Buying A Sapphire?

September already?!

With the summer quickly wrapping up, and Fall just around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to put the spotlight on Sapphires, considering it is the birthstone of September.

Rare, exceptionally durable, and available in a very wide range of colors, sapphires are probably one of the most versatile gemstones available. Ranging in price from just a few hundred dollars to earth shattering and historical auction-house prices, sapphires can be available to most who seek out these beauties, no matter the budget. Although one of the more expensive gemstones available, that doesn’t mean you have to pay a small fortune for one that suits your fancy. From vivid royal and corn flower blues to vibrant purples and pinks and even spectacular greens, yellows and oranges, sapphires have a wide range of color that is sure to please, no matter what your taste might be. But where does one start?

In our previous post, we provided some tips for buying jewelry online; however, there is something to be said about the benefits of forming a personal relationship with a trusted jeweler, so it seemed appropriate to explore the other side of the coin.

Lets face it, jewelry buying is often times a very personal decision, so it only makes sense that purchasing jewelry from someone you have an established rapport with could be way more beneficial than buying online. A good jeweler’s main objective is to guide you through this process, and hopefully over time, get to know you, your past purchases, likes and dislikes, or any number of details that will help provide for future guidance to narrow down your jewelry choices to one that is more likely to “wow” that special someone or help steer you towards that perfect look for any occasion. But where does one start? Well, if you already have a trusted jeweler who has helped guide you through this often arduous process before, then read no further…or do…you might gain some insight anyway. But if you are one of those stuck wondering where to even start in your search for a long-term relationship with a jewelry expert who you can come to rely on, then absolutely keep reading.

The first step is usually the most difficult, so lets start really simple. It is very likely that someone in your family, a good friend, or a close colleague has gone through the jewelry buying process before and may already have someone they reach out to for those special occasions when a little glam and sparkle is needed. Start by simply asking those you already trust who they use. At least if you’re a New Yorker, you know well enough that it is a bright shiny badge of honor to say, “I’ve gotta guy.” It seems like everyone in New York City “has a guy” for everything, and jewelry is certainly no exception. On the other hand, if you come up dry, no worries, keep reading. This guide at the very least will help you navigate where to look, what to look for, and what questions to ask.

My first piece of advice is decide on the general type of experience and jewelry you or your significant other prefers. This will help narrow down the plethora of options that are likely just a stones throw away and make the process a lot less overwhelming. Is it modern and trendy styles you’re looking for? Maybe antiques with a little bit of history? Or something completely bespoke to give you the opportunity to have a hand in the design from the ground up. Consider the medium in which you prefer to work in and the benefits of the various types of jewelers. Is it the big brand stores with a well known blue or red label that is sure to draw a knowing nod of admiration? Or a more private and intimate one-on-one setting without the distraction of hundreds or even thousands of options to produce the dreaded analysis paralysis? Or perhaps a family jewelry store with generations of insight and experience that helps them provide you with the advice and guidance you need? Whatever your fancy, this will act as a guide towards helping you choose the type of jeweler to form a relationship with.

BIG BOX RETAILERS

Probably the most common and easiest to find. There are a number of benefits to sticking with the big names. For starters, their market analysis goes pretty deep. They typically have entire departments devoted to analyzing consumer data that statistically narrows down their inventory to the most likely preferred designs that the general public will gravitate towards. The trade-off, of course, is that you will often be limited to the selection that the company buyers have narrowed their inventory to, which of course means that their client base is likely to end up wearing something that is also worn by hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of others if they’re a nationwide or worldwide operation. With that said, wearing the same Nike shoes or Canada Goose winter coat as the next person is sort of an accepted and given trade-off when one walks into any other chain to buy their product, right? So is it much different with jewelry? Maybe, maybe not. That is for you to decide for yourself. These larger companies also have virtually unlimited buying power which can help lower their prices since they source goods and labor on a much larger scale. Of course, there are certainly those name brands that will have an inverse effect on their price.

