Lyndsay ...

TheManWithNoName said:

She'd probably be better at horse racing commentary that than selly-telly to be honest.

However, I wouldn't send her to commentate on the Derby. She'd turn up in an open top bus, armed with a microphone, and start doing a guide of Derby town centre.........

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We'd probably hear her down here in Essex...and that would be without a microphone or a loudspeaker.

AndyW said:

Over to Dave now, who's in the paddock with HowToOrder and her rider Ellis."

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Waiting for the clock to finish, realising there's not enough time so running it again? And just as they start, running it again, just to make sure they are ready to go? And just when they get going, he'd forgot to put on the jade saddle, added a clock, so it could be put on, then he realised he'd already sold it: or rather given it away.

AndyW said:

Over to Dave now, who's in the paddock

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I hope the paddock is locked and the key has been lost

Disappointing to see that IndiaSaysSTOP! was a non-runner - although with Jake Thompson as jockey, it was a lucky escape for the horse.

I see that Lindsay nearly remembered to get dressed this morning….

Yorkdel said:

I see that Lindsay nearly remembered to get dressed this morning….

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I didn't see her...my eardrums are still recovering from her squeaking yesterday afternoon.

Yorkdel said:

I see that Lindsay nearly remembered to get dressed this morning….

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Is she bright enough to dress herself?

I had an evil thought earlier, whilst catching the end of Lindsay's morganite showcase. Message in asking her, what is the difference between Galilea (sp?) morganite and other morganite. Not a joke, and I know it's a location thing, but it would be interesting to hear her reply. But too late now, she's now doing butterflies from the exceptionally high end Kimbie.

I am not particularly in a 'rubbish Lindsay' mood. Oh, no. But today she looks like she's wearing a pyjama top. And I've noticed she keeps looking to her side: either clock watching or reading off a prompter, but it's obvious and consequently looks unprofessional, or as if she's not really interested in what she's selling. And she thought the butterflies were made of Lapis and Amethyst. Aventurine and Lepidolite. Even I can tell the difference, and I'm partially colour blind. She also says you never see Lepidolite. I have a huge rough with a smooth side of it within eyeshot as I write.

Yep. £149 flipping quid for this. And boy, those wings in fluorite will break as soon as you sneeze.

AndyW said:

Yep. £149 flipping quid for this. And boy, those wings in fluorite will break as soon as you sneeze.
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I like Fluorite, but tend to shy away from it as anything that is ornamental or wearable. Ever since I 'made' a necklace with a fluorite pendant. The pendant broke in half before I even finished making it: as well I had two, but that's not the point. Butterfly wings are by design 'thin', so yes, I can see that not lasting more than 5 mins. Likewise those others. Very nice, but even not being fluorite, I'd be wary of too much movement of those too.

AndyW said:

Yep. £149 flipping quid for this. And boy, those wings in fluorite will break as soon as you sneeze.
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What?? I don't believe it !! £149.00 outrageous.

AndyW said:

Yep. £149 flipping quid for this. And boy, those wings in fluorite will break as soon as you sneeze.
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The Fluorite didn't even have much colour. It was quite wishy-washy.

As for fragile stones - after that, she sold a Lepidolite carving. Lepidolite is NOT suitable for jewellery or monstrosities such as this. It's a Mica and only 2.5 on the Mohs scale.

It baffles me how they put a Lepidolite carving and a Blue Aventurine carving on the same product code (with a .1 or .2 extension to differentiate) - and gave them the same price.

Aventurine is fairly hard and durable - whereas Lepidolite is as soft as s**t. How can they justify the same price tag for such widely varying stones. Bonkers.

Ant7t said:

I had an evil thought earlier, whilst catching the end of Lindsay's morganite showcase. Message in asking her, what is the difference between Galilea (sp?) morganite and other morganite. Not a joke, and I know it's a location thing, but it would be interesting to hear her reply. But too late now, she's now doing butterflies from the exceptionally high end Kimbie.

I am not particularly in a 'rubbish Lindsay' mood. Oh, no. But today she looks like she's wearing a pyjama top. And I've noticed she keeps looking to her side: either clock watching or reading off a prompter, but it's obvious and consequently looks unprofessional, or as if she's not really interested in what she's selling. And she thought the butterflies were made of Lapis and Amethyst. Aventurine and Lepidolite. Even I can tell the difference, and I'm partially colour blind. She also says you never see Lepidolite. I have a huge rough with a smooth side of it within eyeshot as I write.

