Buying gems in Thailand Part Deux

The gentleman seated is the buyer's agent that I spoke about, this photo will give you an idea of the mob scene that we were subjected to for several hours in the morning, and again in the afternoon after lunch, although we did have seats in the upstairs bourse in the afternoon and there was lots more air to breath, although the din was even louder than it had been in the morning. Buying gems at the weekly market is not for those seeking solitude or quiet!

You may remember that I was excited to purchase a beautiful colored blue zircon that was poorly cut in my last post. I did not get around to telling you why.

One of the main reasons that I wanted to go to Thailand was to buy poorly cut gems that had extra weight in the pavilion (bottom) of the stone. This would allow me to have them recut by Richard Homer into gems of spectacular beauty for a fraction of the price of having to buy the gems already cut.

This would allow me to sell them for less than I would normally have to sell them for, and still make as much or more money than I would selling them at the higher price. In fact I sold several of the gems that I bought to wholesalers for the same price I sell them to my clients for, and they sell them to jewelers who sell them for way more than I do. I look at this as sort of a major win for me, and also a major win for my clients, whether they be wholesalers or end users. Plus I get to travel to one of the most friendly places on earth. I really loved the Thai people, they were warm and hospitable to me and my associates and it was truly a pleasure to be there.

Of course, we were not the only buyers there. We met buyers from all over the world, including Sri Lanka, where some of the gems actually came from. At the bottom of this post there is a picture of an indian buyer that we talked with. Even though I was exstatic at the prices I was paying, he was somewhat put off that we were paying so much. Since we were "paying too much" we had been offered some of the stones that he might have bought had we not been there. Mostly though we were not competing as the stones he wanted were usually different than what I wanted. He bought several parcels of hundreds of carats of mele (very small stones, usually less than .15cts, often as small as .005cts each) for manufacturing lines of jewelry at his factory in India.

Anyway, also at the bottom of this post you will find the blue zircon that I talked about above. It is shown in a composit photo containing both the before and the after. You will notice the substantial color change that is seen from the before to the more saturated and intense color of the after. This is a result of Richard Homer's artistry. You can see many more of his gems at www.concavegems.com. If you want one of his stones you can contact me or deal directly with Richard. If you go directly with Richard, be sure to mention my name as he will give you a 10% discount for doing so.

In fact if you want to visit my colleagues page at www.winkjones.com/colleagues you can visit many fine sources of both gems and diamonds.

During the course of the day we bought, just the five us, well over $100,000 worth of gems and we were without doubt the smallest buyers there. I think the buyer's house does VERY well with it's 5% commission.

Wink