Where does that buck stop again?

Responsibility is among the most noble of virtues. Nobody wants to be thought of as the weasel or the “slick” fellow or the guy who always passes the buck. Harry S. Truman made famous the quote “The Buck Stops Here” when he displayed that placard on his desk in the oval office. It’s not only a worthy statement and a quality of great leaders, it’s how I run this business.

Here is where the buck stops at Tip Top Gem:

dave at tiptopgem dot com
800-607-1425

If you have a problem with a stone you buy from me, just pick up the phone. You can say “Dave, you goofed. This is not the stone you described.” Or you could say “Dave, this is not the quality that I expect from you.” Or you could say “Dave, who picked this @#$%! stone anyhow?”

The simple truth is that I picked the stone. I pick every stone. There are no exceptions. I have no excuses and no wiggle-room. I am directly responsible, and I am the only one responsible, for every stone that you buy from tiptopgem.com whether you buy it over the phone, via email, or from our eBay auctions. I am the buyer and I sort the parcels and I identify, label, grade, and describe every single stone that we sell. If you are not happy it is MY fault- and I sincerely hope that if that situation arises you will give me an opportunity to make everything right with you.

Testing 123

Maybe this version of the video posted on youtube.com will have better quality than the other one posted on Google. If so, I will host with youtube and get rid of this “Testing” nonsense!

Don’t be Angry- be Practical!

It is easy to get angry about the reaction of the Burmese military government in this time of most desparate need. But there is a better solution to this wide-reaching problem. As an individual you may not be able to change the minds of the military leaders. You may not be able to make a difference in this international crisis in how the United Nations or any single nation deals with getting aid into Burma. But you, as an individual, can provide food, medicine, and relief supplies to the Burmese people right now. Really.

I have mentioned the Mae Tao Clinic in the past and told you what a wonderful organization that they are. Please take just a minute and read their page on the current cyclone relief efforts. I understand that this is a small effort and it will not have an impact on the majority of the people who need aid. But I also know that if you make a donation today, your money will help people in Burma who need it more than you can possibly imagine.

http://www.maetaoclinic.org/cyclone.html

Your donation can help a child without parents, an injured person without first-aid supplies, and a starving person without food. You can help the clinic provide clean water, medicine and shelter to people who are ill, homeless, and desperately in need of help. Please help today.

10 Minutes of FAME? Is that what I am allowed?

Here is a bit of video that I shot while at the gemstone market in Chanthaburi on this past trip.  I am no professional videographer, but it might be interesting to those of you who are crazy about stones and are wondering what the “Mecca” of the colored stone world looks like.

Google Video does a serious amount of compression on their videos and the resulting picture quality is less than desirable.  While my video is fairly crisp, the post-processing result doesn’t have the outstanding quality of our stones!  All comments on the video are appreciated and constructive criticism is most helpful!

The Paraiba That Wasn’t

Perhaps some of you remember this post and the lovely stone that I was showing off:

Paraiba

I have just returned from a whirlwind seven-week tour of Asia and this stone really got around. I talked to many dealers in the trade at both wholesale and retail levels, as well as professional gemologists and some who even teach gemology full-time. The range of answers that I got to the question “Is this Paraiba tourmaline” are truly astounding and showcase the lack of consistency in our trade. But another very interesting point comes to light. If a dealer is selling such a tourmaline as “cuprian” and the only characteristic required is that there be a certain amount of copper in the composition, is the consumer being dealt with truthfully?

My first question as I showed this stone around was “Is it possible for a stone of this color to be elbaite.” Virtually everyone agreed that yes, it might be elbaite. And if it is elbaite (tourmaline rich in sodium) and it has copper, it can be called “Paraiba”, right? This is where it became troubling. Let not the gem dealers on eBay guide you!

Of course we have seen many green stones with a yellow modifying hue being called “cuprian”. And hasn’t this finally been settled that if it is cuprian, we can call it Paraiba? Not exactly. And this is where a lot of the confusion comes in. Different dealers have different standards- and of course different laboratories even have different standards. Some require manganese as well as copper in the chemistry. To further confuse the matter on this particular stone, it has inclusions which are likely indicative of Mozambican origin. So we have cuprian tourmaline from Mozambique. That seems straightforward enough. Until you start asking around more…

Some dealers told me point-blank that if a stone has copper they will sell it as Paraiba and that common sense backs them up. Other dealers choose to stick by the LMHC and need manganese as well- but will call it cuprian if it does not have manganese! Still others said if it has copper it doesnt matter whether you call it cuprian or paraiba as virtually nobody in the gem-buying public has a solid grasp on the distinction.

“Paul..” I said to him quietly, leaning forward to ensure an extra measure of privacy, “I am not sure that I have a solid grasp of the distinction.” We did have a little chuckle, but if you would like to see more confidence in the colored stone trade (as most of us do) then it is not a laughing matter.

I pondered all of the conversations as I headed over to the Jewelry Trade Center on Silom road in the bustling Bangrak area of Bangkok. There a man can usually find a smart Frenchman who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. It used to be the famed Vincent Pardieu, but now Dr. Laurent Massi has stepped up to fill those shoes. Of course I am talking about the quarter-century old Asian Institute of Gemological Studies Laboratory. I headed up to the sixth floor with stone in hand and more than a little confusion.

“I am afraid that, based on the color, this can not be called Paraiba” were Dr. Massi’s words. Hmmmm. We talked a bit about chemical composition and whether manganese played an important role in the color or the “punch” that Paraiba has, and we talked a bit about the LMHC. Dr. Massi was kind enough to email me the color guide from the LMHC as he feels that the color explanations are straightforward and agrees with how they are applied, although he does not necessarily agree with all of LMHC’s conclusions regarding Paraiba.

In short, if it has yellow as a modifying hue, it is not Paraiba. I will not assail the dealers who are selling yellow-green tourmaline with copper as cuprian because I really don’t know my own opinion on the matter yet. But I can say that this stone is not Paraiba. And when I said that it “certainly” was Paraiba in the article linked above..well…ouch! That hurts. But if you folks keep hanging out with a gemologist who isn’t afraid of his silly mistakes you will get smarter.

