On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:40:36 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "David G"
<dg@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>>Yeah, funny guy. I seriously doubt I'm missing much.
>>
>>Sorry, didn't realize no address was so im****tant.
>>Here's one for me: d.gee24@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
Much? not in volume, no. Abrasha has often rightly accused me of taking
two
pages to say what he says in two sentances. But a missed opinion? Yes.
Even
if Abrasha sometimes has a sometimes earned reputation for not being so
nice and
polite in his opinions, you'll find that even if some people find his
opinions
on jewelry to be... um... "blunt", they are in my experience, always dead
on
correct. He is one of the most highly skilled and exacting goldsmiths
I've ever
met or you're ever likely to meet, and his patience with junk jewelery or
sloppy
jewelers is understandably somewhat limited, to say the least. But he's
also an
extremely well trained and experienced jeweler and goldsmith, and you're
not
likely to get an opinion from him that's incorrect technically or
aesthetically.
You might not LIKE what he has to say or how he may choose sometimes to
word it,
but you should listen, if you're looking for a true expert opinion on a
jewelry
subject.
>>
>>Could be. They say "3.73 grams of 14k solid gold." I guess this could
>>be a deceptive bit of wording, meaning of course that the gold *that is
>>there* is 14k solid gold, but not that the *ring* itself is solid. I'm
glad
>>you pointed this out.
note that I don't mean hollow like an inner tube. It just means the
inside
surface of the ring is scooped out to match the outer profile, so the
whole ring
is essentially like thin sheet metal. It's not thicker where the design
gets
thicker on the outside. The result just feels, and is, flimsy. The gold
will
be a 14K gold alloy, which means 58% gold, the remainder of the alloy base
metals. Just as it should be. My note wasn't that wording is deceptive,
just
that this is awfully light weight for a decent ring of this design,
meaning it's
thinner metal than it should be. Perhaps this explains why some customers
have
had stones fall out.
>>
>>No, interesting reading.
thanks.
>>
>>I think they give 30 days or something similar for returns, and
according
>>to some reviewers, they honor this pretty well. One would think this
>>might lend them some respectability, as I would think some customers
>>would go get their stuff appraised after receiving it, but then again,
>>most probably don't.
Most probably don't, since most reputable appraisers would likely charge
around
a hundred bucks for a proper appraisal. Those who charge less are not
likely
giving a truely accurate market appraisal, but rather, stating a percieved
maximum market price (sometimes used as an insurance appraisal price, but
not
really reflecting a true value). Often such appraisals are written
specifically
to make a sellers lower price seem flatteringly good, when in fact the
lower
price is closer to market average.
So yes, most people don't bother to get a 700 dollar ring properly
appraised.
Not all unhappy customers bother to return a ring they don't like either.
The
net is full of buyers who buy there because they're too busy or lazy to
make the
rounds of brick and morter stores, and that convenience disappears when
you've
got to go to the trouble to mail something back.
And if the customer testimonials you refer to are on the company's web
site, do
keep in mind that what's there is what the company allows to be there.
The
worst of the fraudulent internet sellers sites often have lots of glowing
testimonials from happy customers to make themselves look good. Those, of
course, are all written by the folks who put up the site. Now, I'm not
implying
this site is fraudulent at all. I have no idea if it is, and no reason to
think
it is. Just remember that because you read it on the net doesn't mean
it's real
or valid. You don't know the real source of the information. The only
thing I
see is a site claiming that this is a good quality natural ruby of a given
size
for 700 bucks. Now, I'm pretty sure I can't go legitimately buy a new 700
series BMW automobile for a thousand dollars cash from the dealer. If I
saw one
offered, I could be pretty sure it was stolen, wreck salvaged, or
otherwise a
fraudulent sale, because you simply can't buy a car worth 50 thousand for
one
thousand, right? The price differential in this case, between the
selling
price, and the market price for what an experience jeweler or gemologist
(like
me, for example) would consider even decent quality in a natural ruby may
not be
on that same level. But the concept is the same, and what a good ruby of
that
size SHOULD sell for is a lot more than 700 bucks. Good ruby is one of
the
truly rare gems. Much more so than diamond. People who have good ruby
for
sale might, in a depressed economy, have to drop their price some if they
have
to move inventory. But this is WAY too cheap. So something is wrong.
Either
the quality doesn't measure up to what the site implies, or it's not quite
the
right gem. My guess would still be either a good synthetic (which would
be a
blatantly fraudulent advertisement) or most likely, natural ruby that's
simply a
lot more flawed and included than the site implies. Mind you, these can
still
be very pretty. And it IS possible to get natural ruby of lower
qualities, in
this price range. But I think it won't look like the pictures in that
web
page. If it's nice and clean and clear (good clarity), it simply won't
be a
nice bright saturated red color. If it's a good red color, then it will
have a
lot of prominant and obviously visible inclusions (cracks,flaws, etc)
>> My dad gave me his ruby ring many years
>>ago. One day while in college, I took it off to wash my hands in
>>the restroom, and absent-mindedly left it on the sink. Some
>>member of the general public, being the honorable lot they often
>>are, was nice enough to lift it before I realized what I'd done.
>>Likely the very first guy in there stole it. I left notices in the
>>RR, but nothing ever turned up.
yeah, I did the same thing in college when I sat down at the piano in the
lounge
area to play for a bit. Left the ring I'd made myself just a few weeks
earlier
on the music stand for a moment and it disappeared. Bummer even when it's
one
you can replace.
Peter
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