What an impressive piece of rough. I need to find one like that.
It would not make me rich because history shows I would never cut it, or sell it. I would just keep it in my safe and fondle it every once in a while. I do this with all my best rough. My Wife says she is going to have one hell of a garage sale when I am finally gone. Then she will buy a horse ranch and a donkey that she will name after me. Not even a horse, a donkey. JEEEEEZZZZ.....
The answer is 'a lot' but beyond that the same general issues with appraising from a photo come into play, and on top of that the giant issue of appraisals in a market of very rare items (so limited comps if any), marketed by necessity to a much more limited (buckets of cash) audience. Someone with a lot of experience on that side of thr market might be able to give a ballpark but even then it might not be right.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
There is no BlueBook on gems.
When assigning a value to something a market has to be defined. Auction? Wholesale tent in Tucson vs a guild vendor in the AGTA Pavillion? A firm or individual who is a mineral collector?
Taking out an ad in a mineralogical publication, lapidary publication?
What country would we be offering the specimen? US, Dubai, Hong Kong, Moscow?
But, the major caveat is where are you going to get comps on the sale prices for similar items?
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:48 pm Posts: 39 Location: London + Pakistan
I agree that a photo like this one can't tell much. And with such rare items very few people would know what its worth.
Barbra, those are some pretty good points you raised about how various factors can affect the price of the same stone. I'll jot them down somewhere.
I recently graduated as a gemmologist but still I'm really struggling with assessing how much a gem is worth. I think it's "a thousand mile journey starts with a single step" sort of thing. I'm thinking of specialising in aquamarine and tourmaline and learning as much as I can about them. But even then i'm totally baffled at how to assess the price. Price of rough, price of a cut stone, if the cut stone is a single stone or matching pairs then how does that affect the price, if the stone is cut well vs poorly, how inclusions affect the price. I have a very rough idea how much a stone is worth but my pricing is plus or minus about 50% of the stones actual worth, so I'll get eaten alive if I try to buy anything that isn't priced, from developing countries. And pricing specimens, I just assume it's black magic.
How much do you think I could learn just by browsing the internet a lot and things like the GemGuide? I don't live near any gem markets. I'm looking at sites like minfind.com and random wholesale dealers' websites and learning very very slowly and probably not accurately, as Stephen said, photos dont tell you the whole picture.
The tourmaline family is too big for me right now. If I really want to learn, say, how to price aquamarines, rough and cut, any ideas where to start? I plan on exploring the gem markets of Pakistan and Afghanistan but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get totally ripped off if I'm not prepared.
The answer to the rough value will be answered definitively shortly. Gemfields holds tenders for their rough material. Since this stone will be sold as a single stone lot, we should know the result.
We will never know the wholesale/retail cut stone total sales number. However, it is my guess that one, or a few, "named" stones will come from this piece. They will use the provenance of this piece to give extra value to these pieces. So, we may have some insight eventually into the value that is derived from this rough.
For now, suffice it to say it will be a lot of money.
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:04 am Posts: 257 Location: Idaho
Back a while ago there was an article about Gemfield's emerald mine. In the interview, the head of the mine said that they had found a couple "very significant" emeralds, but the value and demand for rough of that size and quality was totally unknown so they had decided to leave them in the vault until a later date when a comp might be sold elsewhere. They may have some others appear at auction after this one sells...
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Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2007 5:58 pm Posts: 294 Location: California desert
1bwana1 wrote:
What an impressive piece of rough. I need to find one like that.
It would not make me rich because history shows I would never cut it, or sell it. I would just keep it in my safe and fondle it every once in a while. I do this with all my best rough. My Wife says she is going to have one hell of a garage sale when I am finally gone. Then she will buy a horse ranch and a donkey that she will name after me. Not even a horse, a donkey. JEEEEEZZZZ.....
Wow, I would Travel for that Garage sell! I hope she knows the combo of the safe!! Maybe throw in a hat for the donkey!
Nah, the truth is that I am leaving my collection of special rough to a well known Gemological Institue. She doesn't need the money.
Either that, or maybe I should bury it all in a box somewhere, and write a novel full of clues from history and geology for people to solve and find it. Finders keepers. Sort of like a Da Vinci Code gem treasure hunt.
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 5:29 pm Posts: 1047 Location: Paris
That would be an interesting topic or section : where would you like your stones/jewels to go after your death. Since they are supposed to last longer than us !
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