Bear with us for just a bit~

The offerings are slim right now I know but I am in Thailand and will return with what I hope will be the best batch yet. It is never easy to predict what will be on offer but I try to get to the markets and maintain contacts with enough different suppliers that we can have the best selection of quality stones of anyone online. That is a tall order but it is what we strive for.

nice view of the Chao Phraya River from the Shangri-La hotel, Bangkok

I want to extend a very special thank you to the kind folks who have taken time to leave feedback for us on eBay. As you know it is a very tough market online and we simply can not survive the lean times without loyal customers. We sincerely thank you for letting us serve you and for all of the wonderful feedback that you have given us.

I hope to be back in Korea during the first week of May with a large batch of quality stones. Please be patient with us as we work double-time to get the stones catalogued and graded. We will get them online as soon as possible.

A Big, Warm Welcome to our Friends in Europe!

This week marks our entry into the European marketplace with auctions on eBay.co.uk. This is designed to make the auctions more interesting for customers who have been bidding from Europe because the auction will end at a reasonable time for them, instead of the middle of the night! We have been regularly serving customers from Sweden, Ireland, Great Britian, and Germany for some time, but would like to have more customers from those countries as well as all over Europe. This is a very hard time for dealers selling strictly to Americans due to the difficult economic situation. We hope that by continuing to grow in Europe, it will mean that we can provide a wider selection of stones in larger sizes and that will benefit all of our customers everywhere.

A reminder to our customers though: it doesn’t matter where you are; you can bid on any auction we list and you can pay with paypal. Nothing much changes. If you see that the auction is on eBay in the UK and it is listed in pounds, just double that price for dollars (roughly). Also, all of our shipping charges and times will remain the same just like they are listed on the auctions. Our European customers can continue to bid on the USA eBay site just as they have been as well. It’s a global world and gemstones are a global market so we are just trying to simplify everything.

There is only one small caveat to to these statements. If you win two auctions in two different currencies, you will have trouble combining them on Paypal. Don’t sweat the small stuff! All you have to do is let us know that you are finished shopping and we will send you an invoice.

Along with the text you are seeing some of the wonderful stones that we are offering this week. There are some amazing colors and some very well-suited to both the beginning or advanced collector. And of course we also serve customers who set our stones in jewelry so we don’t want to leave them out of the loop! The majority of the stones that we offer are very well-suited for jewelry use. Hardness can be a problem with lapis lazuli if it is set in a ring, but for a pendant or a necklace no problem. The same is true of the stunning peridot that you see this week. It is great for a collection or in a jewelry application that will not see much rough use, like a ring or bracelet.

We are moving forward in our efforts to be known as the most cutomer-focused dealer on eBay with the highest regard for honesty and integrity. We welcome any and all comments in this regard. If you feel that there is something that another dealer does better than us, would you please take just a moment to send an email or give us a call and let us know? We would be thrilled to hear from you. We can not accomplish our goals alone, and we need your help to be the dealer that you want us to be.

I have a small warning that you may see a short lapse in auctions during April as I will be traveling in Thailand on a buying trip. Please, if there is any stone that you are interested in but have not seen on our auctions let me know. I have a request for aquamarine already, and a few requests for ruby, mali garnet, larger tsavorite, zircon, and mandarin spessartite. Also some of you have asked for smaller blue sapphire and I will see if there are quality stones that we can offer at a discounted price. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want; we are eager to offer stones that you want to buy! Of course we will continue to offer as much quality tourmaline (including bi-color and bi-colour LOL), spessartite, Afghan #1 lapis, and peridot as we can get our hands on as well as perhaps some more different garnets like pyrope and almandite. The red garnets seem to be in huge supply in poorly-cut and very dark tone, but in short supply in really beautiful, sparkling stones that are medium or medium-dark tone. Such is the nature of the beast!

The gem market in Chanthaburi can be finicky and we can just never tell what material will be available. Some customers are beginning to understand the difference between diamonds and colored stones as it relates to rarity. While every jewelry store in every corner of the globe has a very wide selection of diamonds in various cut, color, and clarity grades, this is just not possible with colored stones. There just isn’t enough of the material that is in demand, especially in the higher qualities, for everyone to have it. As DTC (Diamond Trading Company, DeBeer’s) continues to lose its grip on the supply end of the diamond market we will see diamond prices slide and we will see the value conscious, “smart money” move into truly rare stones.

The gem market has always sought true beauty and true rarity. The money has always chased the stones that are most difficult to obtain, and when these stones are exceptionally beautiful the chase can reach a feverish pitch. You will see the day that colored stones that now sell for very reasonable sums are pursued with vigor. The supplies of such stones are virtually always very small, and when a source is mined out it is finished for good. These are not the giant kimberlite pipes that produce diamonds for a century. That is not how colored stones form, so that is now how they are mined.

Rarity is an essential element in the value equation for colored stones, and that is something that diamond can not match. While marketing is very important and its value can not be underestimated, the kind of marketing that DTC has done in the past is no longer an option to them as they have moved from the position of monopoly to major player.

There were many people who touted gold as an investment over the last few years and many others who mocked them as the “chicken littles” of the investment world. But the argument for gold was a sound one as we see the implosion of the American credit market. Too much of the world’s currency and credit markets are based on emotion, faith and marketing- the same devices that have been used to market diamonds. But real value has much more to do with rarity, particularly if it is to be a lasting value. There are many colored stones that fit this profile and if you can enjoy stones for their beauty and rarity as a collector or make them part of your wardrobe in jewelry, why shouldn’t you consider this money well-spent?

Another Mozambique cuprian tourmaline is coming soon

Here is a little preview for the curious who are also hungry for copper! Paraiba is some really neat stuff not only because of its extraordinary value, but also because of its beauty. There really is something special about these stones that is difficult to describe using words. And I am afraid that my photographic skills don’t do them justice either. But the color seems to jolt your eyes to life when you look at these copper-bearing tourmalines. There is a depth and a vividness to the color that you don’t see in tourmaline without copper.

This is a very nice example of an unusual color in cuprian tourmaline. It is fair to state that while this is certainly Paraiba tourmaline, it doesn’t come from Paraiba. What is David saying?!? Well, according to the body that is attempting to create some cohesiveness among the different laboratories that certify stones, you can call it Paraiba if it is elbaite tourmaline and it contains copper. By the way, LMHC or Laboratory Manual Harmonisation Committee is the organization comprised of seven major laboratories that is organizing this effort to attain consistency.

