The Gem Vault

This happens very regularly.  A customer buys a stone from me, or sees one that I have for sale.  “I want one just like that, except round.  Do you have one?”  Most often the answer is no.  And the next question is “Will you tell me when you get one?”  And of course I will!  But when the conversation veers toward price this is when I start to lose people in the gemological quagmire.  Why would a round stone be more expensive than an oval?  And why so MUCH more?  And why might it take you a year or more to find one?

First, we need to think about dust.  When gemstones are cut, the piece that is left is the gemstone and everything that is ground away is the dust.  Both the gemstone and the dust have value- and that value is the same.  Huh?  What is wrong with this fool???  OK, think of it this way.  Maybe you remember that parcel of Burmese ruby that I showed you a couple of posts back.  We can use that because it illustrates this point so well.  My neighbor owned the parcel.  He bought it with cold, hard cash which is the instrument of choice here in Chanthaburi at least as far as the gemstone trade goes.  Just like gold, or flour, or sugar- gemstones are bought and sold by the weight.  He had to pay for every rough carat- not finished carat!!  When he finished cutting those stones, and grinding so much of the valuable weight into dust- the person who sold the parcel of rough did not run up to him and say “Oh! Sorry about all that dust!  Here is a bunch of money to compensate you.”

As a buyer of gemstone rough, it is your responsibility to consider the weight of the dust when you buy a parcel of rough.  You also have to factor in the amount of good stones vs. poor stones, the loss from fractures or other unforeseen abnormalities that may crop up after the cutting has begun.  How good is your cutter at retaining weight from the rough stones?  That is a critical factor.  How demanding are your customers regarding light return?  If you are selling to one market the answer is not the same as another.  Good light return means more lost weight.  Do your customers mind lopsided or out-of-shape stones?  That is another huge issue.  If you just have to round off the stones, you can keep most of the weight.  Do your customers want to buy a pyramid-shaped ruby?  No?  Then factor in plenty of extra loss for the parts of the finished gem that deviate from the shape of a pyramid!

I sent some sapphires to my mother as gifts for my cousins recently.  She liked them, but wanted round instead of pear-shaped, and just a little bit bigger.  Whoa!  This means a big difference in price!  Take a look at these diagrams that I so artfully drew onto a ruby crystal.  Can you see how much dust there will be left on the ground to make mom’s round ruby?  Now look at the oval shape, and the pear shape.  Big difference, right?  There are very, very few rubies on the market that are round.  It’s not because people do not want them- it is because they are not willing to pay for all that dust on the ground.  It’s not easy for people to digest that a one-carat round stone is worth the same as perhaps a 1.5 carat pear.  But since you cut both from the same size rough crystal, it makes sense doesn’t it?  They consume the same amount of rough.

Of course not all rough is shaped like corundum rough.  And not all corundum rough is the same.  But overall, the closer you are to a pyramid the cheaper your stone can be.  And with tourmaline, the closer you are to a triangle (viewed from the end of the finished stone) the more efficient the weight retention is.  If you buy beautiful stones, you have to pay for dust.  There is no way around it.  I have to pay, so everyone down the line from me has to pay.  If you want tourmaline that just has the natural crystal face ground off but has no shape of its own- no shape that resembles what you think of as a gemstone- this is cheap.  Let me know.  I can have those custom cut for you!!!

Thanks for stopping by the blog for a visit.  I appreciate that you are here and that you continue to support my efforts.  As always, feel free to send me a note and say hello, or ask me a question.  I’m not a big dealer so I’m not a big deal.  I have time for you.

Take care,

I bought this stone two days ago and I’ve been staring at it ever since.  It rocks.  It is gorgeous.  I’m swimming in a sea of junk tourmaline here in Chanthaburi so when a stone like this comes across my desk it really grabs my attention.

It’s easy on the eyes, don’t you agree?  This material comes from Nigeria and in spite of the riveting color it has no copper content.  Also, I will be selling this stone as heat+radiation which is the typical life history of stones with such color.  Virtually all rubellite currently on the market is heated first to remove color, and then irradiated to bring beautiful and much moreintense color back.

Please, do not make the mistake of assuming that because this stone is treated it is not rare or unusual.  I can assure you that I see precious little of this in the market here.  In fact, just take a look at my old blog posts or auctions to try to find such a beautiful stone!  There aren’t any.

Take a look at reputable sellers on eBay and try to find such stones.  You will see sellers with feedback percentages below 99% selling them- but the photos are doctored to remove glaring inclusions and the hue and saturation are toyed with to make the prettiest picture.  Fortunately for me, the prettiest picture does not make the most satisfied customers.

