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That Wife Wanted a Cubic Z?


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Oh, and I loooooooove marcasite. I don't love how the price has shot up because it's now being considered a rare stone now that more people are aware of its existence, though not as many as who know about the Big 5 (diamonds, sapphires, red rubies, emeralds, and, even though they're not from the earth, pearls). This has helped create a this aura around marcasite that it's exclusive and rare. It's not. QVC still sells the "high" quality ones for pretty cheap, yet jewelry stores are pushing the cost up.

Cost doesn't equal value with jewelry. It's a lot like Radio stock. Yeah, how do you sell Radio stock? It's not tangible and no one owns the radio. The FCC controls the signals, but doesn't own radio, certainly nothing you can make money on. Yet people wanted the stock because everyone else wanted it. The cost rose higher and higher. Those in at the start made money buy finding buyers, and that profit caused a frenzy and so more and more and MORE people wanted in on it! Then critical mass hit and those holding stock at the end paid a lot of money for nothing. There were not even products they could take. They had nothing. At all. Except a big fat loss.

Diamonds would go the same way if it weren't for a big massive marketing scheme, and marcasite is the new "rare" gem that hasn't quite caught on. DeBeers did too good of a job at making diamonds even crappy ones, seem rare and elusive.

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I have only gone with lab created stones because of the social implications.

Although my jade is natural, but I am not sure how that works. Some pieces are from when we were in china, other pieces I got when we were in Alaska,

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Moissanites are virtually impossible to differentiate from "real" diamonds because they ARE real. The process was just sped up in a lab and doesn't come with any risk of human abuse or death, and all at a small fraction of buying into the cost of so-called rare gems that are really plentiful.

My only issue with Moissanites is that you can't get a colorless stone. They all have a yellow tinge to them, which drives me mad. But I'm already pretty crazy, so your mileage may vary. Photographed or looked at certain angles, you can't see it, but in non direct light or straight on, it always smacked me in the face. I would have rather have gone with a white sapphire, even though it wouldn't be as sparkly.

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Now what ARE are natural pearls. You've got to open a LOT of oysters to find one that grew a pearl from a natural piece of sediment. Funny thing, even when it comes to cultured pearls they're made to sound rare, and a strand of black cultures pearls them can set you back several hundred dollars or more. Yet the wholesale cost of those things is so cheap that I let my daughter play with my pearl cases (I make jewelry as a little "side" thing right now and use a lot of cultures pearls, I buy them for as cheaply as $3 for 16" worth (enough to make a standard pearl necklace).

If you want the thrill of a naturally-found gemstone, I can tell you there are few thrills like going on a guided panning or mining expedition and finding your own. There is an astronomical number of natural stones mined commercially, and so many people have gemstones, including diamonds, but how many have a piece of jewelry with a gemstone, be it large or small, that they themselves found? :)

The pearl dealers seems to have inflated the prize of pearls a lot, like... ridiculously much. Even freshwater pearls are expensive here and that's ridiculous when you know how much they cost wholesale.

My mother always wanted big pearls... so I asked a friend who works in China to get a strand of 12 mm silver grey freshwater pearls for her. I think he paid $60 for the necklace - and it was very good quality.

She took it to her jeweler to get it valued and it was valued at $2000. Somebody is clearly making a LOT of money selling pearls.

The same with earrings: I wanted a pair of big baroque pearls for earrings. They were $800 for a pair in the jewelry store. I purchased a pair from a Chinese dealer in pearls on Ebay for $15 (my jeweler confirmed that they were the real deal) and bought gold clasps for $100.

Like I have written before: I worked for an antiques dealer who also sold jewelry. The little I saw of the jewelry market there was enough for me to become very sceptic of the whole business and only buy vintage jewelry or try to buy my items wholesale.

I'd love to go on a gem hunt, but I don't think there are any here.

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It's like walking into a candy store! Aaaaah! Sadly, the cheaper gems are almost exclusively used in cheaper hippie-inspired jewelry here and has no appeal to the broader market who thinks that it's worthless.

It is very rare to find a big, clear, facet-cut amethyst set in gold for example because big pieces jewelry have always been considered tacky here (unless it's an antique tiara that you have inherited) and Swedish women have had a very conservative taste in jewelry and only the big five stones have been accepted.

I love rings like this: big stone, simple setting without diamonds (don't know about the quality of the stone here)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beautiful-Emera ... 824wt_1059

But when I wear my big rings, most people probably think that I got them in a candy machine.

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