FAMILY JEWELERS

These fall into a similar retail category, but usually just on a smaller scale. Family jewelers typically pride themselves on having a generational following of clients. I’ve had clients come in who are barely in their 20’s that purchased an engagement ring from the same family jeweler that their great grandfather went to in the early 1900’s. Pretty neat, right? Here’s why family jewelers, who in some instances have decades of established rapport with their client base are so incredibly valuable. They rarely have big marketing budgets, so their clients are heavily weighted in referrals, which means they pay particularly close attention to service. With decades of experience, they have the insight, connections within the industry, and often times, values that make for a perfect trifecta for exactly what you may be looking for. In all honesty, the only real drawback to a family jeweler is limited inventory. Additionally, because of this new digital age we’re in, they’re becoming more scarce due to increasingly high real estate costs and other overhead expenses, which makes maintaining a profitable operation incredibly difficult these days. The sad truth to our evolving ways of consumer buying, I suppose. If you are fortunate enough to find a family run jeweler with a long standing history, consider yourself lucky. They are becoming fewer and far between these days, but nearly every family jewelry store I’ve worked with in the last 20 years will bend over backwards to meet their client’s needs, truly get to know you as if you yourself are part of the family, and provide you with years of valuable advice and guidance for every occasion.

PRIVATE JEWELERS

Private jewelers are some of the most well connected professionals in the industry. They almost always come from very established backgrounds prior to branching off on their own and it is extremely rare for someone without any experience in the industry to become a successful private jeweler without the contacts they would need to get their business off the ground. Since they have a relatively limited inventory when compared to a retail store, they typically specialize in creating custom pieces from the ground up, using inspiration provided by their clients, combined with their own artistic approach and knack for creating a functional design. This could, however, act as a potential drawback for some who prefer to see and feel the end product before making that commitment to purchase. Another potential drawback is that most sales are final; however, as the client, you are usually involved in the step-by-step process in picking out the diamonds and getting the design just to your liking prior to everything going into production. In fact, the primary benefit for those preferring to work with a private jeweler is that every step of the process is a dialogue, which can actually be quite fun and fulfilling knowing you had such a meaningful part in the creation. Not to say you wouldn’t be able to customize a design with larger retailers or a family jeweler, but private jewelers do tend to have an abundance of resources that make them particularly well equipped for creating one-of-a-kind pieces. The rare exception to this is a specialty designer boutique, which is generally a hybrid of a private jeweler and retail store-front. They specialize in custom made items but also showcase a pretty significant assortment of their own personally crafted designs.

So now that we’ve outlined a few basic (there are more, of course) types of jewelers, here’s some advice on what to do to ensure you are working with someone who is competent and will provide you with all those benefits of working with someone face-to-face.

GET A REFERRAL

As mentioned above, it is usually sage advice to act on the trusted recommendation of someone you already know and trust that has personally been through the process and can tell you first-hand how their experience went. They will be familiar with their jeweler’s craftmanship, reputation and mannerisms. Of course, you should always do your own due diligence as well by following up through other online or peer reviews, just as you would with an online jeweler as discussed in Tips For Buying Jewelry Online. The more positive reviews you can find, the better.

HAVE A MEET & GREET

Meet the jeweler you are interested in working with. If this is a significant purchase, it would be wise to at least have an initial consultation before getting too invested time-wise. This prevents both parties from wasting one another’s time. Ask them questions: How long have they been in the business? What inspired them to be a jeweler in the first place? Ask about any policies that may be important before you start the process. Ask if they have a return policy. Do they warranty their work in the event a stone were to fall out. This is sort of like an informal interview and a chance for you, the buyer, to really get a better idea of how this whole process works. Be forthright and considerate of their time, and they will typically return the gesture in kind by not pointing you towards something that you are not at all interested in or may not have the budget for. The whole point of this short and sweet exercise is to create a general understanding of expectations and to build that initial rapport.