In the picture below you can see the two inclusions that create excitement in any gemologist who is examining an elbaite tourmaline. The needles are most likely rutile, but copper gives them a wonderful bronzed effect that tips one off to the copper content of the stone. In the photo below, the two needles in this stone are visible through the pavilion. One needle runs almost parallel to the tweezers and is near the culet of the stone, while the other much smaller needle is below that in the photo at about the 7:00 position. It is very close to a facet junction which makes it tricky to pick out.

You might be seeing this in an auction sometime soon, or it might be on our stand-alone website when that launches. There will be a lot of treasure on the new site, by the way, and I hope you are as excited about the launch as Sheldon, Jennifer, and I are.

Thanks for stopping by, and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions that you might have about gemology, our policies and practices, or any other subject that might be on your mind. I am always here for you!

Blue sapphire sneak-peek!

As some of you know, we are about to launch our full-blown e-commerce website soon. I thought that I would give you a preview of a stone that will be featured on that site. Also note that if you click on the orange link in the upper-right hand corner of the blog entitled “See our Stones” you will get a preview of another certified blue sapphire that will be available on the site.

This stone has been certified by AIGS as natural corundum. The stone has been heated, but the color has NOT been enhanced by chemicals. It is not diffused- no beryllium, no titanium, no cobalt. This is a natural, mined sapphire. We have never, and will never sell a stone that has been chemically-diffused. These stones are very widely available on eBay and they are worthless because it is cheap and easy to take a lousy-looking stone and make it beautiful. They lack rarity.

There are certain code-words that unscrupulous dealers use on eBay, and if you are a buyer you should learn these. Whenever you see the term “red sapphire” the dealers is telling you in code that it is treated with chemicals and the color is not natural! Corundum comes in two colors- blue if it is sapphire, and red if it is ruby. Considering that when all other value factors are equal ruby is worth more money than sapphire, why would the dealer not call his stone a ruby? Simply because it began life as a very ugly stone and chemicals turned it into a “red sapphire”. That is not honest, and it is not good business, but many buyers are falling for it.

Another common code-word that dishonest sellers are using these days is “songea sapphire”. These are a stunning reddish-orange to orangish-red color and quite beautiful. But not rare. They are the product of diffusion, and should sell for only a few dollars per carat. But buyers on eBay are consistently deceived by the word “songea”. Because diffusion is so common in yellow and orange sapphire, the savvy buyer would do well to avoid these stones unless they have a certificate from a legitimate laboratory that states that they have only been heated, or that there is no evidence of heat-treatment.

The particular sapphire that you see in this article is certified as “heat-treated”. Because the laboratory did not detect any additional treatment such as chemicals diffused into the crystal structure to enhance the color, they routinely use this designation. Below you will see an image of the actual certificate for this stone.

The laboratory that issued this certificate is one of the most highly respected in the industry and you can learn much more about them by clicking on the link below:

Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences

You can use the “Authenticity Check” feature on this website to validate any certificate that Tip Top Gem offers with our stones. AIGS has been in business for over 25 years and they are one of the premier colored-stone grading laboratories in the world. They have operated with complete integrity throughout their history and have also done a great deal to advance the science of gemology. They are not only a laboratory, but also an educational institution known for producing outstanding gemologists.

Easy-to-use formula to figure the price of scrap gold

First, here is the formula for those of you who don’t care to read the article.

Price of gold / 31.1 = price of one pure gram

price of one pure gram X purity of your gold (14K=.585, other values below)

result X .98 for a typical 2 percent scrap loss

=the value of your gold per gram

value per gram X the number of grams your item weighs

=total value of your item

Let’s take this quick break from gemology to talk just a little bit about scrap gold. As a lot of you know, the prices of gold has been driven to fairly high levels lately due to an enormous amount of uncertainty in the global economy. Surely this has been precipitated partly by the predictions of impending bank failures in the United States due to the implosion of the sub-prime mortgage market. There are a number of other factors of course, but they are beyond the scope of this article. Suffice to say that gold’s price is on the rise and will likely continue to rise throughout 2008.

Many of you have gold in your possession but have little idea how to figure its value. This is a very simple procedure and it needn’t be intimidating. Learning this basic formula will also teach you a little bit about the gold that is used in jewelry. Let’s start with the root of the formula, and that is the price of a pure ounce of gold. If you look in my blogroll, you will see a link to kitco.com. They are one of the industry leaders and they offer a very neat tool called “kitcast” that will place a gold ticker in your system tray (that’s the series of icons in the extreme-lower right of your screen on Windows machines).

Kitco Current market prices

My “kitcast” program is currently showing me that gold is on the rise, and the price is 974.30 per ounce. So we have the base of the formula, which is the price of a PURE ounce of gold. We need to take that amount and divide it by 31.1 in order to get the value of a pure gram. In other words, there are 31.1 grams in an ounce so if we divide the value of a pure ounce by 31.1 it will give us the value of a pure gram.

974.30 divided by 31.1 = approximately 31.33

A pure gram is worth $31.33. But who has a pure gram of gold? Not most of us. Do you have 10K gold? You will need to take 31.33 and multiply by .417. Why? 10 karat gold is only 41.7% pure! Amazing that you paid so much for that bracelet when it is nearly 60% copper! Below is the table of purities for various karat gold.

9K .375

10K .417

14K .585

18K .750

21K .875

22K .9167

23K .9583

24K 1.000

So, if 9K gold, so popular in Europe these days, is 37.5% gold then what is the rest? Well, that’s a great question and I am so glad that you asked! The balance is mostly copper if you have yellow gold, and it is mostly nickel if you have white gold. There are traces of other metals to fine-tune the physical properties of the resulting alloy, and these might include antimony, zinc, bismuth, etc. But remember that when you figure the value of modern jewelry gold you are figuring only the weight of pure gold, and these other metals are valued at zero.

Did that clear anything up for you, or do you have more questions now? Please, as always, feel free to write to me and request more information or clarification of what you read here. I am here for you!

The Top Ten eBay Mistakes

Use these tips and tricks for buying on eBay to make

the most of your collecting time and money

Ebay is fun. It’s exciting. It’s always waiting for the gem collector! But it is also a trap. Ebay is a very large gemstone marketplace and as such it is representative of any large marketplace in any industry with any product. There are scammers, honest sellers, educated consumers, and ignorant consumers. So why not be one of the educated ones?

