Some may call this junk. Me, I call them treasures.
Some may call this junk. Me, I call them treasures.
This #amethyst (and 39 others) was considered junk by the vendor so I bought the whole lot for dirt cheap. Half were useless, but the other half just need some trimming to find beautiful #faceting material inside. This beauty is one of them! There is only one small flaw here that I consider inconseq...
Amethyst (unknown location), 2.085 carats, 8x1 mm x 5.8 mm, design is Spellbound by Jeff Rhonemus.
A few months back I was at a gem show, and a vendor was selling large bags of amethyst stones for very cheap, as she thought they were all unusable junk. I bought the lot and I don't agree with the vendor - I think about half the stones do have facet material in them, they just need some trimming.
This stone is one of those "junk" amethysts, after removing the cloudy parts of it. There is one inclusion you can see in the video: as it rotates away there is a line that looks like a hair inside the top right corner. I consider it a pretty trivial inclusion, since you can barely see it straight on.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the stone before cutting off the cloudy parts. Here is an example of some other rocks from the bag that I think might have hidden potential too (ignore the silver sharpie on some):
(Sorry not sorry for the Skyrim reference in the title, I just picked the game up again after a long hiatus and it seemed fitting.)
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What would you sell something like that for?
An amethyst that size with some minor inclusions might sell for anywhere between $15 and $50.
Dam thats it?
Yep, larger stones that are cleaner will price higher. Amethyst is common, and really only specific shades can price higher.
A good example is Beryl. This is the scientific name for a number of stones you might know:
- aquamarine
- emerald
- morganite
And I’m sure you are aware of the price differences between emerald and aquamarine. 😉
Finally, these days if you look at the prices for jewelry that are set in gold, unless the stone is expensive, the majority of the cost is the setting and not the stone. A simple sterling silver pendant mount can be had for around $9, which makes buying stones like this really affordable.
On the flip side though, cutting amethyst to sell isn’t profitable for the cutter for the most part due to the time it takes to cut the stone. That stone likely took between 5-6 hours to cut.
Wow thanks for all that info. Do you happen to know of a place to buy men's rings that have stones in them? I don't want to buy from places like Jared's or Kay's. Whenever I look for rings as soon as I type in gems it always shows women's engagement rings and wedding rings.
That’s tough as it depends on where you live. Generally I would recommend looking for a small family owned store that does custom design work and has a GIA certified on staff if possible. Look for stores that are not in big malls. Talk to them, if they feel pushy look somewhere else.