ESTABLISH A BUDGET

Okay, so now that you have found someone you might want to work with, now you need to establish a general budget, which you probably already have in mind anyway. This is a very critical difference between buying online versus buying from a jeweler in person. Most of the time when purchasing online, the price you see is the price you pay. There’s nobody on the other side to negotiate with. There are exceptions, of course, like when purchasing through an auction site like ebay. It has become a very accepted practice to negotiate off the tag price when shopping in a retail store for jewelry though. Personally, it drives me absolutely nuts to see a tag price on a piece of jewelry for ‘X’ and the client ends up paying half of what it was marked for. Unfortunately, this is just how some jewelers price their items. Not all, but it is certainly enough that it has created a very low brow form of 3rd world market mentality that I don’t see the industry shying away from anytime soon. Look, all jewelers have a margin they need to stick to in order to maintain a profit, so there is usually a little wiggle room, but as an objective party, I find it irritating that there are some jewelers that will prey on the less savvy buyer by slashing the tag price by as much as 75%, leading the buyer to think they got this spectacular deal, only to later find they didn’t actually pay that much more or less than what other competitors were asking for in the first place. This is a complicated process. Probably the most complicated, actually. It’s not necessarily a sign of a dishonest jeweler, although it can be. Rather, it is usually just the jeweler keeping up with the Jones’ so that their prices are equally attractive as the next guy after negotiations are all said and done. If you aren’t careful in the above vetting process, you could just as easily get roped into paying for something at 20 or 30 percent premium (or more) just because you got caught up in this dance of negotiating what was an absurdly marked up tag price to begin with. As an evaluations expert, it is quite easy for someone like myself to determine if the price the item is tagged at is fair or unusually inflated just to make the buyer feel as though they got a “deal”, but our firm does this all day. We’re trained in this sort of thing, so the only suggestion I have if you have not done enough research on what a fair price to pay would be, just shoot us an e-mail or give us a call. We’re usually more than happy to let you know if the price sounds too good to be true, or inversely, if the price seems too high. Of course, without seeing the item in person and verifying the specs provided by the jeweler, it is nearly impossible to tell you for certain, but we can at least give you a general idea or range of prices that the item you’re interested in buying would normally sell for. Pricing is complicated, I will leave it at that for now. A future post, maybe? Moving on…

AN OBJECTIVE THIRD PARTY REVIEW

You’ve made your purchase, everything seems great, now what? I cannot stress this part enough. Get it looked at within a reasonable period of time (usually within 3-5 days) by an uninterested third party. I’m not even suggesting you use our firm, (although we’re a pretty incredible team of experts) but just have it looked at by someone who is NOT in the business of buying or selling jewelry. And vet them too. I wrote a previous post on what kind of qualifications a jewelry appraiser should have a few years ago that might be helpful. Check out their reviews just as you do for the jeweler you are buying from. This is VERY important. If you just go to the jeweler next door asking if you got a good deal from their competitor, what do you suppose their reaction is really going to be? As much as they say otherwise, or even truly believe themselves, they will be inevitably biased. Trust me. In all my years in this industry, I have maybe seen another retailer say anything remotely positive about a competitors work 3, maybe 4 times. That’s it. So please, do yourself a favor, and have the finalized piece checked out and evaluated under close scrutiny by an uninterested, trained appraisal expert. You will save yourself from a potential headache and that dreaded buyer’s remorse.

Okay! This was a long post, I realize, and I could probably break some of these categories down into even more detail, which I may do for future posts. E-mail me if you’re interested in learning more on any of the above and I will definitely make a note of it to work on in the future.

Call or e-mail us any time. We’re always happy to give you some guidance in your search, or if you’re just in need of some basic answers before making that commitment.

Thanks for following along!

Joshua D. Lents FGA, GG

josh.l@gemlab.com

Tips For Buying Jewelry Online

It wasn’t that long ago that buying jewelry online was considered strange and uncommon. With nuances in craftsmanship and aesthetic appeal being the primary focus when choosing a specific piece of jewelry, the challenges in doing so online through basic photos and a brief description of the item can be tedious and frustrating. Regardless of buying online or from a jewelry store, the same basic focus and due diligence remains equally critical to ensure that a smart purchase is made in regards to quality, beauty, and value. Below will hopefully shed some insight, as well as a provide a crash course on buying jewelry online in a safe, practical, and worry-free way.