It is a highly competitive market out there among dealers who are vying for business from collectors.  We know that you will pay well for stones that fill an empty spot in your collection, but we all have a little different way of going about getting your dollars.  I tend to be pretty direct and perhaps that appeals to the no-nonsense collector.  But the masters of this art are the colored stone shopping channels.  They can create a flourish of words and stones that makes people run for their credit card and the cordless phone.  But I want to meet the needs of the discerning collector and the ones who realize that the stones they bought a year or two ago have lost their luster.  I want to sells stones that have a meaningful place in a collection long-term, and won’t be relegated to a shoebox as prettier stones come in the mail.  That is not an easy task given the current  market.

This is a very tough time for the colored stone market.  As you might know, while colored stone deposits tend to be small and mined with primitive methods, this does not mean that every site is a group of men in loincloths swirling river gravel around in bamboo pans.  Most mines use electricity for lights or water pumps or basic machinery.  Oil is expensive these days, and that makes everything more expensive- gemstones included.  Caught in the middle are dealers like me who want quality stones and my customers who want good prices.

Also consider that I don’t usually offer material like this because of the risk.  Especially at 1 cent starting price, the potential for loss is great.  I’m a small dealer and this must be a consideration for me.  We will see how stones like this go, and hopefully I will be able to offer more and more two to five carat stones in the near future.  Being here in Thailand is a big advantage for me as I do not have to pay for those airline tickets back and forth anymore.  I am very pleased with this decision and I hope that you begin to see how it is changing the stones that I offer for sale.  The money that I used to spend on expenses can now be invested in stones and that will benefit you and me!

One way to let me know what you want to see more of is with your bids!  But another way is just to send me a note or click the “comment” link on one of my posts here on the blog.  Tell me what you are looking for, or what you are having a hard time finding from other dealers.  I will do my best to find it and offer it on eBay or sell it to you directly.  Don’t be shy- I’m not such a hard guy to talk with. Thanks for stopping by the blog.  I appreciate the time that you spend here and I know that I am lucky to have you.  Because of customers like you I can pursue my passion, and I can do it in a place like Chanthaburi.

Take care,

Wow, that’s an exciting title!  Let’s talk about all the victims!  Media reports of the Burmese Karen refugees and South African diamond miners who are being abused will get so much attention!  There is another side to the sordid tales of high-value natural resources and the abuses they garner.  In Chanthaburi I see the other side up-close and personal, and I want to give you all a little bit of insight into my world.

This is a cutting center.  The flow of rough gemstones into this town and the subsequent flow of finished stones out is bewildering in scope.  It is simply enormous, and you can’t get an idea of it at first glance.  There are so many cutting facilities here of many types.  There are full-blown, large-scale factories that employ hundreds of workers cranking out cut stones with astounding speed and efficiency.  There are modest facilities that seem to have been put together by a local stone dealer to fill his particular niche- perhaps to touch up stones that needed a little bit of work before they see the customer, or to do specialty cuts that bring him a bit more profit.  There are small-scale cutting shops that produce only one type of stone, and perhaps only a couple of shapes.  And at the bottom of the food chain there is the single, lone cutter grinding away in his shophouse at street level to avoid the heat on the second, third or fourth floors that rises to unbearable levels during the day.

I met such a man and snapped a few pics the other day.  He specializes in modest sized Burmese ruby, he is very happy to have this work, and his income is substantially higher than most Thais living outside of Bangkok.  Make no mistake, this is a rich town.  Chanthaburi has to be the smallest town I have ever seen with an authorized Rolex dealer.  We have more than our fair share of Mercedes Benz automobiles, and Volvos and Honda SUV’s are ubiquitous.  The quality of life is very high here, and the gem trade drives it all.  You don’t have to be a mogul in the industry like Thaigem.com’s Don Kogen.  You can be a lone cutter in your shophouse and make a good living that supports your family and buys you some extras that many rural Thai people would envy.

Maybe this doesn’t make good press, because we sure don’t hear stories like this in the mainstream media.  We hear constantly of exploitation and calls for boycotts that will actually hurt the small cutters like the fellow in my photos.  We see images of the rich privileged upper class consuming gemstones at the cost of human suffering.  But is that a balanced portrayal?  Of course it isn’t.  If you come to Chanthaburi you can walk the streets and see these cutters working away.  You can see the independence that these entrepreneurs enjoy, and their quality of life.  Please, keep buying gemstones.  Nobody seems to want to tell you this, but you are helping many people enjoy a stable, meaningful income with a quality of life that would be difficult for them to obtain if you stopped buying these stones.