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I saw the Morganite showcase. Lindsey described ones as being set in "A delicious amount of gold".

I doubt she learnt that description in her GIA training.......

In answer to your question though, the old Galileia Morganite (the mine closed around 10 years ago), in my opinion, was one of the best Morganite's you could buy. It's more of a peachy-pink rather than a pure pink, but unlike a lot of other Morganite, which is almost colourless, it does tend to be strong in colour. It also tends to be fairly clean too.

I have a gorgeous Galileia Morganite that I bought from Gem Collector about 12 years ago. Completely natural. REALLY strong in colour. Gorgeous stone. I think I paid about £30 for it. Back when you could get really good quality stones at good prices from TGGC / Gem Collector.

These days, they'd charge that for an irradiated Zambezia 'Morganite' that is almost colourless and, highly likely, started out as a Goshenite before they nuked it to try to get the slightest bit of pink hue from it.

TheManWithNoName said:

These days, they'd charge that for an irradiated Zambezia 'Morganite' that is almost colourless and, highly likely, started out as a Goshenite before they nuked it to try to get the slightest bit of pink hue from it.

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Yep - and label it "AAA". The integrity of Gem Collector has been eroded over the last two years faster than a five year old spinning a bar of soap under a running tap.

They had a baroque pearl on this week (image attached). Now, for my money, I was instantly all over it when I saw this - my heart skipped a beat. Little nagging doubts soon crept in.

First, its description is "NATURAL METALLIC BAROQUE PEARL". When TGGC describe something like this, it always sets off the alarm bells these days, sadly. Second, it's freshwater from China. Third, it's declared as "Not Enhanced". As I mentioned in my post about the term "Jade" (Quartzite Jade REALLY!), I have started losing trust on this point, i.e that "Not Enhanced" is a post-harvest/mining attribute that - for pearls, at least - can be meaningless when talking about how freshwater molluscs are really farmed. You have also, multiple times, highlighted Safeguard's assessment of that lady's Type A Jade as "Wax Treatment" vs Gemporia's "Not Enhanced". There will be some who are happy to explain this away with semantic finessing but to no effect - for me. Finally, this pearl is still available on site at £359. It was offered this week on Gem Collector "live" at £299. Because I'm now a wary old goat about TGGC's certificates, I'd think twice at £79.99 but might have been tempted.

I see they also had a second showcase of Green Zircon. Tiny, irradiated stones. A bit surprised to see irradiated zircon being offered, with Toby emphasising the even saturation, etc. Green zircon isn't the best colourway because they don't usually form cleanly or with a desirable hue. I have one - purely as a curiosity, because it's a metamict variety (naturally irradiated almost to the point of internal re-structuring, like a caterpillar to butterfly). It's colour though is a bit "meh" and, because of the metamict process, has little to no dispersion quality remaining.

AndyW said:

It's colour though ...

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Apologies to Ant7t. Although I know that Autocorrect is as dumb as soup, I missed this one.

AndyW said:

Apologies to Ant7t. Although I know that Autocorrect is as dumb as soup, I missed this one.

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Thanks Blame my previous life. But seriously, you talking waxing of Jade, on my fleeting stop over seeing DT with Lindsey and his beloved red jade, I thought I heard him mention 'waxing' jade?

Another utterly flipping ridiculous price comparison from Carr. Comparison made by her to image 1.

a) It's a Christie's auction lot from 2021 - not a retail offering.
b) It realised approx EUR5,000 hammer price.
c) It's a 1970s Boucheron piece (part of a set, with earrings etc)
d) It's set in 18K gold, with diamonds and carved coral.

The problem, Madam Carr, is that your ******** can be exposed in a matter of seconds these days, especially as you ******** for a full twenty minutes before getting close to your price. You don't need secret sign-ons to libraries of data to find out exactly what is the truth.

