Hello John and All,
John, thanks [blush] for your kind comments on my writing. I try to be honest and make it entertaining and then “help, I’m talking about gems and can’t shut up…” Yes, it’s true that some of us just love gems and jewelry and will acquire the knowledge needed to succeed because it is fun for us. Then at some point, we might be able to make some money at it. I started cutting cabs in 1983. My wife and I knew and older couple, artist-craftspersons, and spent many happy hours in their kitchen talking. The husband was a lapidarist and taught my wife to cut a cab and I watched, went home and built a machine and learned to cut them. In 1996, a faceting machine became available and I taught myself to facet from books and what I’d seen in the craftsman’s shop years earlier. I took the GIA gemologist’s course by correspondence and continued learning from Hanneman’s book and articles. About the time I started faceting the internet was taking off, and this eventually led to contacts overseas. I also met the late Will Smith, who was one of the sparkplugs behind education at the Middle Tennessee Gem and Mineral Society. Will taught me a lot about faceting and we started the "Facetor’s Frolic’ in Franklin NC, which was a small gem show just for faceters and it ran for twelve years. Meeting professional and amateur faceters at these meetings led to more learning and buying and selling. I’m finally now at a point where I feel I probably won’t lose my shirt if I buy and sell gem rough and cut stones.
But it is still easy to get fooled if you are not careful. A few years ago I was looking through a pile of morganite at one of the Franklin show, most of which was about 10-15 carats. However, there was one large piece of several hundred carats for the same price per carat. I had bought from this gentleman the year before, so I trusted him and snapped it up for about $500. I got back to the Frolic and showed it to a friend who immediately pointed out that it was full of bubbles. Another friend, a crack gem dealer, took a piece of quartz and scratched it easily. It was obviously glass, but I’d been so taken with the great deal that was going to make me rich that I forgot all my gemology…the dealer was very nice and took the piece back and I witnessed the phone call as he talked to the guy whose morganite he was selling. They spoke some African language, but I could tell it was not a pleasant phone call. Somewhere along the way the parcel had been salted and maybe neither of these guys knew that…a lot of gem dealers visit the mines and buy, but don’t know much, if any, gemology. The parcel was quite possibly salted at the mine. I did an exchange with the dealer and took home a large piece of aqua instead, so things turned out OK.
That was not the first time I have been bamboozled or cheated, but I hope it is the last big one. My point is that just before that buy I had given a talk on buying and selling gem rough and yet I still made a very bad buy. Fortunately I bought from someone with ethics and it turned out OK. The gem world is not that big, so if you cultivate friends in it, you can always get good advice if you are unsure about a purchase. If someone has no reputation or selling history, be very careful. At present you have buyer protections if you use credit cards or Paypal and dealers generally will not cheat you outright because word spreads very fast on the internet. However, you still need to be aware that photos may look better than the stones you actually receive. Backgrounds that are not white or neutral gray are a tipoff that color is being distorted. You may be told the average weight of the parcel pieces, but there may be one big one and a lot of smalls…or you may be given a range that is distorted by one big piece. And so on…
Well, there I go again…have fun with gems and be careful!
-royjohn