Thanks for coming to the blog- I really appreciate you being here.  Without your visits and without your bids on my auctions, I could not do what I do.  I love this business and I am yet another example of the small entrepreneur that you support when you buy gemstones.  Thank you.

It’s been great settling in here in Chanthaburi but also it has been a lot of work and a lot of things require adaptation.  Culturally it is very different from Korea and my Thai is certainly not as good as my Korean language!  But things are going quite well and I am thrilled with all of the stones that I am seeing.  A good friend of mine bought this Tanzanian ruby and brought it by my office for me to take a look.  What a lovely stone!  The color is so saturated.

I bought some very pretty moonstone yesterday at the market and here is a sneak-preview for you.  You might see some of this material as soon as Sunday night on the ebay auctions!  The blue adularescence is very strong and the color is a vivid blue.  I’ve seen TONS of this material here at the market but never this beautiful.  I also have some fancy shapes available that are well-suited to those of you who collect the unusual!

Black star sapphire?  Of course we do!  I picked up a few from a large parcel and they have sharp stars and nice cutting with very good luster.  These are really good-looking stones.

My neighbor does a lot of ruby and he brought in this parcel of Mong Hsu rough for me to look at.  It is classic borax-heated Burmese ruby and it was interesting to see it post-heat and treat but before cutting.  I was tempted to buy the nicely formed crystal from him!  Let me know if you want to see auctions of those in the future.

This baby lizard thought he could hide under my keyboard!  So tiny and cute!

The new curtains are up in the buying office and the painting is all done.  The place is a bit fancy for me but I think I can adapt!

Remember if you ever have any questions about the lizards that share my office or anything else don’t hesitate to send me a note and ask!  Just email dave at tiptopgem.com and I’ll be sure to write you back.  Things are slowly returning to normal and I am getting back into my routine- the move went smoothly but any time you relocate there are some surprises!  Thanks so much for stopping by the blog!

It’s not easy to describe the feeling of living in Chanthaburi for a gem dealer. Partly I guess it is like any cohesive group like junior-high summer camp or your freshman year in university when everyone is enjoying their freedom from mom and dad. There is a common element here and it is the gem trade. Everyone is in it or so it seems. My neighbors across the street, my neighbors beside me- heck, virtually everyone on my street is a gem dealer. It’s a very interesting dynamic. It’s educational, fun, and it is a heck of a resource for a businessperson.

When I wasn’t buying at the market this past weekend I spent some time with several Iranian gemstone dealers. Of course when you hang out with gem dealers you talk about the trade, and I was surprised to learn some things. In Iran customers are very fond of flat stones. Many customers there are looking to get the most size they can for a given weight and light return is tossed aside like yesterday’s newspaper.

Emeralds are popular in Iran but country of origin is stressed over any particular mine.  For example, the most popular stones are Colombian, which is not a surprise, but stones from Muzo will not bring a premium according the dealers with whom I spoke.  I am curious if that will change as origin testing for emeralds has become so precise.  I would imagine that like the rest of the world, as we learn more about the science of gemology and more information is available some of the old stereotypes about stones from a certain origin will fall by the wayside and beauty will win out.  Or maybe I am dreaming.

I also learned that the tea from Iran is very tasty, as is the food!  I experienced some wonderful dishes of saffron rice and eggplant cooked with tomatoes and wonderful spices, and I never imagined that cooked celery could taste so incredible.  I don’t know what the spices are but I need to find out!

Besides sharing their food, tea, and information about the gem trade in Iran, one man was also so kind as to give me a strand of beads that I had been admiring.  Curiously enough, the beads are actually wood, and the metallic dots are silver inlay.  It is even more beautiful in person than it is in pictures.  An oddity of this wood is that when heated with your breath it emits a very distinctive (and pleasant) smell!  I really MUST get to Iran sometime.

One of the gentlemen that I met is from Mashhad where I understand there is a sizeable trade in turquoise as it is mined fairly close-by.  He tells me that top color turquoise with no treatment is bringing about $100 per carat these days.  I think Persian stones are beautiful, but I doubt that Westerners will pay such prices.  In my estimation very few people in the West understand that virtually all of the turquoise on the market is treated in one fashion or another, and much of it is “reconstituted” or simply synthetic.

