WTB sapphire.

C

col0016

Active Member
Hey all, I'm looking to buy a sapphire to have set as s gift for the missus. While thankfully online wholesalers are much cheaper than jewellery stores, I was hoping one of you hobbyists could help me out. Preferably it would be between 1 and 2 ct and as brilliant as I can afford :p
I'm looking to spend up to $300 and I'll pay whatever you could get selling to a wholesaler plus a few Kennedy half dollars for your trouble. I'm not in a rush so please keep me in mind if you find anything.
Help a brother out!
 
Did you want a rough sapphire that you can get cut yourself or not?

Also, what colour?

Sapphires from Australia come in a range of colours from yellow, green to the traditional blue or black.

Regards

H
 
Sorry I should have clarified. I'm after a blue one. I think it would be safer for me to go for a cut one, unless you pro's can tell if rough ones will look great when cut. I'm after a deep blue, however not too dark, one that would look nice in the sun.
 
Ahh ok,

A lot of natural stones are heat treated to improve their colour and quality and...there's many imported stones from overseas.

Australia has some of the best coloured stones in the world, some of the best come from the Townships of Emerald and Glen Innes, obviously there's more areas that produce stones but if you do source one from someone, be sure to ask where the stone comes from and who mined it.

I'm not a professional, just a hobbyist and I don't cut stones yet.

Here's some natural stones in the rough that I dug.

Cheers mate.

Sapphires_zpsefe6d65e.jpg
 
col0016 said:
I think it would be safer for me to go for a cut one, unless you pro's can tell if rough ones will look great when cut.
Click to expand...
col0016, if your buying for a gift, I'd buy an already cut one, as you know what colour and clarity it is, and you lose about 2/3 of the rough weight during faceting.

Holdfast said:
Here's some natural stones in the rough that I dug.
Click to expand...
Awesome Holdfast!
I have just come back from a trip to Inverell, and have a container full of roughs just like yours that I'm about to send away to get cut.
Just wondering how you get such good pics?
 
Yeah I think you're right wrc. Has anyone got pics of cut ones they're looking to sell? Do people usually sell them soon after finding them? Of are there some Sapphire Stackers here? :p
 
wrcmad said:
col0016 said:
I think it would be safer for me to go for a cut one, unless you pro's can tell if rough ones will look great when cut.
Click to expand...
col0016, if your buying for a gift, I'd buy an already cut one, as you know what colour and clarity it is, and you lose about 2/3 of the rough weight during faceting.

Holdfast said:
Here's some natural stones in the rough that I dug.
Click to expand...
Awesome Holdfast!
I have just come back from a trip to Inverell, and have a container full of roughs just like yours that I'm about to send away to get cut.
Just wondering how you get such good pics?
Click to expand...


For reasonable images, just spread the stones on a mirror outside in bright sunlight.
Use a tripod to get a decent shot.

H
 
I don't know much about Sapphires but i guess they are like opals in that there is no 'spot' price and it is what you want to pay.
That said, just going from some of the info on these pages...
http://www.austgem.com.au/buy-australian-sapphires.php

http://www.australiansapphire.com/

it looks like you might need to spend a little more than $300 for a cut piece.
I don't know if heat treated sapphires is frowned upon or not.
Try also asking the diamond jewellers...
http://www.goldcompany.com.au/sell-diamonds
I assume that they may try to switch you to diamonds but you never know.
 
Thanks Naphthalene Man, I've already looked at a few sites and decent cut sapphires seem to go for $100-$200 per ct. I just thought I'd check on here first since a few members deal in gems.

Unheated would be cool, but I don't really care and I think heated is much more common.
 
If it were me, I'd call these places, talk to them, have them send picks of anything you are interested in before purchasing:
I was in both of them on Tuesday, and they had bucket loads of stones for all budgets.
$300 would get you quite a reasonable stone (for my standards), but some are very expensive... depends on colour, clarity, inclusions, size etc.
I don't know a lot about sapphires, but $300 would have had me a stone I was impressed with.

http://www.thegemcentre.com.au/index.php

http://www.sapphireaustralia.com/
 
Just looking at a very nice Ceylon Blue right now. Circa 5 mm across the table, not sure of the carats, but I remember it costing $400, 7 years ago.

The market may have gone up or down in the period since then, I am not sure.
 
Hey Mate, Just got a nice 1.6ct natural Blue Qld Sapphire not enhanced. Let me know if your still looking! (Not the best photographer but I tried lol)
1192_sapphire.png
 
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