(and what's with the hour being called "Onyx Special" and one thin bangle (image 2) being offered with two 30s clocks and an Ellis How To Order filler - final fly-catching, gob-open-wide faux surprise price £149. It sat at £499 for most of the twenty minutes before she had the gall to call it "half price" at £249. Erm, you engage in a fiction, Madam, you call "Reverse Auction" so how can that be "half price", exactly?!).

Lindsey is by far the worst culprit for dubious price comparisons on there now - despite having a slapped wrist from the ASA earlier this year for that very thing.

I always thought Kate McCarthy was one of the better presenters - but she was ridiculous earlier too.

She compared a 'finest quality' Bemainty Ruby pair of earrings to a £230,000 (no, it's not a typing mistake!) high end loose Ruby from elsewhere.

The Ruby was 20cts in size, very clean, vivid pure Red, and most likely untreated (at best) or heated (at worst).

Kate's 'finest quality' Rubies were cloudy, purplish-red and...... fissure filled (she conveniently forgot to tell viewers that though). Quelle surprise!

I really am sick of this channel and its constant bulls**t now.

Its unrecognisable from the channel of 10 years ago.

TheManWithNoName said:

Lindsey is by far the worst culprit for dubious price comparisons on there now - despite having a slapped wrist from the ASA earlier this year for that very thing.

I always thought Kate McCarthy was one of the better presenters - but she was ridiculous earlier too.

She compared a 'finest quality' Bemainty Ruby pair of earrings to a £230,000 (no, it's not a typing mistake!) high end loose Ruby from elsewhere.

The Ruby was 20cts in size, very clean, vivid pure Red, and most likely untreated (at best) or heated (at worst).

Kate's 'finest quality' Rubies were cloudy, purplish-red and...... fissure filled (she conveniently forgot to tell viewers that though). Quelle surprise!

I really am sick of this channel and its constant bulls**t now.

Its unrecognisable from the channel of 10 years ago.

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I agree , I can no longer watch it for more than a couple of minutes and that includes Jeff.

TheManWithNoName said:

I really am sick of this channel and its constant bulls**t now.

Its unrecognisable from the channel of 10 years ago.

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Totally.

Said before, I think by you or someone else, but even the Cavill & Co pieces are a bit "meh" in the quality of some of the stones (large doesn't always mean beautiful by itself) and the designs really are "plonk in cast basket with tiny diamonds". Tiny diamonds, even D Flawless, are really, really readily available in the jewellery world. I do think that this garnet - image attached - is a corker (on site at £4,000) but that's been on a couple of times now and made its way back into stock, every time.

Gem Collector is a totally lost cause now, in my opinion. Said before, but Jim isn't suited at all. It's a bit off-putting when he plonks a gem on the turntable for a few seconds, whips it away and says "check it out now". When Emily is on with Toby, forget the gems. The stones may as well just be on a carousel while Emily & Toby catch up on air. When ten minutes is dedicated to waffle about a gem, it's a warning that what you're about to see isn't great. If Nick's on, I'll take a look - even if it's to appreciate his comparatively Zen style of presentation.

And the prices for what they're offering are bonkers. Ignoring the laughable prices for the opaques, £299 for dubious Chinese pearls (remember when Alex said that they'd never be seen dead selling freshwater pearls on GC?), £80 for a box set of zircon, £250 for a cloudy, oddly coloured, poorly-cut sphene and £50 for a .68pt irradiated green zircon, for example.

I find it quite sad, actually. I shouldn't because it's just a shop and you can get better elsewhere - easily but still. The power of nostalgia, eh?

rubia said:

I agree , I can no longer watch it for more than a couple of minutes and that includes Jeff.

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I no longer have enough interest to stay up, even for Jeff, but I did see an hour of his this morning, when I woke up briefly. He had an 'Under £30' hour with some reasonable deals. A pretty amethyst ring for £17.76 stood out. The next hour was a feldspar hour and that had some pretty, everyday wear pieces at decent prices, including some labradorite that is offered during the day at silly money. Vaguely reminiscent of Gems of yesteryear.

AndyW said:

Said before, I think by you or someone else, but even the Cavill & Co pieces are a bit "meh" in the quality of some of the stones (large doesn't always mean beautiful by itself) and the designs really are "plonk in cast basket with tiny diamonds". Tiny diamonds, even D Flawless, are really, really readily available in the jewellery world. I do think that this garnet - image attached - is a corker (on site at £4,000) but that's been on a couple of times now and made its way back into stock, every time.

