"anyone" wrote in message
...
Hi I hope this isn't too off topic but I'm concerned about my Dad - he
seems to have become obsessed with buying the female members of the family
as much Gems TV stuff as he can get hold of - he is convinced it is all
top
quality stuff at bargain prices. I'm no expert but having looked at their
stuff, examined the wording of their descriptions - I am sure that they
can't possibly be selling one thousand dollar rings for one hundred &
fifty
dollars. I even saw a Tanzanite piece the other month supposedly worth
thirty thousand dollars being offered for four thousand. I think they sell
low grade stuff at low grade prices - what do the experts on this forum
think?
And are there any other similar operations or shop chains in the US &
Europe we should avoid buying from?
regards
anyone


Whenever someone asks for an expert opinion here, I show up eventhough I'm
not even close to that, but I just can't mind my own business:-)
I guess your Dad fell for some good marketing tricks. For starters print him
out (or show him) this:
http://www.gemstone.org/gem-tips/ask_01_00-price.html
just to get the picture of what's the value of diferent kinds of gems. Of
course, you can also read the "quality section" that's linked on the same
page, to get some clue of factors that determine the value of stones. Now,
if he still want's to buy that stuff, I have to say that some things are
better to buy from such sources than others. As you will read on the page I
suggested, there are stones that don't cost a fortune like amethyst,
citrine, peridot and some other, so it's perfectly fine to buy one of them
for like 20$ a carat in decent quality or a hundred in some setting.
However, settings are another problem when we're talking sources like tv
shopping channels. They have to make the biggest possible items for as
little of a price possible. So, more often than not, their settings
(especially gold ones) are extremly lightweight, which is not only a concern
regarding security of gemstones mounted, but also affects jewellers'
possibilities regarding repair work. So in the following years you end up
spending more on repairs then what's been paid for the item itself. I also
find myself watching those channels sometimes, but more to see if there are
some nice designes, rather than with the intention to buy stuff, and have
fun laughing at their presentations like: "look at this perfectly cut stone
(says he, showing a "gem" that's about 80% windowed)", "this is a completely
natural neon blue diamond (if it's natural it probably came from somewhere
near Chernobil)" or "this beautiful, pastel colored Morganite (whose color
is so pastel you can only guess it)" and so on. So, sure, there are some
nice silver settings to be bought from them, even some nice stones (that are
afordable in general), but if it sounds too good to be true than it isn't,
cause tv shopping channels are huge companies and they sure haven't grew so
much by giving away things for 1/10th of the price. And just to illustrate
how much is the real top quality "stuff" worth, here are a few links:
http://www.gemstone.org/gem-o-rama/g...ma_famous.html

http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/famousgems.html

http://www.royal-magazin.de/
(this one's partly in German, but you'll manage).
Hope you haven't fall asleep, and that I've been of some help. Good luck!

Marijan