TIME for VEGAS: The Next Gem Shopping Trip – Pre-Orders Now Open!

Yippie – it’s gem shopping time again.  In just over 2 weeks, Cecile Raley Designs departs for the JCK and AGTA shows in Las Vegas!  I’m going to start the shopping by doing absolutely nothing  in Mandalay bay for a couple of nights

To read more please visit our website at: https://www.cecileraleydesigns.com/blogs/cecile-raley-designs/time-for-vegas-the-next-gem-shopping-trip-pre-orders-now-open

Tucson: How to Shop Wisely at a Gem Show

The countdown is on: on Monday January 30th I leave for Tucson for the largest gem show, or rather, gem shows, of the world, ready to stock up on more goodies.  I will visit the AGTA and GJX shows for the most part, but I also go to a couple of the smaller shows, notably the one at the Hotel Tucson City Center, where my friend Jochen from Jentsch Mineralien exhibits.  That's more of a mineral show but you can also find some gem dealers there.  I got some nice deals there toward the end of the show last year.

Jochen Hintze from Jentsch Mineralien

Shopping for gems in Tucson is one of the most overwhelming experiences you can imagine.  If you don't stay focused on what you want to look for, and if you don't keep an eye on your budget, you will spend everything on the first day.  You also need a plan.  Wholesale purchases are not refundable.  On occasion you can exchange, but usually only if something's wrong with the product or if you have a relationship with the seller.  If you have a customer who is interested in something but needs to see the stone first, I can memo it at the show from the sellers that I know and that trust me, I photograph it, and then return it after a day or two if there's no sale.  That's the best way to do it short of buying a ton of stuff just so that you can send out photos.  You still have the risk of return but I have to say 95% of my customers understand the risks I have to take and return only if absolutely necessary.  Or they tell me ahead of time that they are not sure about a purchase so that I can make different choices.  With some sellers I can memo gems for longer, which I do at the end of the show, then I can mail out the goods to my customers and pay only for what I sell after the return period is up.

The memo system is very widespread in this industry, but it also requires a lot of trust.  No seller will memo to someone they don't know.  And even if you come "vetted" through another gem dealer, getting stones on memo has to be earned.  During the time you have the stones, you are 100% responsible for loss or breakage, once you set a stone it is yours, and once you sell it, you must pay the seller out. Some wholesale buyers use the proceeds from the sale of a memo'd stone to buy other inventory in the hope of selling that too.  They take the money as an unapproved loan, in other words.  That is not uncommon but a big No No.  Not getting paid, or not getting paid on time, is a big reason why gem dealers dislike memo-ing out stones.  Memos are usually short term (a few days, a week, maybe a month), and something longer is rare.  I have longer memo agreements with three sellers in industry, and I make sure I spend most of my money with them to keep those privileges.

The AGTA (the American Gem Trade Association) only allows US businesses as vendors.  That means you see a lot of familiar faces there.  Pala Gems, Prima Gems, and lots of other well known sellers have big exhibits there.  Some do retail business online also, most don't.  Some do retail shows but not as many as they used to because online business is often better than retail shows.  The GJX show has a lot of international vendors, some of which I see only once a year, only at that show.  For instance, there's a small Israeli company (two brothers) that specialize in Vietnamese (and other) spinel.  They spend all year matching up pairs of lavender spinels for earrings, and they carry some very vibrant pinks also.  I try to get to their booth on the first day.  There is also a red beryl dealer in the GJX show - red beryl and paraiba and benitoite actually.  I see him quickly as well though he will now occasionally send me things in the mail.  It took two years to establish that but now we have a good "mail and email" relationship.  When I have him ship me goods I make sure I buy at least one thing from each shipment so that the relationship continues.