I have compiled a list of the top ten mistakes that new collectors make on eBay and I hope that it is useful to you. You might recognize yourself in some of these, because I certainly do as I was once a beginning collector. But this is about education and progress, so don’t get bogged down beating yourself up for past mistakes. We all made them.

1. Failing to separate bargains from lies

With only 19 minutes left in this auction, the 14 carat citrine looks like a real bargain. It has only two bids and rests calmly at $2.49. You read the description again and gaze adoringly at the lovely pictures. What a gorgeous “all-natural, untreated citrine”! You place your bid at the maximum you are willing to pay that won’t break the bank or irritate your spouse- $50. In the run-up of the final seconds you see it going to $3, then you refresh the page and see $14, oh goodness! Another refresh and you are in the lead at $22. Your pulse is racing and you see the price shoot up another $8 in the final seconds, but you are the proud winner (at $30) of a gorgeous piece of hydrothermal, synthetic quartz.

What? The dealer said “all-natural” and “mined” and “unheated” and…and…yeah, whatever. If it seems to good to be true, well, it most likely is. Get to know the latest scams and misrepresentations by visiting the forums listed in my blogroll. There are three of them that I recommend. They are loaded with people who are avid hobbyists or who do this gem thing for a living. Read all you can and learn from the mistakes that they made. But above all else, read about the current scams so that you don’t fall for one.

2. Buying clarity instead of color

How many new collectors decide that they might have limited means to dedicate to their collection, but by golly, they are gonna dedicate those funds to high-quality gems! There won’t be a single stone in my collection that is lower than a VVS!!! I have made this mistake in the past, and many, many other new collectors have as well. It is a bad one. It is an expensive one. And it also drives some people away from the hobby because if you set your sights on clarity instead of color, you can end up with a lot of really ugly stones for which you paid too much!

There is a saying in the colored stone trade that “Color is King”. If there is one thing that you take away from this blog post, please make it this concept. The cleanest stone in the world is not valuable if the color is poor. A flawless, brown spessartite is nothing more than a brown spessartite and you won’t be able to resell it or impress anyone with it, and it won’t make your heart go pitter-patter when you look at it. In fact, you will look at it once and leave it in the drawer forever. Now that isn’t why I got into this hobby- what about you?

3. Failing to know your seller

You are flipping through the tsavorite listings looking for a nice example to round-out the top tier of your collection. Something with a deeply saturated pure green hue and medium tone, and you have a penchant for trillions because they seem to make tsavorite look stunning. You see a stone of 2.13 carats that looks just dazzling with full, even brilliance and out-of-this-world color. But only 3 minutes left to bid! You click and look at the seller’s feedback profile quickly- several hundred positives and no negatives, gotta hurry and get that bid in! You win the auction at $70 per carat and feel great! Now if you can only contain your excitement while you wait for the postman to bring your new gemstone.

When the stone arrives your hands are moving at light speed as you fumble with the packaging. Your heart races as you tear away layer after layer to get to that tsavorite that will be the heart of your garnet collection. The packaging is gone and you open the final layer, slowing unfolding the stone paper to find…a wreck. I mean this stone is a piece of trash. It has a chip out of the corner. It is heavily included. The photos were airbrushed, and this thing bears absolutely no resemblance to the stone on which you were bidding. But how could it be? This seller has so many positives, and NO negatives?!?!?!

Collectors- listen to me! Use toolhaus.org! There is a link to it in my blogroll on the right margin of this page. When you punch in this seller’s name, you see that he has 41 withdrawn negative feedbacks. When you start to read the negatives that were withdrawn (as toolhaus will allow you to do) you see a really ugly picture begin to emerge. The seller is just another fraud on eBay, and he is using a tactic that has been around for a very long time in sales of every kind. Sell junk, and when 10% or 20% of your customers complain you placate them with a refund or a free stone or some other little bit of candy. It is not so hard to get feedback withdrawn from a buyer if you are willing to bribe them.

4. Not using PayPal

I know that eBay and PayPal are the same company. I know it is a monopoly of sorts, and I know that they are raking in the cash at our expense. But I also know that if you pay with a money order or Western Union or even a credit card that is processed directly by the seller, you have fewer options for recourse than you do with PayPal. I am afraid that in spite of the costs, it is just best to work within the framework of the system on this one.

It also is important to understand PayPal’s rules if you want to utilize their buyer protection program, and a small mistake can be costly in this regard. It is assuring to see the $2000 buyer protection offered for an auction, but did you know that you only have 45 days from the date of payment to use it? It is common practice among the scammers to stall you with lies in order to get past the deadline. I have heard this one just recently: “I already refunded your payment, let me see what is happening with it.” Of course, you shouldn’t wait for the seller to “see what is happening…”. File the complaint! The clock is ticking on your recourse, so don’t let it run out.

5. Judging a stone solely by the picture

One word- airbrush! So many of the stone dealers are using fancy little photoshop tools to take inclusions out of their pictures. And have you noticed the dream-like images that the top sellers are using these days? It doesn’t even look like a gemstone- it looks more like a colored-pencil sketch of one! But consistently these pictures bring the most money. I don’t understand why, and maybe that is why my stones don’t often sell for big cash. But I think that this practice is dishonest and despicable, and I won’t do it. I am not sure why buyers are not more upset when they get these stones in the mail. Maybe they are used to being deceived, and they figure that if the deception is not too egregious they will let the seller slide.

6. Not verifying what you receive

There are just far too many sellers online who are pushing CZ , or glass imitations, or some other stand-in as natural gemstones. If you don’t have a basic understanding of the physical properties of the stones you are buying you are just begging to be cheated. Educate yourself, or at the minimum make a friend who can help you with some basic gemstone identification procedures. It will save you an enormous amount of money in the long (or even short) run!

7. Not reading between the lines

When you read stone descriptions (or descriptions for any item online, for that matter) remember that just as important as what the seller says is what he does not say. Is he avoiding the mention of clarity? Is he raving about cut and tone, but doesn’t want to talk about the hue? It is important to see what is said, but don’t ignore what isn’t being said. That can often mean the difference between a stone that makes you yawn, or one with which you are thrilled.