First, let’s start with WHY buying jewelry online can actually be incredibly beneficial if approached in the right way: Well, it primarily comes down to price. And who doesn’t like a good deal, right? The one key variable that separates an online boutique from a physical store-front is OVERHEAD. A jewelry store has an unfathomable amount of expenses each month just to keep its doors open. From security systems, which in some stores means actual armed security. Insurance that ranges in the millions in coverage. Employees that need to be paid, and of course, rent and utilities, just to name a few. In addition to the basic operating costs, the production costs are astronomical for a physical store as well. Unlike an online store, a physical jewelry store often has multiple sizes, metal types, and qualities in the styles it offers. Even in your most modestly sized brick and mortar stores, there are dozens or even hundreds of design options, all of which require the item to be physically present in order to sell to their perspective client base. Online stores, on the other hand, usually only make a sample or two in each style since a simple click of the mouse produces a drop-down menu, representing all of the different size options, carat weights, and several other customizable details that will be made to order. These extra production costs for traditional brick and mortar stores get factored into the company’s overall operating expenses, thereby getting factored into the pieces they sell so their overall margin requirements are met in order to maintain an annual profit.

There are certainly many other benefits to choosing to buy online, like just the simple convenience of buying jewelry from the comfort of your couch, or having a broader range of options to choose from. Whatever the motivation to purchase jewelry online, you’ll still want to educate yourself on the basics before clicking that “buy” button. So let’s dive in:

RETURN POLICY:

First and foremost, and I can’t stress this point enough. Know what the return policy is. Let’s be very clear about one thing, photos can be deceiving. With the advancements in digital photography, and the ability to edit these images to show off only the most flattering aspects of the item, it isn’t at all uncommon to receive the piece you thought you were purchasing, only to realize the stones are cloudy, the color isn’t as bright, or the craftsmanship isn’t nearly what the photos depicted, once you opened that anticipated box to arrive in the mail. If the company isn’t direct and and doesn’t explicitly state the details of their return policy, I would be very hesitant to buy from that company. A simple, no questions asked, 15-30 day return policy is sufficient enough to review the item(s), and determine if it is right for you. If no return policy is offered, it is often a red flag to move on to the next option.

ONLINE REVIEWS:

Next, be sure that the website or listing service you are buying from, whether it is listed on Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, or from the designer’s own online retail shop, has online reviews for that particular jeweler or designer. No, this method of checks and balances isn’t perfect and there are sometimes issues of fake reviews, but with a little vetting, it will at least give you a sense of what others have to say about the seller and their quality of work. The one caveat is that if the designer is an up-and-coming jeweler, plentiful reviews may not always be possible to find; however, with today’s wide use of social media, it is almost a mandatory requirement for any business, whether well established or new to the scene, to be active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…etc. Basically, if their content is up-to-date and they actively engage their followers with new posts, updates, images of their line, and as long as the return policy is clearly stated, there’s a higher likelihood that the seller is legitimate.

SHOP AROUND:

Okay, so this one isn’t unique to just purchasing online, or jewelry for that matter, but its just good sense. Unless you’re searching for a branded item with the pretty blue box, there are often more than a couple sources with similar items and often times, varying degrees in price. If you’re looking to purchase something of great value, say in the $10,000 + range, it also doesn’t hurt to check the major auction house’s historical price records. Christie’s and Sotheby’s have an amazing database of all their past auctions, and a simple search of some narrowed key terms will typically yield a pretty close comparison for those rare and harder to find items that aren’t plentiful enough to find comparisons elsewhere online. By the way, these auction houses have also recently started online auctions as well, and I have personally met with dozens of people who have had a lovely experience buying jewelry this way. Many of the professionals that work for these major auction houses are some of the most well educated and informed people in the industry, so don’t be shy about reaching out to them on a particular auction listing on their site that you might have questions on. The descriptions aren’t always the best, but they will usually have this information at their disposal should you be inclined to reach out to them for further information.