I met people who manufacture mass-market silver jewelry for the Iranian market with cabochons, dealers who specialize in corundum, and dealers who wholesale high-karat gold with premium stones.  One thing that they all seemed to have in common is that the market in Iran is uncertain in the near future.  The politics of nuclear power and relations with the West are up in the air, and the economy is far from stable.  This is a challenging environment for them and I hope my dear friends the very best.

Thanks for stopping by the blog!  I appreciate it!

If you are a gemstone collector you may not know exactly what attracted you to the hobby. I admit that I did not until I thought about it carefully. There are likely certain elements in your personality (like mine) that make gemstones so appealing. The degree to which each element influences your collection varies a lot from person to person, but it is probable that each element can be seen in your collection and your personality.

You are a curious person. The science of stones has at minimum a passing interest to you. You want to know why stones are a certain color, what inclusions may be present and how they were formed, and how this is influenced by where the stone was mined. You probably have an interest in some other type of science in your past- herpetology was one of mine (reptiles and amphibians) but I’ve also studied electronics. You might have an interest in optics or chemistry or horticulture. The natural order of things as can be described in science has meaning and importance to you.

You have a passion for esthetics. What is pleasing to the eye- or not pleasing- interests you. Maybe you have a background in art or design, or perhaps you enjoy these things as they are represented in clothing, home decorating, or floral arrangement. You love stones for their color and form and how these things stimulate you. You see passion in red and a cool calm in blue. You notice design elements and correlation of colors that others around you do not.

You have in interest in geography. You might like to travel, or read about other parts of the world. You may be most interested in physical features of other countries like topography, mountains and lakes, desert and plains- or you may focus on societal differences. Maybe you have a background in anthropology or sociology- or you are just interested in places and people who are new and different for you. You likely own your share of maps or National Geographic magazines or perhaps you just like to watch the travel channel! You are aware of worlds other than your own, and respect things outside of your comfort zone.

You are smarter than the average bear. Yes, it’s true. Gemstone collectors are more intelligent than the population as a whole. Of course I put myself in this group so it is only natural that I should think so. But this observation has been borne out from extensive contact with gemstone collectors around the world both in my gemological studies and contact with customers and friends who share this passion. We are a bright bunch and most of us also have a passion for many different disciplines.

I would love your feedback on this article! Did I get it right? Could you see yourself in each of these traits? Feel free to email me at dave at tiptopgem dot com if you would like to share your thoughts!

Hello, All!

Well after a week here in the new building we just got internet!  I am thrilled to be back in touch with everyone as I am used to!  I am getting settled into the new office and some of the work has been done on the building.  The painting is finished, the water filter is installed to make the water drinkable (and hopefully safe) and I have some pictures for you!

Is that a foldable fork in my cup o’ noodles?  Yes!

Living in Thailand is different than traveling here on business.  I get to see a whole different part of Thai life, and I am free to explore the town without the harried pressure of a buying trip.  It adds a new dimension to my understanding of Thailand and the people here.  It is very laid back and not a bit like Korea in that the pace of life is much slower.

Just open it up and it clicks into place.  It is quite sturdy too!

This is my good friend Mr. Rho, who has been instrumental in making my move possible- and a heck of a lot easier.   He is a broker at the market and if you are in the trade and would like to buy stones at the market here I can’t think of a more honest guy to help you.  I will be adding a page about him to my blog very soon.

This is your first view of the new office!  Let’s see if I have more…

There is so much space here compared to Korea!  The dowstairs office where I work is about 600 square feet, and the apartment upstairs is the same.  To me this seems just enormous after living for so long in very small places in Hawaii and Korea and it is great to feel that I can stretch out!  To have a large, dedicated office space is wonderful.

My new water filter

Just like Korea the tap water is not safe to drink, and I’ve grown tired already of lugging bottles of water back from the local grocery store.  This filter should take care of that and as long as my hair doesn’t fall out I will keep drinking it.

New gas range!

This lovely contraption is my new cooking stove with push-button starting.  What more could a guy need?

Certified Sapphires!

What? Certified sapphires? Of course we have them!  From .97 carats up to 2.20 carats and both heated an unheated- but never, ever diffused.  The only treatment that we consider acceptable for sapphire is simple heat.  If you contact me directly for a price I will give you the very best that I can, and remember that when buying a stone direct from me you are still entitled to Paypal’s buyer protection coverage!  When you buy direct from me you get the very lowest price possible on stunningly beautiful stones, and you still have a full 31-day return period.