8. Buying weight instead of quality

As gemstone collectors, dealers, buyers and sellers, we are really focused on the tipping points of value. You know what I mean- a half-carat, a carat, two carats. We expect a stone that weighs .97 to be a lot cheaper than one that weighs 1.02. While we should expect a difference in the per-carat price we should be very careful about our mindset lest we lead ourselves astray! A junk stone is a junk stone whether it weighs .99 or 1.00. A fabulous stone that weighs .92 will be worth more than a heavily included, poorly saturated, ugly stone that weighs 1.00. Don’t get too caught up in the weights or you will cheat yourself out of some amazing stones that you will be delighted to own. I am not saying not to pay attention to the weights and adjust your per-carat price accordingly. I am saying that quality trumps weight every time.

9. Not figuring price-per-carat

Do this all the time, and do it every time. If you are buying a stone don’t even bother with the price of the stone except to see if it fits your budget. The real price is always the price-per-carat. The more often you exercise this muscle the stronger it will get, and you will over time be able to get a much clearer understanding of gemstone values and trends. Buying stones based on price only, and not price-vs-weight is like buying fruit from a grocery store that doesn’t have a scale on the premises. Would you do that?

10. Changing your maximum bid

This is another very common beginner mistake and it is a costly one. Once you have figured the price-per-carat that you are willing to spend, and have factored in the feedback profile on eBay as well as the one that you pulled up on toolhaus.org, stick to your maximum bid. There is no need to use sniping software or sit there at the end of the auction when you will get caught up in the heat of the moment. That heat might feel toasty-warm, but it is also a fire that will burn you. Small mistakes are multiplied over years of collecting, and your collection’s value will suffer a great deal if you don’t apply this rule to all of your bidding. Enter the maximum price that you are willing to pay based on the maximum price-per-carat, then walk away. If you win you did well, and if you don’t win you did well. Too many collectors don’t understand this concept of “losing is winning”. When you don’t overpay, that allows you to allocate the money that you would have spent poorly to a stone that offers better value per-carat.

I hope that this helps some of you new collectors, and refreshes some of the concepts in the minds of those of you who are old-hat at this game. Even if you have been collecting for a long time, some of you will slip into bad habits so you have to be on your guard. Best of luck to all of you bidding, and I hope you are getting the most for your money!

Gemstone treatments and our auctions this week

This is going to be another great week for our auctions. A lot of our stones are starting at 99 cents. We are posting some very nice tourmaline, more of that incredible Afghan #1 lapis lazuli, and a truly fabulous mandarin-color spessartite garnet. You will see some nice bi-color (or bi-colour if you are British!!!) tourmaline and also more of that very hard-to-find Mali garnet.

You are aware that Mali garnet only comes from one source in the world, right? The country of Mali in West Africa is currently the only known source for this hybrid garnet. By hybrid, I mean that it is actually a mix of two garnets- grossular and andradite. Some in the trade call it “grandite” but that never really seems to catch on.

As many of you know, we are focused mostly on untreated gemstones because we believe that much of the growth in the colored stone market will come from this area. As the internet serves our industry by educating consumers, dealers who have all along been doing business with integrity will have a huge advantage. We believe in full disclosure all the time and every time. If we believe- or even suspect- that a stone is treated, we will not list it as untreated! We will tell you if it has been heated, irradiated, or any other known treatment even if there is no evidence of the treatment!

That is a critical distinction. You will notice that our rubellite is listed as “irradiated”. Our competition does not do this. Do you know why? Why are we so foolish to list our stones as treated and drive the bid prices down? Because there is an overwhelming probability that rubellite is irradiated. You can’t prove it, but that doesn’t matter in our opinion. If it is likely treated, we will say that it is treated. Why not tell the truth? There are many customers in the current market who are continuously educating themselves. They call me and they write emails to me asking questions. Isn’t it just good business to be honest? The colored stone trade must learn to respect the knowledge of the customer because it is growing by leaps and bounds in this new information age. On eBay people vote with their bids. We will wait and see what they have to say.

Spessartite (or spessartine if you prefer) is one stone that we carry regularly that has no known viable treatment. Much of our tourmaline (except rubellite) is in the same category. Tsavorite garnet and Mali garnet are more favorites for their lack of treatment and beautiful brilliance and color. Many of the lapis lazuli cabochons that you see online are dyed. If you buy from anyone, make sure you take a cotton swab (q-tip or similiar) and dip it in acetone. Rub it over the surface of the stone. If your q-tip turns blue, you have purchased a dyed stone. Oh, if you don’t have any pure acetone lying around the house then finger-nail polish remover will do the trick.

The reason that you see so much dyed material online (or undisclosed treatments in general) is very simple. It is a wager by the seller. He is betting that he knows more than you about gemstones, and that you will not discover the difference. After all, it is much more profitable to buy treated stones and sell them at untreated prices. You can make big money doing that- for a while. There are some problems with this theory, and some sellers are going to feel the crunch soon.

As the military strategists tell us, the value of any position erodes with time. I believe the position of some of the dishonest eBay stone merchants is eroding. If you are selling treated material as untreated, the time is coming when you will get caught. If you are a consumer, educate yourself! This week I am adding some new links to my blogroll, which will now include three gemology forums for people just like you who want to learn more about stones. Education is your best weapon against unscrupulous sellers. Don’t go into battle without armor!

Have you sent an email to me lately? Why not???? Remember I am always here to help you. I don’t mind answering questions about gemology, about a specific stone we have, about our policies, or about the weather here in Korea. Hahaha. Really anything that you might have a question about is fair game. Curious about traveling in Asia? Send me a note! Want to know the best countries to visit in Southeast Asia? Send me a note! Want to know where to go for the best food in Thailand, or where to buy fountain pens in Bangkok? Send me a note!

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

And now for something completely different. A lot of you have been watching our auctions for a long time. Some of you have been buying for a long time. Right now you are seeing a trial run of a very different type. We want to sell more of the high-quality corundum (sapphire and ruby) that we have in inventory and we may have a solution that benefits you and us. To understand what is going on, why we are doing this, and how you can benefit, you must know a bit about corundum. I want to introduce you to this majestic, brilliant, and durable stone and at the same time tell you about the dangers of buying them. In the process, we will talk about some of the current treatment methods and deceptions that are going on in the marketplace.

