Gem Collector

[Phill]

live on sky now 656
and online www.gemcollector.com

 

[reanebeanie]

live on sky now 656
and online www.gemcollector.com

Tuned in as I hadnt seen Barry for a while, and I like his style of presenting, but didnt watch for long as I cant stand the music :headbang:! Pointless watching with the sound down!

 

[Meeshoo]

I watched for a couple of hours.

Prices (for the pre-launch) were good BUT the general cut of the gemstones left a lot to be desired. I do hope that Steve B is going to source some better "native" cuts or invest and get some precision cut gemstones. It really does make a difference and a beautiful looking gemstone will always sell at a higher pricepoint than one with an enormous window and resulting lack of saturation.

I do like the disclosure of treatments - that's very good news. I hope that will be expanded on because it's THE most important thing when buying loose gemstones.

I also love the idea that you'll be able to buy semi-mounts for your jewellery. My only hesitation with that is that I hope the accent diamonds will be decent (presumably you can't see the mounts before you send your stone to be set????) and the price will have to beat the superb semi-mount Chinese sellers on Ebay where you can get some phenomenal settings (with great diamonds) that can even be adjusted to fit non-calibrated stones for £200 and under.

This is a really interesting venture and I'm going to be fascinated to see how it develops.

 

[Tyla]

Semi-mounts?

Meesho

I am a newbie to posting on the shopping forum but a lurker for quite a few years on the forums for TJC, Gems etc and I have learnt such a lot from you and the many people who post but especially yourself. I read with interest your post and your mention of semi-mounts. Can I ask do you just purchase your semi-mounts then get your local jeweller to set your loose stone? Would say a local HM Samuel for example be suitable to use to reset jewellery or do I need to find a different kind of jewellers? I live in London.

I have an 18k Paraiba Tourmaline bracelet of various shades of green, blue and quite white purchased from Gems TV several years ago (Item No: 82704). Given the information I have read on the various forums, I now doubt the authentication of the stones or at least the quality. Some of the stones are distinctly underwhelming but a few of the stones I really like and would like to reset. What would you advise.

 

[Meeshoo]

Hi Tyla and welcome to the forum :hi:

To answer your questions, I always get a trusted jeweller to set my stones. It must be a trusted or very experienced jeweller because if it's your stone and mount - i.e. nothing purchased from the jeweller - then you're not insured in case the setter breaks the stone during mounting. Unfortunately this can happen. Not often but it can. It's only ever happened to me once and surprisingly was a diamond! When I say "jeweller" what I actually mean is an experienced benchman in a jewellers - i.e. somebody who does repairs, makes settings etc for a living. So, NOT H. Samuel or High Street Jewellers. They may offer this service but you're better off finding a local working jeweller. You'll pay anything from £20 to £80 depending on the complexity. Normally it's at the lower end. Also, if you have a coloured stone you need to make sure that the benchman has worked with them before. Most benchmen have only experience of working with diamonds and perhaps sapphires and rubies. Setting a Sphene or Kyanite for example requires serious experience!

I'm not sure who Gem Collector will be using to set the stones in the settings they provide and whether insurance will be offered - I'm presuming yes because you'll have bought the stone/setting from them. It's not clear from their website whether you can send your own stone to them and have it set in one of their settings. This might be worth exploring. As they are setting stones in bulk, I would assume they've negotiated great rates (or it's free if you've bought the setting from them).

I would think they'll use one of the two jewellers that do all their repairs at the moment i.e. Stanleys and the one next door who's name escapes me! I do know that you can send stuff to them as a private individual and they're pretty good so that might be worth exploring. They also have experience of working with numerous coloured gemstones because they've been working with GemsTV and RocksTV for ever!

In terms of your bracelet. What you'll probably find is that the stones (if they're not neon and glowy with a phenomenal "in yer face" colour) are Cuprian Tourmalines rather than Paraiba Tourmalines. Cuprians are copper bearing Tourmalines. Paraiba Tourmalines have the neon/glow/colour that separates them. However, I do believe that everybody who had their PT's checked with GemsTV before Steve B took it back over, were assured that they were natural Tourmalines and in some cases heated only but no other treatments. If you bought it some time ago then rest assured the price you paid will have been good even if they are just Cuprians.

If you are thinking of re-setting some of the stones, to make the weaker coloured ones look better think about setting them in yellow gold and having a fairly closed yellow gold basket underneath to radiate the colour back up through the stone. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. You can do it in white gold as well and if you want to practice, get a piece of kitchen silver foil, make a nest with it and pop your stone inside. You'll see if it makes a difference by doing that - and it means you won't waste your money if it doesn't work!

Good luck and please post up photos of your jewellery and re-sets won't you? We're a nosey bunch on here and love to see pics!

By the way, if you become a full member of this forum, you get access to another section where there's a "bling" forum for all jewellery related queries!

Hope that helps.

 

[jacqualina]

I've watched a bit of Gem Collector, but find it very difficult to judge the stone, particularly the cut, when it's going round on the lazy susan.
Could we please see more of the stone in tweezers and truly head on please?