Red Beryl

Red Beryl and Aquamarine

Lavender Spinel from Vietnam

Pink Spinel from Vietnam

Pink Spinel from Vietnam and Purple Sapphire

I don't go to Tucson with a fixed budget, though I do go with a list of things, and I replenish what I am out of and what I cannot get elsewhere (except sometimes Vegas): hauynite (hauyne), Burma spinel melee, hopefully demantoid melee if any is left.  Those three items are high on my list so I will try to do those on the first day also.  Some booths get overrun the first day, so you can't even get an invoice made.  But at one such booth I am a repeat buyer so I just put everything I am definitely buying into a tray with my business card and they make the invoice in the afternoon.  Sometimes I start taking photos already before getting the invoice, and listing items.  I tell them which boxes I am borrowing, go outside (there is an outdoor seating area with some food trucks) to photograph, then bring the boxes back and photograph the front and back to do the pricing and get the weights.

In addition to my purchasing tray, I make a second tray with things I may want but am not committing to.  This tray I keep limited because it is rude to take inventory out of stock on the first day that you are not buying.  So I usually tell the staff that if they have a call for it, put it back into stock.  They normally don't but I want to make sure they know that they can.  I've seen people go glitter crazy and stash stuff into trays and then not return to purchase.  That sort of behavior is remembered and it is not likely that the person will get away with it twice.

At Dudley Blauwet's booth I will be getting sapphires - his are THE most well cut and cleanest on the market, and he's never wrong about whether or not they are heated.  In fact Dudley boasts - correctly I believe - that he has the largest collection of unheated sapphires on the market.  And he is well known for them too.  If any of my buyers wants sapphires, in particular Ceylon, no heat, Tucson and Vegas are the best times to let me know because I will see the widest variety.  JTV and other big online retailers visit booths like his on the first day and sometimes buy out entire productions (one year all the Kenyan yellow sapphires were gone when I got there).

I will also be looking for more Paraiba tourmaline, though one of the two largest sources I have is located in Manhattan and they call me when they cut material.  The Brazilians incidentally, have been buying back their stock because there is such a craze out there and the material is no longer mined.  Then they turn around and sell it for more.  Prices have not stopped rising and most of the sellers that know I'm after any good Paraiba now let me know when they run low.  For instance the melee's I carry are going to be gone soon.  There are maybe 2-3 carats left of each of the sizes I buy and certain common sizes (i.e. 1.5mm) is out.  The largest melee is 1.8mm and those I have to sell for $88 each, which is why I don't buy them.  Though I can if I have a call.

Paraiba Tourmaline Earrings

Other than that, I love looking at any kind of rare stone there is: benitoite, rhodochrosite, lazulite, you name it.  After the first craze is over, I usually walk every single aisle of both shows slowly, looking at what I might have missed.  It's always fun to find new sellers with interesting stuff and to talk with them.  Usually though I'm too busy to talk and my shoulders hurt at night because I walk with my head bent down half the time.

Benitoite and Rhodochrosite at GJX 2016

During the Tucson show I run a 20% sale off all gems in my shop.  It is my biggest gem sale with the steepest discount I can afford.  The objective is to move inventory very quickly to increase my budget for purchases that I take home.  What I don't ship out during the show I give to friends of mine who also vend to travel with Brinks for safety.  The gems arrive in NY a day or two after the show, and I pick them up immediately.  Then it's like Christmas all over again.  I often can't enjoy my purchases at the show because I am too busy buying and selling - and all of you readers of course ask me questions all day long, which I try to answer in addition.  This year I am taking my assistant Debbie, with Karen holding down the fort here.  Debbie will handle more of the social media and the photos to free me up for purchases, and so that I don't work till midnight each night listing and shipping.  After all, we want to enjoy the warm weather.  New Jersey in February is not a lot of fun!

More about Tucson coming up in two weeks....

My Upcoming Las Vegas Show

Given how successful – and fun – the Tucson show was for me, I have decided to tackle the next largest U.S. gem show, the upcoming JCK and AGTA show in Las Vegas.  I’ll be there 5/27-6/2 while my dad is holding down the fort here in NJ (he’s visiting for a couple of months, and in between baking apple cakes and cheesecakes, he is enjoying learning about the jewelry and gemstone business).

