Buying Gemstones: Being an Educated Consumer

When it comes to the consumer market for gemstones and gemstone jewelry, the phrase “buyer beware” is extremely apropos. In a competitive industry with highly valuable and expensive merchandise, the potential for scams and misrepresentation is ever present. 

In the past decades, large scale TV shopping networks have offered low cost supposed genuine gemstone jewelry, commonly with either Ruby or Turquoise gems, that turned out to be composite materials. In one unusual case, pink and green tourmaline gemstones were being held together by plastic to mimic a bicolor tourmaline gemstone. Other scams have involved extremely valuable believed sapphire and ruby gemstones that had questionable appraisal reports.  Masking the treatment method and misrepresenting the gem is another form of scandal in the gemstone industry. For example, the GIA lab once received a purple opal that was claimed to be from Kenya or Mexico but was tested to reveal that it was actually an opal from Ethiopia that was died purple.

These interesting topics were discussed at a recent West Coast seminar featuring Shane McGlure, a director of GIA, in a presentation titled “A Day in the Life of a Laboratory Gemologist”. McGlure compares his work to that of a forensic scientist and detective, and entertained the crowd with unique stories of fun and interesting gemstone identification situations:

Among the identification highlights were a specimen that was sent to the lab as possible opal that turned out to be a piece of bowling ball; a material called  “rainbow calsilica,” reputedly from Mexico, from which the lab removed a piece of a soda bottle; and a sapphire inclusion in a diamond. The latter is now owned by GIA and housed in their reference collection. McClure also referenced a diamond scalpel, that was identified as a CVD grown synthetic diamond, as well as a piece of charcoal that the owner believed might be a black diamond. (http://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research-mcclure-conclave-fascinating-finds)

While these examples are certainly entertaining to hear about, they can also be intimidating for the consumer who values genuine gemstones yet isn’t enough of an expert in gemology to tell the real thing from a fake. Therefore, when shopping for gemstones, a good rule of thumb is that if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. Another important point is to always shop for gemstones and gemstone jewelry at reliable places. For example, in addition to being an A+ rated shop from the BBB, AfricaGems is known for honesty, reliability and accuracy. With truthful descriptions, the best images we can offer and full disclosure of treatment methods, AfricaGems is a safe and reliable place to shop for genuine gemstones. Many of our gemstones come with reputable certificates from gem laboratories such as GIA, AGTA, EGL, ECERT, and AGS, and for gems without these certificates we can provide a third party certification.

If you’re investing any significant amount of money in gemstones, you want to be sure that you’re getting the real thing and it’s worth shopping at only reputable places to ensure that your gemstone purchase will be one that you and your family will enjoy for generations to come!