying
from an unknown seller, don’t pay more than you can afford to lose,
and accept that you will occasionally make a mistake. On the other
hand, a lot of auction dealers are honest, and with a very little
practice, the deceptive ones quickly become obvious.
With some exceptions, I have had a better record buying polished
stones from online auctions than rough, mostly because it is very
difficult to evaluate rough from descriptions or photographs, and
many sellers do not offer their very best at auction anyway,
especially starting at under a dollar. Many excellent gem dealers,
however, use auctions as loss leaders to promote their product lines,
and some sell exclusively at auction.
In the end, you just have to use your best judgement, case by case.
Good luck!
Steve McQueen
Gems Evermore