I just got back from a Caribbean cruise. Some comments:
1) The jewelers on board were actually VERY good - GIA lab reports for a lot of the stones. Very nice tanzanites, rubies, emeralds, etc. Some of the people selling the stones ... not so much (what is that blue green stone? --a garnet. No it is not. I would have guessed tourmaline? --(it turns out GT on the tab meant green tourmaline, not garnet). On the other hand the shops at the port were much less reliable. a lot of them sold really blue "tanzanite" which were not dichroic at ALL as far as I could see. (very low prices, too, which they said was because it was lower quality (not included though)). They might as well be blue glass (and may have been.) The "Australian opal" which was Gilson was also disturbing. Needless to say - I didn't buy any of it.
At least this time they didn't have someone on board trying to tell us that "yellow emerald" was very rare and expensive.
Hi Alan - I buy lots of stones at Tucson from people I don't know and have had really good luck. Occasionally I get bit, but on the whole I have been very pleased. same thing with flea markets. Most commercial jewelers I go into don't have a clue about what they are selling, and I seldom buy from them.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
I agree David. It has been my experience (totally anecdotally) that when I have gotten stung at a show it is because the person selling got stung before me.
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
I am surprised all the time at the lack of knowledge shown by most commercial dealers of gems. Well, they did go to GIA over 20 years ago, so what is the problem...LOL..... They thought I was off my rocker at Shane company...I kept asking about Be diffused sapphires.... they kept shrugging and asking why I wanted to "be diffused"
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
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