If Gemporia wants to survive...

[Dazzles]

I wonder if in this instance the term “investment“ becomes a very relative term. Any jewellery has a potential to be resold and the value is dictated by demand for it. Even Midas items have a potential value if resold on eBay and sites alike. Like you I really appreciate natural gems and it’s great to have an opportunity to purchase it from Gemporia.

I have seen an eBay shop that exclusively sells Gemporia items (even the photos and graphics from the site are preserved). They make small profit, but it is still a profit. Equally Gemporia offers certain gemstones that are hard to find in affordable jewellery (like Tsavorite for example) and beautiful creations of Glen Lehrer, which are limited, reasonably priced and readily comparable to prices on other available platforms.

If someone values and appreciates the genius work of Glen and builds a collection to own, I feel there is reasonable chance to have an actual investment.

The problem is that Jemporia puts some hard-to believe estimated market value prices on screen before they crushing it on air, combined with long educational lectures designed to create a false feeling of deficit of the gem and opportunity to own it. That combination lands people in trouble, especially if they are already in credit and trying to invest to help themselves or their loved ones, as opposed to fall in love with a beautiful item and enjoy owning it. Mirabelle and the troubles she and her family encountered is an upsetting and illustrative with regards to investments.

Global and UK economy is in trouble and in times of hardship people do try and invest, it is upsetting that Dave is attempting (and apparently succeeding) to convince people that his snot coloured offerings is where people should put their savings into. I don’t know enough about Jade to say that he is fibbing, but I can see the gorgeous Verde green coloured creations he puts up for comparison and that he Is offering a very ambiguous carvings in grey and various hues of snot items that don’t resemble anything that is shown in his book!

He had a carving in a pendant and ring collection of precious Olmec Jade with its “pollen like inclusions” few days ago and all I saw was a badly carved cabbage leaf with pox?

I love cabbage BTW, but I doubt it is connected to any special legends he loves to tell us or aesthetically suitable for jewellery.

The Lehrer cuts are beautiful, but the cheaper items are not cut by Lehrer himself. No disparagement intended to Lehrer and his amazing creations, I am just not sure his pieces have investment potential if not cut by him. Gemporia does sell stones he has cut from time to time, but they are much more expensive. I do enjoy Gemporia for fancy cuts and would recommend them as pieces to own and enjoy.

I Googled pollen inclusions in jadeite and couldn't find a source that said they were desirable or a feature of the finest jadeite as I seem to recall was said or implied during a show, merely that they are acceptable in imperial green material and that the finest jadeite shouldn't have inclusions. But it wouldn't take any interested party long to figure out how much the finest really costs.

 

[Rose de France]

But also that the brevity of the actual show was down to the tiny number of items available to buy.

So they're really unable to show natural gemstones all the time.

 

[user 17461]

So they're really unable to show natural gemstones all the time.

I never thought of that, but that's probably so.

Bearing in mind that gem mines are depleting, and the big jewellery houses are now looking at anything and everything outside of the big 4/5 gems and Gemporia is almost definitely being priced out of the market.

Plus I seem to remember reading something about fears regarding the future availability/pricing of gold for jewellery use, and this all sounds like a perfect storm that could bring the company down.

Gemporia may not be able to return to its original USP because it's no longer cost effective for them. There's only a finite number of gems anyone can access in an affordable way, and what proportion of those are naturally jewellery worthy without treatments?

 

[Rose de France]

I never thought of that, but that's probably so.

Bearing in mind that gem mines are depleting, and the big jewellery houses are now looking at anything and everything outside of the big 4/5 gems and Gemporia is almost definitely being priced out of the market.

Plus I seem to remember reading something about fears regarding the future availability/pricing of gold for jewellery use, and this all sounds like a perfect storm that could bring the company down.

Gemporia may not be able to return to its original USP because it's no longer cost effective for them. There's only a finite number of gems anyone can access in an affordable way, and what proportion of those are naturally jewellery worthy without treatments?

Is it true that Jake Thompson was selling lab-grown diamonds on Jewellery Maker? Someone has mentioned about it on this forum, but I don't remember the exact thread.

Since we're talking about diamonds... We must remember that there are sanctions on Russian ones. Gemporia has invested a lot of money in Russian diamonds. Now the stones are buried in the warehouses, because the company cannot sell them to the viewers.

 

[Rose de France]

I've found it!

However, when Gemporia bought Jewellery Maker back from Immediate Media, Jade Thompson appeared as a 'guest' on a couple of shows, complete with his 30 minutes lectures, flogging lab-created synthetic diamonds! However, they weren't sold at the "pennies" that Steve Bennett used to say they cost - they were sold in the hundreds of pounds. And of course, despite years of Gemporia ridiculing synthetic stones, Jade Thompson gave us spiel about why we should now buy synthetic diamonds - because we can get cleaner, brighter, bigger carat stones for a "fraction of the price of real diamonds".

