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What is Your Jewelry Worth?

I've been wanting to revisit the topic of jewelry appraisal for some time, especially since I see a lot of people now selling their gems and jewelry on Loupe Troop and other websites for "pre-loved" items. Most of the time the items are being sold for less than their value.

So as you probably all know, valuing gold is easy.  You just need an accurate postal scale to weigh it, and most online calculators for scrap gold will tell you what each gram of each particular carat weight costs.  To get the most out of your return, don't sell gold to a jeweler, try to mail it to a metal refinery directly, or to anyone else who gives you at least 95% of the scrap value.  I have a wholesale account with a scrap dealer so I can sell it for you if you like, I get 98.5% of that days's spot value, and I trade in old gold as part of payment for items in my shop.

Here is an online 'Scrap Gold Calculator' by grams

Scraped Gold

Diamonds are also not that hard to evaluate - in principle at least.  You do need to know the color (G, H,...) the carat weight and the clarity (VS, VVS, SI...).  Then you can look up comparable diamonds on eBay.  Remember too that diamonds can get chipped over time, and those can devalue the gem.

Diamond melees fetch very little in the market.  They are bought at 1/2 or even 1/4 of list price (they're called "breakout diamonds" and the price is "breakout price").  Diamond setters buy breakouts fairly frequently.

Most difficult to evaluate are colored stones, especially the most well known three: ruby, emerald, sapphire, and even more especially, when these were bought at department stores or jewelry chains (excepting high end retailers such as Tiffany's, Cartier, etc.).  Most of the colored gems in commercial jewelry are treated, and not just heated but also diffused, glass filled, resin filled, etc.  Only a lab can tell you if that's the case, and that's why I, for instance, will not buy any such items except for the gold value - and most jewelers do the same.

On the other end of the spectrum, citrine, pyrope garnet, amethyst, peridot and topaz have little to no value per carat and are usually scrapped because once they are worn a few times, they'll scratch and chip.  In the market, their values is treated as basically zero, even if they are "master cut".

However, since many of my customers are savvy gemstone shoppers, you should know that if you bought a collector's gem from a reputable source and it is in good shape and good size, you don't need to undersell yourselves.  Don't take that stuff to a jewelry store, most retailers are not familiar with collector's gems because that is not their business.  So you will buy below value.  Go to eBay, Loupe Troop, or any other site that lets you sell your stuff, describe it accurately, add disclaimers if need be (i.e. that you are not a jeweler or that it is pre owned), offer a return period (make it short but DO offer it), and you have the best chance at recovering your value - or at least more value than you would have gotten elsewhere.  Take your time though.  If you are desperate for cash you have to sell lower.  Case in point: many gem dealers answer the a customer's question "what is this worth if I sell it" with "are you in a rush to sell?".  And a "yes" or "need money now" answer yields a low ball offer.

Finally, are there some gems that I think you might consider holding on to, at least at present.  Right now, I would recommend that if you're not desperate, you hang on to any Mahenge spinel, even small, if it is that neon color and even reasonably clean.  Half the mine is shut down now for lack of production, and the other half is producing very little, and only 5% or so neon color.  Tsavorite production is also down.  Sapphire is worth keeping if it is heated only or not treated, eye clean, at least 1/2 carat, and a nice saturated medium to a more saturated royal blue, or a color changer.

Neon Mahenge Spinel available on my Etsy Shop.

What about other gems?  Well the spessartite mine is only not producing right now because of local unrest, not because of lack of material (the story is more complicated, but I'm skipping it here).  Other gems, i.e. chrysoberyl, are not known enough right now, but they are not declining in value.  Neither is tourmaline, and chrome color or bright blue or bright pink are always desirable.  Obviously Paraibas are worth keeping.  Other tourmaline colors have much less value and production is constant.  Right now there is a shortage of aqua, but I don't know why and it might be temporary.  Heat treatment doesn't affect aqua prices. Emerald I don't know enough about.  It is my understanding that emerald rough is being mined steadily, but the mines are controlled by investors and/or government.  Good material is available only with connections.  I see very little that's both good and untreated on the market, so if you have a gem that is both, and you haven't scratched it, then you might consider holding on to it as well.

Personally, I keep very few gems.  In the end I always sell because that's what I do.  Sometimes I keep smaller pieces of rare gems because I like having something left that I like.  But I have kept some Mahenges, and I am keeping some sapphires, some mint garnet and some tsavorite.  But spinel (Burmese red, Mahenge pink) and sapphire (blue) are my strongest bet.

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.  :)

How to Design onto a Basic Pendant Shape

This little video clip came about largely by accident.  I just started playing with some of my gems to see if I could fit the right sizes onto my new Art Deco pendant and Debbie started filming and shooting photos.  So I decided to use the video and show you how I decide which gems go where.

As you can see, this pendant is cast in 14 K yellow and not rose gold.  According to my latest survey (thank you for filling it out), yellow gold was more popular than I thought so I am making a few more pieces.  The issue with yellow gold is that it can sometimes look gaudy with colored stones.  It brings out the colors of any gem very strongly and if you don’t tone it down a bit by not mixing too many colors, it can look cheap.  On the other hand, I love the way certain pink gems look in rose gold, especially ruby and tourmaline.  And I love a pink yellow or pink orange combo in general.  This is why I opted for a ruby and yellow sapphire combo.  My spessartites were too light, not quite orange and not quite yellow, and they didn’t make for good contrast.  The yellow sapphires were better.

To check out the stone size and determine how many gems can fit, you set the gems upside down onto the pendant using a tweezer.  All sizes need to be exactly the same, down to 1/10^th of a mm.  You can also measure the width of the parts to be pave set, but you need to subtract .1mm from each side if you want millgrain.  I often play it by ear, just making sure I have a little bit of metal showing on each side.  As you can see, I was able to fit 4 rubies on each side.  I used the sapphires for the rest.

After getting the pendant back from the setter, I faced another design dilemma.  I had originally planned to pen-rhodium the inner circle of the pendant, but it turned out that that looked weird – I didn’t take photos but it was just “off” somehow.  The yellow sapphires weren’t saturated enough in that size to stand out. So instead of going white, I went with a deeper yellow and had the polisher use 22k gold on all the parts that were sapphire, and the result, in my view, looks great. 

Setting costs for this pendant were very high because we used so many small gems, but I really like the result.  The yellow sapphires on the inner rim might be heated, the rest of the gems are not heated.  The little bezel is not part of the original casting, I decided that I might use different sizes or shapes of gems in the opening, so I will be adding those bezels or settings depending on what gems I pick.