The JCK show in Vegas is wholesale only and there’s a bit of a registration process, but in the end it wasn’t hard to get in since my business has grown quite a bit.  The show takes place at the Mandalay Bay Resort and is known for its opulent jewelry – I’ll try to take some photos but many sellers are very protective of their stuff.  Some jewelers consider this show to be the main jewelry event of the year.  The AGTA (American Gem Traders Association) piggybacks with its own show in the same place. 

The JCK show has hundreds of participants, and I already checked for some of my favorite dealers that are not in NY, many of which will be there. 

Here’s the show website: http://lasvegas.jckonline.com/Home/

And here’s the link for the AGTA Gem Fair, which starts a day earlier: 

http://www.agta.org/tradeshows/gemfair-las-vegas.html

Vegas Strip

Gem dealers take a long time to prepapre for these types of shows.  Dealers who don’t have show rooms or websites collect their best gems for months and display them only at these shows.  They hope to make revenue in the hundreds of thousands, since they may only do a dozen shows a year, which are intended to generate their main income.  Markups are low in this industry, but turnover and volume has to be high to justify this.  The gem trade is a very competitive business with many well kept secrets.  Who buys where and who trades with whom is something few gem dealers share.

My main goal at the show is to score some new sapphire material from Dudley B.  He is the one from whom I get all the well cut Ceylon material (no heat).  He also had some cobalt spinels, I got the demantoids from him, and a few of the Luc Yen pieces.  I am happy to take suggestions for what else I should look for.  My Mahenge and Mint Garnet source is in NY, so I won’t be going to Vegas for anything specific in that regard.

If you want me to buy something at the show, there are some things you should know.

1. For me, gem purchases have no returns (this explains why I offer you such a short return period). I can sometimes memo material but not all suppliers allow this (I can’t memo at a show).  Memo deals require a well developed relationship between buyer and seller. Terms are strict and usually short unless you are specifically borrowing to sell on someone’s behalf.

2. Desirable material moves quickly and I don’t like to aggravate the sellers I work with, so I don’t haggle or argue.  I take what I need and check out, or I browse for a day or two, then buy.  I take some photos but only for serious buyers because I run around a lot in a short period of time.  I get great prices because I am a low maintenance shopper, so I have no reason to push for further discounts.  In turn, almost none of my buyers argue with me over prices, for which I am eternally grateful.

3. Gem shopping is time consuming.  It is fun, lots of fun, but can be overwhelming too.  If you want to help me find you the right thing, tell me exactly what you want, what your budget is (a range is ok).  Cut, color, size, acceptable treatment, sample photos.  The earlier the better so I can make a list, and/or tell you if you are looking for unicorns – I am a good unicorn search predictor at this point. 

4. Most importantly, as you probably already know, the gem trade involves a great deal of trust.  My suppliers trust me to pay, pay on time, trust me not to haggle (because they usually make me their lowest offer anyway and haggling at that point is offensive), and they trust me to know my stuff or ask when I don’t.  Many of the best deals are made without any paperwork (or with paperwork coming later on).  The sellers themselves usually trade before the show and pay after the show with the money they made.  I’m not in that category because I don’t exhibit at these shows, I am considered a small buyer but a safe one.  I do have a reputation in the industry, and one I am proud of.  So I make sure not to disappoint.

By the same token, when I sell to you, I need to you be honest, direct, when I buy for you at a show you need to be quick, and when you can’t afford it, let it go.   You can’t have gems for lunch anyway and it is often hard to recover ones expense if one is in financial trouble (the longer you can wait to sell a gem the more likely it is that you can make money).  I rarely buy for myself and I pull myself together not to push you.  In fact, I am often concerned that a trigger happy buyer gets himself or herself into financial trouble, which can backfire for them and for me.  Since there are no returns for me, a return of a large purchase made on your behalf can be a setback for me and prevent me from purchasing again.  I will bend over backwards to get you the best for your money, but understand that I have to live off this trade.  :)