TheManWithNoName (Feb 17, 2023)
https://forum.shoppingtelly.com/threads/gemporia-struggling-financially.65642/#post-1078918

 

[user 17461]

Call me a cynic, but my guess is that Gemporia can buy them in a greater number for a much cheaper price than mined diamonds. But their markup will still be high.

 

[Kit10]

Tonight Hattie stated just before her briolette hour finished that her opening lecture (including a three part film with the ****alicious Jake in a shirt that's straining so much it's practically warping space/time) was "almost" so long it took up most of the Wobito briolette hour, and was "nearly" twice as long as the time the jewellery was available to buy for a reason.

The snoozefest was apparently "necessary" for people to truly understand what was up for sale (a few pendants and some pairs of earrings. I suspect that nobody really had any issues understanding that). But also that the brevity of the actual show was down to the tiny number of items available to buy. Plus they were put on pre-order during the lecture, which wouldn't have helped space things out. I was surprised at Hattie volunteering this on air, but perhaps viewers had been complaining on social media or contacting the studio to tell Hattie to get a move on.

I don't think that, the tonnes of jade and gold tone items aside, Gemporia can actually bring items to air in enough quantities to fill shows, so as well as getting neverending lectures to convince us all to purchase yet more jade for our "portfolios", we're probably going to get even more interminable lectures to fill up air time on other jewellery shows.

Yay!

The show launched on Friday with Adina, and was on again with Rachel on Sat, so it looks like Hattie got the leftovers! I was intending to buy a piece, but I could clearly see the ‘pin’ from the mounting into the stone. It would drive me crazy. How hard would it have been to increase the size of the Mount to hide it?

I believe that nowadays Gemporia is unable to show natural gemstones all the time. This is why the new collections are so small and there are more and more non-jewellery auctions. But these non-jewellery auctions are killing Gemporia. I don't watch them. Even if I liked homewares, Destello and Primal Living, I wouldn't buy these things because of high P&P and bank margin.

I don't want Gemporia to replace genuine, ethically-sourced gemstones with laboratory-grown ones. I want Gemporia to replace non-jewellery stuff with (let's call it) alternative jewellery.

I don’t think they can survive without diversifying into non jewellery items. There is not the profit there anymore. TJC has decided the same. I think the days of people buying jewellery every day are over. And from the sounds of things, Visage is its very own ‘Goldmine’.

 

[TheManWithNoName]

I don't think they can survive regardless.

Nothing has changed at all over the past six weeks other than refunds being quicker.

All of the things that people are complaining about are being ignored. It's as if they think they know better than the very people they're putting off - viewers!

That arrogance will cost them in my opinion.

In the grand scheme of things, the length of time it was taking to refund people was about number 5 on the list of priorities to sort out.

The top four priorities are:

1. Ditch the lectures from the three amigos (especially Dave Troth).
2. Ditch all the Jade
3. Ditch all the 'gold tone' and plating junk.
4. Overhaul the presenter line-up!

 

[LittleOrange]

This morning I couldn't get the website to load - assumed they had gone kaput!

 

[user 17461]

The show launched on Friday with Adina, and was on again with Rachel on Sat, so it looks like Hattie got the leftovers! I was intending to buy a piece, but I could clearly see the ‘pin’ from the mounting into the stone. It would drive me crazy. How hard would it have been to increase the size of the Mount to hide it?

Really? Hattie never mentioned that it was the third showing for this range! Which makes her "introductory" lecture even worse! Hattie was behaving like it was all new to air.

 

[Dazzles]

This morning I couldn't get the website to load - assumed they had gone kaput!

Companies House is now listing their accounts as overdue.

GEMPORIA LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

GEMPORIA LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

 

[Rose de France]

Companies House is now listing their accounts as overdue.

GEMPORIA LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

GEMPORIA LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

Could you please explain what that means?

 

[diamon4321]

Could you please explain what that means?

It could be for various reasons, but it's not the first time they've filed after the due date.

 

[Dazzles]

Could you please explain what that means?

I'm not sure what it means. Perhaps the change in leadership has slowed things down.

It doesn't always mean they're in financial trouble, but it's not a good sign for suppliers.

The Consequences of Late Submission of Company Accounts

Failing to file Annual Returns and Accounts at Companies House on time could result in grave consequences, including personal liability for directors and potential negligence claims against any professionals who do not advise their clients correctly. Filing accounts is a statutory requirement...

www.forbesburton.com

 

[Rose de France]

Thank you very much.

It's too early to panic.

 

[user 17461]

Thank you very much.

It's too early to panic.

Or it might be a bit too late to turn the ship around.

In other news, I see that Colin Wagstaffe was formally removed as a director of Gemporia last Friday. Better late than never, I suppose.

So presenters will probably be now hurriedly amending their scripts to refer to Jake "Slimfast" Thompson storming into the gallery to complain about the "unnecessarily low price" of a gold tone, coated topaz pendant. Or whatever.