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Yeah that was me. I think the whole 'high end' Jewellery range has taken a big hit on Gemporia now. The Cavill & Co range seemed to have pushed the Lorique range to one side - however, the other day, they did do a Lorique show - and I was shocked to see that they had set SMOKED Ethiopian Opals into 18k gold and were selling them for £2000.

I don't ever recall seeing stones like that in the Lorique range in the past. They always seemed to keep the best quality natural or heat treated stones for the Lorique range.

I could never bring myself to pay £2000 for a smoked stone.

AndyW said:

Gem Collector is a totally lost cause now, in my opinion. Said before, but Jim isn't suited at all. It's a bit off-putting when he plonks a gem on the turntable for a few seconds, whips it away and says "check it out now". When Emily is on with Toby, forget the gems. The stones may as well just be on a carousel while Emily & Toby catch up on air. When ten minutes is dedicated to waffle about a gem, it's a warning that what you're about to see isn't great. If Nick's on, I'll take a look - even if it's to appreciate his comparatively Zen style of presentation.

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He could have his annoyances (repeated stale jokes, far-fetches long-winded stories, etc), but Alex was Gem Collector. It died the day he left.

Emily loves the sound of her own voice too much, and Jim sells on Gem Collector like he would on Gems TV.

Nick is great. He is perfect for Gem Collector. Knowledgeable but calm. Doesn't have to be the centre of attention. He just cracks on with it. I've said it numerous times before, but the best presenters that ever presented on Gem Collector were Alex, Nick, Lara De-Leuw and Katie Ho.

AndyW said:

And the prices for what they're offering are bonkers. Ignoring the laughable prices for the opaques, £299 for dubious Chinese pearls (remember when Alex said that they'd never be seen dead selling freshwater pearls on GC?), £80 for a box set of zircon, £250 for a cloudy, oddly coloured, poorly-cut sphene and £50 for a .68pt irradiated green zircon, for example.

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Completely agree. The quality of the stones has gone down - significantly and the prices have risen - significantly.

The baffling thing for me is that the price rises weren't even gradual. They seemed to just go up overnight.

They also still claim to be the "World's largest gem store" - yet the same stones are repeated day in, day out, because there isn't much stock.

They used to have a huge, varied range of stock 10 years ago, with stones that you can't get anywhere else - but these days, it's just constant Sphene, Tanzanite, and whatever cheap Jasper or Agate they manage to buy by the shipping container full.

GemSelect have thousands of stones in stock - and I would say they're a far bigger gem store than GC these days.

AndyW said:

I find it quite sad, actually. I shouldn't because it's just a shop and you can get better elsewhere - easily but still. The power of nostalgia, eh?

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I know what you mean. Gem Collector used to be quite fun to watch even if you wasn't buying anything. Whether it was to listen to Alex's latest far-fetched story, Nick telling us about the latest book he's read, or Lara and Katie's sense of humour. The presenters were knowledgeable - but also quite interesting.

Emily just constantly giggles - and Jim has gone over in Gems TV salesman mode. It just has no appeal at all.

AndyW said:

I no longer have enough interest to stay up, even for Jeff, but I did see an hour of his this morning, when I woke up briefly. He had an 'Under £30' hour with some reasonable deals. A pretty amethyst ring for £17.76 stood out. The next hour was a feldspar hour and that had some pretty, everyday wear pieces at decent prices, including some labradorite that is offered during the day at silly money. Vaguely reminiscent of Gems of yesteryear.

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None of the presenters are perfect, but Jeff is still by far the most watchable. He's the most genuine/honest - and I think he does the least amount of 'sales spin' he can get away with without being given a wrist slap by management. He at least breaks things up by telling stories about his mischievous cat or his dad's complaints about his cooking. He doesn't resort to waffling, reminding everyone how to buy every 2 minutes, saying "Absolutely" 300 times an hour, or repeatedly telling us that "Ethel from Edinburgh has got 17, Kate from Kings Lynn has 9 - and Christine from Northampton has sent in her 8th crappy poem of the hour. Good luck to each and every one of you, well done!"

Absolutely.