First a primer on corundum. It’s hard. Really, really hard. It is used in low-grade as an industrial abrasive. It is used to make grinding wheels, for example! There are no durablility concerns for this stone in the kind of jewelry that gets a lot of wear- for example, in a ring or bracelet. Some stones are best off in a pendant or earrings because they are not so hard, or they have cleavage issues (meaning that they separate along planes of weakness in their atomic structure). That is not true of corundum. Even if you are fairly hard on jewelry, you will likely not have trouble with the ruby or sapphire in your ring. That doesn’t mean it is indestructible. But it is extremely hard, and very tough.

Most of the corundum that you see currently on the market has been heated. This is not a big deal to most people if it is disclosed by the seller. Even if the seller does not mention it (a mistake we think) it is very, very likely that it was heated. Why? Simply to make the stone more beautiful. Many times a stone that is only fair ends up gorgeous after a little time in the oven. This has been going on for a very, very long time by the way. The ancient Egyptians heated stones, and documented it. Heat has been used for literally thousands of years to improve the color of stones.

This isn’t so difficult to understand so far, and not so worrisome. Sorry, there is more to the corundum story and it gets ugly. Several years back, the trade noticed a lot of pretty sapphires. In our business, the supply is always changing and new sources come and old ones fade away. We are used to this. So to see a lot of pretty sapphires was a fairly normal part of the cycle. Sometimes there are more, sometimes less. The truth that would be discovered would, however, shake the colored stone industry to its core.

Some gemologists became suspicious of these stones for various reasons. We can often tell when a stone has been heated. Before heat, a lot of corundum has needles of rutile or what we call “silk”. In Cambodian and Thai corundum, there is also sometimes needles of bohemite. When these stones are heated, the needles break up. Instead of being a fairly sharp image of a needle, after heating they look almost like a ghost of what existed before. Inclusions tell a lot about a stone, and that is why we don’t call them “flaws” in gemology. They are good friends to us!

Bear with me just a minute on the inclusions. There is another inclusion besides needles, and this is zircon. It’s just a mineral that grew inside the corundum. Zircon was always considered unaffected by heat. Even when corundum was heated and the needles where broken, the zircon crystals would not be affected. But in these new, very pretty stones that was often not true. The crystals would be chalky white, and that made some gemologists wonder just what was going on. Zircon doesn’t lose its transparency until it gets hot. And I mean really, really hot. There are other inclusions that exist in corundum, but without getting into the topic too deeply I will just say that in general these do not remain intact at 1600+ centigrade.

Why were these stones being heated to such extreme temperatures? It was later discovered that this allowed “diffusion”. In other words, the stones were heated crazy-hot in the presence of another chemical. This chemical was “diffused” into the stone, or the stone basically absorbed it. The result was gorgeous stones that could be made from ugly ones. There is a real problem with these stones as far as the consumer is concerned. They aren’t rare. Anyone with a high-temperature furnace and access to the chemicals and the know-how can make them. Ouch. A lot of people bought these stones before this was discovered. And these people were mad.

Unfortunately, you still have unscrupulous sellers online (and, sorry to say, at your local jewelry stores) who are selling these stones as natural and are not disclosing the fact that the color is a product of diffusion. These stones were not only heated, but also are chemically enhanced to become the color that they are. In my opinion, to sell these stones without full disclosure is criminal.

There is a really easy way to avoid all of this nonsense. Since the post-diffusion period was so gloomy in the corundum market, the need for independent labs became much more important than it had been before. More consumers began demanding third-party verification that the stones they were buying were natural. I don’t blame them. I encourage this practice, and if you have trouble telling the difference between a stone that is diffused and one that is not (it is exceedingly difficult even for many gemologists) I would suggest that you never buy a sapphire or ruby without a certificate.

That being said, there are many companies issuing certificates that are worse than no certificate at all. How could it be worse? They are giving a false sense of security. I strongly recommend that if you are buying a certified stone, you take the time to research the lab who issued the certificate. Have they been in the business for a long time? Are their certificates well-respected by dealers in the colored-stone trade?

GIA is a well-respected lab, as is AIGS and GIT. AGTA is good, and there are others better-known in the European market like GRS and Gubelin. If you don’t have a very, very good reason to trust a particular lab, don’t. It’s not worth it. There are literally hundreds of laboratories out there churning out reports that are fraudulent. Many of these laboratories do not even bother to test the stones. Some of them are fictitious entities that are owned by the people selling the stones!

Right now (the week of February 4-10) you will see a .97 carat, pear-shaped blue sapphire on auction. This is the start of our new test strategy and the reserve is very low. Let’s say extremely low. It is a certified stone that has only been heated- no chemicals or diffusion of any kind. It comes with a certificate from a world-leading laboratory, AIGS- Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences. They have been in business since 1978. You can see their website here:

AIGS Home Page

If we manage to sell this beautiful blue sapphire, there will be a lot more offerings in the coming weeks. We have heated and unheated stones from just under a carat to well over two carats. From time to time, we may also offer larger stones. It depends on what you want and what you are willing to bid on these certified sapphires and rubies.

Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to contact me if you have any questions. You can use the contact forms on this site or in our eBay store, or just call us at 800-607-1425. I am always happy to hear from my audience and would be glad to answer any questions that you might have.

NOTE: all of the images above are of the actual stone that is on auction this week, and the certificate above is for that stone

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Are you ready with your new year’s resolutions?

What?! Is Dave crazy?

Remember here in Korea we also observe the LUNAR calendar- so it is that time of the year again! We foreigners have our normal parties and resolutions, then when things go bad and we find we aren’t meeting our goals we just call a “do-over” and then the other New Year holiday rolls around. Smooth, right?

If you thought there were no surprises in store for you, you are in for a pleasant one. We have just rolled out our new Value Series and this is big news for everyone who does business with us. You are going to see some opportunities arise in the coming weeks and months to get great prices on very lovely stones. They are stones that for one small reason or another we can not sell along with our “standard” grade- or as many of you now know- premium grade. It’s true- our everyday, run-of-the-mill stones are really exceptional. Just look at the number of repeat customers in our feedback profile to check that out.

 

Some of you will learn that if you take a chance on a stone in our Value Series you might be pleasantly surprised to see that these stones are still far better than the average eBay seller is offering. We don’t want to leave out the average collector, and as prices for colored stones rise there is a big demand for modestly-priced offerings. We are very happy to see our stones selling for more money, but at the same time we don’t want to forget that it is the small collector who gave us our start.

