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PostPosted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 7:26 pm 
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yes I can see the tsavorite being a little to papal for a ring.

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 6:51 am 
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I was at a show and talking to a man there he told me I needed to get a book called the guide. It gives prices on all gemstones and diamonds.
grades colors. I have been looking for it on Amazon but no luck. But if anyone knows about this book I would like to know where to order it.
According to him it is an appraisers hand book on jewelry.


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 7:48 am 
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TnP...

...The Guide is sold by Gemworld International. Before you buy it, see if some discussion developes here.

...the Guide provides general wholesale prices paid by retail jewelers on a per carat basis. A huge percentage of jewelry stores source almost all their stones from Stullers, or such, and Guide pricing is more inline with this type of whloseller than others tha may be considered wholesellers.

...I find it very useful when used as a guide, but hardly the answer to all my quesions.

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:53 am 
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Pearl, the guide is pretty expensive and I suggest not buying it until you really need it.


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 11:20 am 
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I subscribe to The Guide and use it almost daily for appraisal work. It is very well researched and I find it accurate, especially with wholesale diamond prices. It comes with an extensive instruction manual that goes in depth describing gem quality, locals, and treatments in relation to how they effect value.
I believe the price is $195 a year for the subscription and that includes both colored gems and diamonds. Updated quarterly and accessible online. It can also be directly plugged into their appraisal software which is sold seperately.
Check it out, as Doos said, it's not cheap, but I think it's reasonable:
http://www.gemguide.com/


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 1:00 pm 
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The guide and similar publications are a pretty interesting situation. The publishers are trying to list US wholesale asking prices on the various stones and they make a decent crack at indexing the important characteristics and what to look for to rank each stone. Obviously this is fairly useful information in the right circumstances but there are some important pitfalls to watch out for when appraising using these tools.

#1. The research is done by people from the publisher going to different dealers, looking at what they have for sale and asking what things cost. In the case of items that are traded regularly and by many different dealers this works pretty well but on the fringes it can be tricky. It’s not a one-way street because the dealers are using the Guide as a pricing method. When a new issue comes out, they will look up the various items in their inventory and see if they need to update their prices on XYZ. When the researcher comes buy and looks at the prices, they will notice that there seems to be an industry trend in higher prices for XYZ and the next issue will report it accordingly. It’s a loop that doesn’t require transactions to create value. Obviously the dealers who own inventory like this process and will regularly manipulate it. If it’s the sort of thing where there aren’t many transactions to go from, like the treasures Maurice has shown, it makes their data highly suspect. Average wholesale price for a stunning 10 ct. Tsavorite isn’t really all that meaningful if there are only 5 available in the market, none have been sold or if the dealer is unwilling to reveal the details of their sales (which is usually the case). Asking $1,000,000 for an awesome stone is not the same thing as getting it.

#2. ‘Wholesale’ is not a fixed number. The variation between asking prices at the trade shows and actual amounts collected by dealers can be considerable and can go in both directions. A stone may be offered at a gem show for $75/ct. where they list it at $100/carat in their catalog or website. At the end of the show they may drop it to $30/ct. or they may be sold out. When the salesman shows up in your store, he may be trying to get $50/ct. on memo and, if you buy a lot of it and pay cash you can get it for $25/ct. All of these are wholesale prices and there are valid circumstances when a dealer would be willing to pay each.

#3. Describing gemstones can be, at the very least, difficult. The difference between a $3,000/ct. sapphire and a $5,000/ct sapphire can be very subtle indeed. How the researcher graded their sample stones vs. how you grade the subject stone can be terribly important as well as details that aren’t included in their formulas.

All in all, I do like the guide and Richard Drucker, the publisher, is a very thoughtful fellow who works hard at doing a good job. For professional appraisers who see a lot of gemstones, I recommend a subscription. For others, it’s awfully expensive and learning to apply the data in a meaningful way is surprisingly difficult.

neil

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 1:54 pm 
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Barbra wrote:
Updated quarterly and accessible online. It can also be directly plugged into their appraisal software which is sold seperately.


...The Guide Appraisal Software is very useful to me. I first used it as a learning tool for appraising colored stones. However, it is powerful stuff for the price, basically $99 dollars for 100 FINAL appraisals for everything from single items to collections of stones or jewelry. It will created databses for descriptions, clients, locations, and on and on. You can import The Guide pricing info directly, but more inportantly, you can substitute your own pricing.

...It provides forms for appraisals, ID's, which it will print directly or that you can export to word...maybe xml too. You can capture stone/jewelry images to print on you reports, or you can pull the images from a file. I may not have looked at everything, but I think it the biggest bang for the buck out there.

...as I said, a great learning tool. You see very quickly how changing a single grading parameter slightly can have a huge impact on value.


'tase and Neil have provided sage advise and indepth insight into its value and use. My comments on the appraisal are based on my personal experience alone, and I have never seeen it discussed elsewhere as a tool for learning..so all is IMHO!

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 Post subject: The Guide
PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:42 pm 
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The November 2005 issue of Lapidary Journal has what seems to be a good article by Sharon Elaine Thompson about price guides (including the one she publishes in each issue) and gem qualities.

For someone relatively new to the gem scene, trying to get a fix on ballpark gem prices, this article (and Sharon's price guides) might be a good place to start?

Staying tuned,
Chris


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 11:16 pm 
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When I see a Tsavourite like that, I feel like I am not a collector at all.

simply stunning......

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 4:38 pm 
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Martin wrote:
When I see a Tsavourite like that, I feel like I am not a collector at all.

simply stunning......


Thank you. It is the best of my tsavorites over 10cts. I do have a 6.5ct that is more green but this one is more alive.

Regards,
Maurice

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