Which are the most expensive gemstones?

[harbinger]

If one had a piece of X vs a piece of Y, both with the same cut,clarity and whatever, are diamonds the most expensive?

What follows?

Getorf you'll find it one day. And it will be one of those 'meant to be' moments!

My family are all jewellers. None of them would recommend marrying a jeweller

When it comes to birthdays/xmas etc nobody has a clue what to get you-because jewellery would be silly..... and any potential DP's feel the terror when they realise that you are EXTREMELY particular about accepting a ring

There's also the fact that my mum is on her 15th wedding ring, as whenever they would run out of metal they'd just fling theirs in to bulk it up! Madness.

harbinger, even if it wasn't second hand I would haggle. Always haggle. Prices on jewellery in the window usually have a bit extra on them to allow for haggling so haggle and then haggle some more.

Joymachine, tanzanite is bloody expensive

I want an opal ring getorf.
It's my birthstone.

Mine's peridot it's bogey green. Not that attractive.

Ah, but green can be emerald, chrome diopside, tsavorite or green sapphire

That is so funny about your mum's wedding ring!

Mine is aquamarine.

Meh to that.

How do you haggle with a jeweller? I feel intimidated.

I know, but if I'm going to do birthstones I need to do it properly harrumphs

SIL is 21 in a few weeks, she doesn't know yet, but she's getting a lovely ring with one of her grandmother's diamonds in it and one of her mother's pearls. It's a big chunky, melty deconstructed looking thing. Very cool and hippy chic.

As it's a waste of time buying jewellery for me- for my 21st I have nothing to show for it....(although I did have a pirate party.)

harbinger, it's tough but you just need to brassneck it.

Common ones are "It's a bit more than I'm comfortable spending"
"If it were £XXX (a lower price) I'd jump at it but this is just out of reach"

If it's second hand, you might only get 10-15% off it, if it is new hold out for more. Remember, the jeweller WANTS to sell this to you. They'd rather make some money on it rather than nothing at all.

And it they're being rubbish about it- take a picture of it and post it on here and I'll source you one cheaper

V interesting thread! I absolutely love rings and could have a million of them and still want more...

Always haggle - although I made the mistake of telling DH that when we went engagement ring shopping and when we found 'the one' he went in with a ridiculous offer offer for it we did get a good discount though!

Ta, MrsC. Just hearing that gives me a bit oomph. Thanks

Remember if it's new- there's going to be a load of other sellers with the same stock. The ball is totally in your court - jewellers are going bust left right and centre, every sale counts!

Really! I wouldn't want to see this one go. DH is known!

As it's 25th also looking at Scandinavian Silver.

Ooh nice. I like Georj Jensen. He's my favourite silversmith/design house and very collectable! (The 60's , 70's stuff is phenomenal)

Mrscumber can I wade in on your knowledge?
I DH am in the market for an eternity ring.
I need platinum, want square cut stones to match my engagement solitaire but I want a thin band 4mm probably, channel set.
I have my heart set on purple sapphire with diamonds (half way round)
But someone told DH that sapphire is too soft.... Is this true?

And my engagement is a D colour loupe clean stone, will anything cheap look too yellow?

Always liked it. Let's see....

Where do you trust for stones?

Shattered, sapphire is soft in relation to diamond but it's not a soft stone. I have a sapphire ring that I wear a lot and it's fine. As with all gemstones though- it's not recommended that you wear them while cleaning etc. If I'm wearing diamonds I don't bother taking them off but if it was sapphire then I probably would.

It's all relative,but sapphire is not 'soft, it's just 'softer' than a diamond.

Only thing I'd consider with a purple sapphire in a channel set- it can look very dark. You don't really get to see the colour of the stone properly as the light doesn't pass through the stone in a channel set. Depending on the colour of the stone you end up with it might not look the way that you want. To err on the side of caution I'd go for a lighter coloured sapphire rather than a deep hue.

And when it comes to stones cheap doesn't necessarily mean yellow (there can be flaws, inclusions, etc etc.) For a channel set you won't need huge stones in comparison to your engagement ring, so that helps keep the stone cost down too.

Harbinger, for stones i use local gemstone dealer. They don't really like advertising because it's a bit of a word of mouth thing. The only ones in the know are the people that need to know if you get what I mean?

Probably a security thing. I'll PM you the details for the place I use if you like, but they don't have a website or anything. Let me know and I'll send it over

I think that you are in Scotland. Could the local jewellers use the stones?

I am. I'm near Glasgow, are you too?

Local manafacturing jewellers can make whatever you want for you using stones that you already have. Or some of them will be able to source the stones for you too. A good jeweller won't charge you for sourcing the stones, they just charge you for the work entailed and the raw resources required.

Going via the jeweller would probably be easiest to be honest as they might be able to get better prices with stone merchant than yourself. (It's all about who knows who.... it's cliquier than the school gates!)

This thread is so interesting.

DH has a few uncut emeralds that a friend gave him when he lived in Africa. Have no idea what quality they are - they just look like dusty old stones to me!

How would I find a gem dealer who might buy them? Would it be better to have them cut first?

I have a tsavorite ring which is a beautiful green. My favourite stone is emerald but it is around 7 I think in terms of hardness and has imperfections which are filled by castor oil.

Personally, I always by my stones seperately and then get the stone set. AJS gems are a great website you can get beautiful gems for less than a hundred pounds.

Also I haven't read all the posts so this may have been mentioned. De Beers set the price of diamonds artificially high they double the value so that diamonds are seen as "exclusive".