How many of you were buying stones a year ago? Do you remember what premium blue tourmaline was bringing then? If you bought it I hope you stocked up. And certainly the same can be said of many other collectible stones out there like nearly all of the garnets (especially tsavorite, demantoid, and color-change). The tourmaline that was modestly priced then is now going quite high- especially some of the bi-colour. I think if we could buy some of these stones at what our SALE prices were back then, we would snap them up. But unfortunately that is not how markets work!

Please keep your eyes on our offerings as we hope to ramp up in the coming weeks and offer a greater number of stones for sale. And we will do our best to find a good balance between our standard stones, the very high-end Royal Series, and the more economical Value Series. And as always, if there is anything that you are curious about feel free to give us a call at 800-607-1425, or send a note to me at dave@tiptopgem.com.

 

Oh boy, are we BACK!

It was an amazing month in December and we are well-stocked and ready to meet your demands for great stones! Jenn and Sheldon had a good trip in India and my buying in Chanthaburi, Thailand was most fruitful. You have a lot to look forward to if you watch the eBay auctions. Some of the most noteworthy items are listed here:

We have a selection of true peacock indicolite. This isn’t the teal or greenish blue material that you see scattered around the online gem merchants and auctions and being sold as peacock, this is BLUE. It is true peacock color. Here is a sample of the lovely stones and I think you will enjoy it:

 

We are very proud to bring you an outstanding example of the cuprian (or copper-bearing) tourmaline that is currently coming from Mozambique. This is often sold in the trade as “Paraiba” but the source is actually Mozambique. Paraiba has become a catch-all trade name for any copper-bearing tourmaline. We are so proud to offer this sweetheart of a stone that is over six-and-three-quarters carats. Not only is the size considerable, but the copper gives the color a punch that has to be seen to be believed. Another real treasure that came on my very last day of buying!

And I’m sorry but this has to be listed with a reserve. This material is just exhorbitantly expensive now and in extremely short supply so we have to have some protection. Normally I prefer to let the market decide and losses be darned! But this would be too big of a loss!

We have some of the best bi-color tourmaline that is currently being auctioned on eBay as this material has almost completely dried up. I believe that in the last five trips to Thailand I have only been offered one parcel of it. This means that I had to pay dearly for it! So remember that your bid is much more than just an offer to buy. When you place a bid you are also saying “I understand the rarity of this item and I want to see more of it in the future”. If I can’t cover costs on stones like this I simply can’t buy any more.

 

Many of the eBay sellers have simply stepped down the quality ladder in order to make money, but we will not do that. We feel that there is a select group of buyers on eBay who are educated and discerning and understand value and rarity. If you are in this group we wholeheartedly welcome you and want you to enjoy the outstanding service that we offer before, during, and after the sale. We want you to enjoy dealing confidently with a company that has integrity. If you aren’t in this group, we just can’t afford to sell stones to you! Our stones cost too much.

There is a lot more quality material like mandarin spessartite garnet, various colors of tourmaline, and a handful of really special stones that you will see in the coming weeks and months. Please stay with us and check back often to see the new auctions. There is a lot of work to be done right now regarding inventory, computer issues around the office, and marketing but I am trying to get as many new stones online as I can. I am so grateful for your patience- especially since we robbed you of your Christmas buying season as we were overseas! But those who hang around will be most handsomely rewarded!

Oh, and we do have some pics to show you from the gem market in Jaipur. Jenn and Sheldon were a bit disappointed with the quality of the stones that they saw in the market and whether we will return there remains to be seen. A lot depends on whether we continue to have such good experiences buying in Thailand, and in…oh wait…that is a secret for now. Let’s say that there is another location in Asia that we will likely be traveling to in the spring and the winner will be YOU, our customer. For now, please take a look at some of the pictures from Jaipur!

Just gem shop after shop after shop…

 

 

…after shop!

 

 

 

Cutting the old-fashioned way. I always though electricity was overrated.

Jennifer is a tough customer. This poor guy has no idea. He thinks some tourists has stumbled upon his path!

The locals were very friendly here!

Lots to see but for the very selective, not a lot to buy.

Please, if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me right away! The most exciting part of my job is answering questions from our customers and potential customers. I love gemology, and I am happy to help you in any way that I can. It doesn’t have to be a question about a specific stone that we have for sale, or about our policies or practices in particular. If you just have a general question I am thrilled to give it my best shot.

I do NOT have all of the answers! Anyone who works as a gemologist and pretends to know it all is not a very good one. This field is constantly changing. Old sources dry up, and new deposits become fruitful. Treatment methods are changing every day! What are the burners doing now? Is there a new method, a new recipe, a new chemical or technique? Did you hear about the new cuprian tourmaline from Nigeria, for example?

I do have the advantage of being on-site at the gem markets and experiencing it first-hand. I see parcels of stones that many in the trade do not see, or who see them much further down the supply chain, and that means I have exposure to pricing, treatment, and supply-and-demand shifts that others will experience in a delayed fashion instead of in real time. In this business, that is a significant competitive advantage. If you want my knowledge and experience to work for you, all you have to do is bid. But it doesn’t cost you a dime to ask me questions!

Our toll-free number is available for customers in the USA and Canada at 800-607-1425. Of course you can always use the “contact seller” link on any of our auctions, or you can email me directly at dave@tiptopgem.com. If you have a question but don’t ask it you are giving up an opportunity to learn and for me to serve you, and that makes my job less fun. Please let me help!

No more auctions?

Don’t worry- more auctions are coming! Right now Jennifer and Sheldon are preparing for the buying trip to India and Dave is getting ready to go to Thailand. We are excited about what we will find and hope that you will be patient with us for a couple of weeks while we are traveling.

This will mark our first venture to India for stones and we believe that it will mean a wider variety of gems for our customers. We are also aware that as the cutting has improved immeasurably in India they are offering really fierce competition to the Thai market. We don’t mind the extra travel provided that it means we can offer stones at better prices than the competition and we can consistently meet or exceed our customer’s expectations on cut.

We will return on December 30th so please hang on until then and you will be rewarded with a lot of treasure! We will also be adding some stunning blue sapphire to our store inventory in the near future; below is a preview of a nice Ceylon-colored stone with an outstanding cut and really stunning color.  As with all of our high-end sapphires, this stone is certified by AIGS.  They have been one of the most respected gemological laboratories for decades.  Please see their website below:

AIGS 

We do not sell beryllium or any other chemically-altered stones and provide a certificate from a highly-respected independent laboratory.  All of our sapphires are either untreated or treated only with heat.