 

[Phill]

I have ordered a few pieces and I’m very impressed with the prices and quality,
however I really don’t like the music, I would much rather list to gems tv 2's old music, that was really good, this music is not very tense, and I like tense music in falling auction.

 

[Meeshoo]

I bought a 2.5ct yellow Beryl for £14 that arrived today. I bought it because of the price and the cut - it is a very very good cut - and also because I was curious.

It's very lovely and meets/exceeds expectations - once I could get it out of it's very protective cover! For those who haven't received anything yet, what arrived was:

- authenticity card that peels off a backing and leaves you with a plastic bendy card (think the old GemsTV cards but lightly laminated
- 3 peel off stickers for the gem pot
- a plastic gem pot with a pull off lid and a silicone spongey bum!
- the gem.

The gem and cards were wrapped in a sort of heat shrink plastic which took a frustrating 10 minutes to open without slicing through the cards etc! Not good for the impatient like me but certainly held the gem securely! Everything was then bubble wrapped. So nice and safe.

What I didn't get - not sure if I was supposed to or not with the first order - was a case to hold 12(?) gems???? I thought the first one came free and then you added to it after? Might be wrong and may have heard this on GemsTV instead!

All in all a good experience!

 

[jacqualina]

Good to hear you are pleased with your stone Meesh. I think you need to phone CS and ask for one of the boxes to be included with your order and then again when that one is full etc. So the onus is on you and that way they don't need to keep track of the number of stones every customer has bought. It works very well at Rocks and they happily include boxes when you need them.

 

[Tyla]

Meesho The Wise

Hi Tyla and welcome to the forum :hi:

To answer your questions, I always get a trusted jeweller to set my stones. It must be a trusted or very experienced jeweller because if it's your stone and mount - i.e. nothing purchased from the jeweller - then you're not insured in case the setter breaks the stone during mounting. Unfortunately this can happen. Not often but it can. It's only ever happened to me once and surprisingly was a diamond! When I say "jeweller" what I actually mean is an experienced benchman in a jewellers - i.e. somebody who does repairs, makes settings etc for a living. So, NOT H. Samuel or High Street Jewellers. They may offer this service but you're better off finding a local working jeweller. You'll pay anything from £20 to £80 depending on the complexity. Normally it's at the lower end. Also, if you have a coloured stone you need to make sure that the benchman has worked with them before. Most benchmen have only experience of working with diamonds and perhaps sapphires and rubies. Setting a Sphene or Kyanite for example requires serious experience!

I'm not sure who Gem Collector will be using to set the stones in the settings they provide and whether insurance will be offered - I'm presuming yes because you'll have bought the stone/setting from them. It's not clear from their website whether you can send your own stone to them and have it set in one of their settings. This might be worth exploring. As they are setting stones in bulk, I would assume they've negotiated great rates (or it's free if you've bought the setting from them).

I would think they'll use one of the two jewellers that do all their repairs at the moment i.e. Stanleys and the one next door who's name escapes me! I do know that you can send stuff to them as a private individual and they're pretty good so that might be worth exploring. They also have experience of working with numerous coloured gemstones because they've been working with GemsTV and RocksTV for ever!

In terms of your bracelet. What you'll probably find is that the stones (if they're not neon and glowy with a phenomenal "in yer face" colour) are Cuprian Tourmalines rather than Paraiba Tourmalines. Cuprians are copper bearing Tourmalines. Paraiba Tourmalines have the neon/glow/colour that separates them. However, I do believe that everybody who had their PT's checked with GemsTV before Steve B took it back over, were assured that they were natural Tourmalines and in some cases heated only but no other treatments. If you bought it some time ago then rest assured the price you paid will have been good even if they are just Cuprians.

If you are thinking of re-setting some of the stones, to make the weaker coloured ones look better think about setting them in yellow gold and having a fairly closed yellow gold basket underneath to radiate the colour back up through the stone. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. You can do it in white gold as well and if you want to practice, get a piece of kitchen silver foil, make a nest with it and pop your stone inside. You'll see if it makes a difference by doing that - and it means you won't waste your money if it doesn't work!

Good luck and please post up photos of your jewellery and re-sets won't you? We're a nosey bunch on here and love to see pics!

By the way, if you become a full member of this forum, you get access to another section where there's a "bling" forum for all jewellery related queries!

Hope that helps.

Meesho

Apologies for the time it has taken me to respond following your answering my question but I was having broadband problems.

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you. Your explanation and knowledge was so comprehensive. Whenever you get round to writing a jewellery or gemstone ebook I am there. As ever you are a font of all knowledge gem wise.

I did jot a line to GemsTV/Rocks regarding the authenticity of the Paraiba Tourmaline bracelet I bought from Gems TV in 2006 (and still not worn) and received a reply from a customer services representative as follows:

"... I can confirm that the gemstones set in your purchase of item code 82704 are Paraiba Tourmaline..."

So armed with you words of wisdom and confirmation from Gems I can now happily decided what to do with the bracelet. I have 15 oval stones of 18.632ct with 10.53g 18k gold. Those were the days! Not all the colours of the stones are brilliant but there are a few stones I really like. Once again thanks for answering my question so quickly and comprehensively.