All 18 of the sapphires shown above come with a full AIGS laboratory certificate just like this one:

Anytime you need a sapphire feel free to email me at dave at tiptopgem dot com, or just call me direct toll-free at 800-607-1425.  This toll-free number now rings directly at the buying desk in the Chanthaburi office and I would be happy to speak to you about your needs!

Thanks for stopping by the blog for a little look into my life!  More is coming soon, but there is much work to do to get ready for the market here in the morning.  The hustle and bustle of the gemstone market lasts all day friday and saturday and it will be exciting to experience it from my new vantage point.  As always, feel free to send me a note if you have any questions at all!

There is so much going on right now it is hard to believe!  I am in Chanthaburi now and the new buying office is open for business.  It has been a struggle as we still do not have internet and I am hoping this will be rectified very soon!  Please bear with me as I am slow to respond to your emails.  This is difficult but the bottom line is that I am doing all that I can to bring you a greater variety of beautiful stones at a lower price than we have ever offered before.  Being in the very heart of the world colored stone trade means that I will be able offer you more of what you want and I am grateful for your patience in the interim!

You can look forward to pictures and video of our building, the gemstone market, and Chanthaburi as a whole in the near future.  Please stay tuned to the blog and give me just a little bit more time.  I thought briefly today that I was crazy as I was just getting “good at” living in South Korea!  Now I am in a brand new environment in a new country with different food, language, customs, and all of the difficulties that come along with that.  But this is for a good purpose- continued growth!  I am astounded at the growth we have seen in just the last year, and I firmly believe that this move and the new buying office will be a great catalyst for the future of Tip Top Gem.  Please keep coming back to the blog as the pictures and videos are not far off!

Some folks are not taking a very good look at the images of gemstones on eBay before they bid.  I’ve seen many examples of images that show obvious signs of tampering but the bid just goes up and up and up.  Images can make a bad stone look good, and a good stone look bad which is why the reputation of the seller is so important.  But if a seller is showing very obvious signs of a lapse in integrity, why bid his items up?

Some buyers simply do not know what to look for.  I am going to show you some signs of tampering that will help you spot the liar.  Because let’s face it- if the seller isn’t honest with his photos, he is not honest period.

Always remember that you can’t judge a stone by a photo which is why you should only deal with a seller who offers a long return period and no restocking fee.  If the seller won’t let you judge the actual stone in your own hand, he isn’t much of a seller.  The photo is a general guide of the appearance of the stone only.  The seller’s skill has a great deal to do with how the picture looks, and that skews the auction prices.  Don’t trust photos, but especially don’t trust photos that have been heavily processed.

Saturation: Wow, turn up the color and my stones sell for more!

Look closely at the two sapphire photos.  The one on the left appears to be more higly saturated.  It’s not.  I cranked up the saturation, and the evidence is a patchy, multi-colored background.  Notice that the background on the unaltered image on the right appears neutral and has no splotches of color through the image.

Same issue with the tsavorite below.  Some sellers really go overboard and the patchiness is obvious.  Take a look at the tweezer especially- does that look natural???

PAINT YOUR WAY TO CASH! GET RID OF THOSE INCLUSIONS!

Take a look at this peridot below.  On the top you will see the original shot.  On the bottom, notice how the facet junctions seem to disappear in some places and there are blocky patches of inappropriate color?  The seller can just paint over the inclusions.  Many of the sellers online do this so carelessly because buyers are rewarding them with very high prices.

COLORING for CASH!

Here is a classic.  The stone is blue, so why not turn down the red and green to make it look really blue!  If this seems amateurish, take a look on eBay and see how many sellers use it.  If you look at the whitest part of the photo this tactic becomes obvious.  In the upper right hand corner of this photo you see a whitish crease in my finger- but in the photo on the right it is bluish.  BUSTED!

Buyer beware!

Thanks for stopping by the blog again- I really appreciate it!

Finished jewelry is a challenge that we are working through right now.  We’ve gone through a number of companies trying to find someone who can produce quality work that is worthy of quality stones.  It’s not easy to find a company that is as consistent and focused on quality control and customer satisfaction as we are.  We do not want to put out jewelry that is “good enough”.  There is plenty of that currently on the market.  We are going to continue our quest to find beautiful rings, pendants, and other settings for the stones that we carry.  In the meantime please enjoy the occaisional finished piece that finds its way to our eBay auctions.

This week will begin a 10-day auction for a gorgeous Cat’s Eye Chrysoberyl ring with two accent diamonds.  It is an exceptionally nice stone with a sharp eye- it weighs 1.16 carats.  If you have been looking for a really nice cat’s eye this might be the one!