I have to ask this question I have just had a glimpse on Gemporia and obviously it's jade. My question is this, is Jade being missed sold as we think it is? There are so many people buying it and sending in amazing reviews it made me wonder! If these pieces were being sold by the old Gemporia I would of bought but now I just daren't. The sincerity of Dave and Ellis is mind boggling and if what we think is true how are they getting away with it? As anyone bought it and being blown away by it? Or had a piece valued? Like I said I'm very curious.
It's not being mis-sold as such - it is Type A Jadeite. The stone itself is what they say it is.
However, they are massively over exaggerating its quality, colour and worth. It is opaque - whereas their comparisons are based on translucent material. The colour in the Gemporia Jade is almost non-existent. Yesterday, they were flogging a 'Lavender' Jade - which looked grey. They then sold a 'bi-colour' Jade. I'm not sure who decided it was 'bi-colour', but I presume it must have been Stevie Wonder - because it definitely didn't have two colours - and it barely had one colour. It was very much like the so-called 'Lavender' Jade - grey.
I posted a screenshot of their so-called 'Dove Blue' Jade last week - but at best, it was slightly off-white.
The 'normal' light green Jadeite has some colour - but it's a very light green Jade.
The only Jadeite's that really have any colour are the 'Red' Jade (which is more like Orange than Red), the 'Oil-Green' Jade (which is very dark and looks very much like Nephrite Jade - a cheaper variety within the Jade family), and the Black Jadeite (which, when looked at under lighting, is actually a VERY VERY dark green).
Is there anything wrong with it? No - other than the price of it is WAY too high.
If it was £15-£20 in a ring or pendant - fine. That would be about fair. But the prices that they're selling it for - in the hundreds of pounds for 'gold tone' jewellery is ludicrous.
As for its value - If people take any jewellery (regardless of the gemstone, metals, etc) to a jewellers for a valuation, it will almost always be valued at a lot higher than they bought it for. That's because the valuations are insurance valuations - they're valued at the amount it would cost to create an exact copy of the jewellery should it be lost or stolen - so that valuation includes the cost of sourcing a like-for-like stone, labour to design the ring, labour to create the ring, future inflation, etc.
However, Gemporia try to imply that the valuation is the "worth" of the item. It isn't.
If a business knew that they could sell an item for four times what they're actually selling it for, as some of the presenters claim, then they would - obviously. They exist to make money - not to do the public a favour by selling us cheaper priced jewellery for the fun of it.
If any customers got a valuation and then asked the same valuer if they wanted to buy the item off them at the valuation price, they'd probably be told "On yer bike mate" - or they'd be offered less than they actually paid for it.
If a Gemporia customer decided they wanted to sell their "heirloom" piece of gold-tone Jadeite jewellery in a years time and took it to a jeweller to see if they want to buy it off them, I'd be very surprised if the jeweller offered anything more than scrap value for it. At best, they may offer a trade price. They almost certainly won't buy it for the retail price the customer paid though - and certainly not the amount the "valuation" says.
Getting a valuation does not indicate an items worth - so it's misleading for Gemporia to imply as such.