99 Cents for tourmaline, spessartite, sapphire, tsavorite!

 

• Square Trade member
• GIA-Educated Gemologist
• 100% positive feedback
• American and Canadian owned
• Toll-free customer support
• Fast, secure shipping options
• We only sell quality stones
• Only pay shipping for your first stone- the rest are free (31 day combining period)

Visit the store!

GO TO THE STORE NOW

Please take a look at our eBay store “tiptopgem”. We specialize in well-cut, high-quality stones like tsavorite, spessartite, tourmaline, and pink and blue sapphire. You will even find some unheated sapphires in our store- and you will only find 100% natural stones. We never sell lab-created stones, synthetics, or simulants. If it didn’t come from the ground, we don’t sell it!

We are also very quality-conscious. We choose stones that we ourselves would like to own. You will not find off-color stones with poor brilliance on our pages. We work hard to make sure that you are happy with your purchase, and that starts with our buying. As the gemologist for tiptopgem, I visit international gemstone markets all over Asia and hand-select the best stones for our store. I think if you read our feedback profile you will find that our customers are extremely satisfied with our stones!

We offer a 100% guarantee and charge no restocking fee for returns. We want our customers to be satisfied with every purchase from us. We also offer a toll-free number for our customers in America and Canada. Feel free to give us a call anytime:

800-607-1425

Take a break!!!

Take a break and shop for some great quality, hand-selected gemstones for that someone special this Christmas! Our stones make great gifts because they are hand-selected by ME- the Staff Gemologist here at Tip Top Gem! Take a look at the latest offerings… VISIT US NOW:

~OUR STORE~

 

You will see some amazing gifts like these:

 

Amazing WINDEX blue tourmaline

 

Deeply saturated green tourmaline

 

Stunningly brilliant green tourmaline; outstanding cut

 

Our new Royal Series. Our very finest stones have our name in purple on the frame. These stones are fit for a king, and represent less than one in one-hundred of our hand-selected stones. We chose this truly exceptional rubellite to be our first Royal Series stone for good reason. If you are lucky enough to own this stone it will be a high point in your collection!

 

This purplish-pink tourmaline has great sparkle!

 

A Zambian amethyst that shows the most-coveted red flash effect.

 

This is a gorgeous green sapphire with loads of brilliance!

 

This tsavorite is sure to please with deep, rich color and great brilliance

 

While not on par with the Royal Series rubellite above, this is a beautiful stone with super color and very good light return.

 

This spessartite has a deep orange color and great cut for superb sparkle.

 

 

Let’s talk about Burma

With the violent government repression of unarmed, peaceful civilian protesters in Burma has come an extraordinary volume of journalistic pieces on the trade of Burmese gems and proposed solutions to this difficult human rights problem. I believe that we should read carefully, think logically, and act humanely as this situation in Burma continues to develop.

There is a range of opinions on this issue and little common ground. Most journalists in the international press have jumped on the boycott bandwagon and believe that this is the best solution to the problem. I understand this proposal but I believe that it is both reactionary and ineffective. Certainly we can boycott Burmese timber and gemstones in an attempt to put additional pressure on the military government. The problem is that for 40 years the government has never responded to international pressure, and we will also most certainly hurt the miners. These people have succeeeded at establishing effective, efficient smuggling routes for Burmese gemstones and use these channels to support themselves and their families.

Those who would have you believe that Burmese gemstones are only mined by the government and the bulk of the profit in this business benefits the military junta are inordinately naive. These writers are people who have never visited an international gem trading center, have never set foot on a gemstone-rich mining area, have never slept in a ramshackle mining camp in Southeast Asia or Africa or any other place. These are armchair journalists who repeat inaccuracies gleaned from other journalists.

The Burmese people have been subjected to a military regime that invests an insignificant amount of money on social programs and health care and are forced to fend for themselves for their every need. It must be understood that it is precisely this condition that has led to the extensive smuggling network that people rely upon to meet daily needs like food, medicine, and shelter. We would love to starve the military government out, but the cold hard fact is that if we don’t buy Burmese gemstones we are starving the people. We may prevent a general in the Burmese army from buying a fourth or fifth Mercedes Benz, but we can not do so without starving a family of rice, clothing, and antibiotics.

Please understand that as I write this I have not a single Burmese gemstone for sale. I have bought and sold Burmese stones in the past and I will continue to do so in the future because I believe in the free market system and I know that the people who need my money the most will get it if we buy and they will not if we don’t. If we could wave a magic wand and make all Burmese stones worthless we may be able to starve the junta out of power. But surely millions of Burmese citizens will starve first. It is a simple matter of the resources currently in place.

Many of the articles lately seem to be written by journalists confused about the system of mining in Burma. Very likely this is because they have no education or training, and no experience or exposure to the gem trade. Colored stone mining is, by and large, not in any way similar to the multi-million dollar diamond mines of Canada, Russia, or South Africa. These aren’t massive deposits of stones that are discovered, mined for decades on end with extraordinary capital investments , then abandoned. If they were, they would be much easier to control and a military government could easily steal all of the production for themselves. The reality is far different.

Colored stone deposits tend to be very small. Sometimes a deposit is mined for days, sometimes for weeks or months, but rarely for years. While there are regions rich in gemstones, individual deposits are constantly shifting. It is precisely the nature of this distribution that makes mines so difficult to control and it is why the Burmese government has been forced to relinquish this control in many parts of Burma to many different groups.

What? You mean the Burmese government doesn’t control and profit from every ruby that leaves the country? Blasphemer! Heretic! Gem-dealer scum, what lies do you tell? Let’s look at the how and why of this government “generosity” before we dismiss it as a lie. Burma has been in a situation of civil war for decades and their struggle to control the nation’s resources has put them at odds with many ethnic groups. Perhaps the most formidable enemy is the Karen people who have organized an armed insurgency which has been successful enough to win concessions including mining certain areas for gemstones. It should be emphasized that these concessions are not economically insignificant, are not a rare occurrence, and have a significant contribution to the supply of Burmese gemstones to the world market.

When the goverment sees that the toll is simply too heavy to continue fighting they have used mining rights to lure the enemy from the fight. It is widespread and profitable for the enemies of the junta. But I certainly do not point to these agreements as examples of the junta’s good will. In fact it has also been used as an