FAIL-SAFES:

Let’s face it, no matter how much due diligence you put into finding a reputable, online retailer, it is still possible to get scammed; however, don’t let this deter you. Although an utter and complete pain in the neck to deal with, online scams have become an unfortunate and regular occurrence. So here’s my simple advice: DON’T USE YOUR BANK CARD TO PURCHASE ANYTHING ONLINE. Just don’t. It’s 2021 folks, which means there is an entire department within credit card companies that are set up to offer some of the best, most reliable and frequently used fraud prevention services available. Yes, your bank likely offers this as well, but they’re not nearly as quick and efficient in dealing with scammers and it ties up your money until they resolve the issue. I don’t know about you, I’d rather scammers tie up credit that I don’t necessarily rely on, so that I have full, unrestricted access to the money in my bank account. Credit card companies know this, have setup services specifically for this purpose, and have, for the most part, done it in a way that makes it as stress free as possible. For example, I use a Chase rewards card for virtually every purchase I make online. It’s linked with my PayPal, Amazon, iTunes, and various streaming accounts, as well as all of my online bills. Not only can I setup my card to alert me for any purchase over a certain amount, or in a region that I haven’t authorized, but these specialty cards almost always come with a fraud hotline where their sole objective is to alleviate the headache of fraudulent charges that you may incur over time. And the best part, since more often than not, these charges are removed within the same billing cycle, it doesn’t even appear on my statement as owed. Yes, getting a new credit card and changing all of your services that are using that card number is a pain, but personally, I’d rather go through this process once every year or two (yes, that’s about average for me, personally…ugh.) for the convenience and savings of making purchases online. Not to mention, if you’re a really savvy buyer, you’ll know which card to use on specific types of purchases if you use a rewards card, but that’s an entirely different blog altogether, so I digress.

PROFESSIONAL ADVICE:

So you’ve made your decision, you think you paid a fair price, and the item arrived as expected (hopefully better.) Now what? You know that important point above about knowing the return policy? This is your final chance to take advantage of that small window to determine if everything that was represented is, in fact, accurate. At GAL, this has become one of the most frequented reasons for our guests to come see us. We offer a verbal authentication service, which offers an inexpensive way to simply go over the details of what it is that you purchased. We’ll review the quality of the gemstones, purity of the metal, craftsmanship, and answer any questions you might have about the item, and then provide an estimated value so you have a frame of reference for a fair price. Of course, you may choose to get the written evaluation to be provided to your insurance company, but that’s up to you. This service is specifically designed to give you, the buyer, peace of mind for what you purchased matches the description that was represented to you. Let us help you taking the guess work out of the equation after the purchase. We’d love to help! An appointment is just a click away!

THE FUTURE OF BUYING ONLINE:

Business Wire Insider recently posted an article covering the fast pace growth we’re expected to see in online jewelry sales, and according to Technavio’s market research, through 2024, we will see nearly and additional 20 billion dollars being channeled through online jewelry purchases, which is an average growth of 15% year over year. If the trend continues, buyers will have more options, which means an increased ability to find better prices for quality jewelry items. Buying online is easy, convenient and usually ends up saving quite a bit of money. With a little research and some simple precautions to ensure you’re buying from a reputable company, and a little quality assurance after the purchase is made, this is quickly becoming the most sought after way of buying jewelry today.

In the next post, I’ll dive more into the technical jargon, which will help you navigate your jewelry buying experience a little easier as well. Knowing the difference between “Karat” and “Carat” and what the quality grades mean when trying to decipher these seemingly cryptic letters and numbers that are used to express diamond quality, will make buying jewelry a little less monotonous so that you can focus more on the beauty of the craftsmanship and gemstones, rather than becoming overloaded with nomenclature and trade specific terms.

I hope you follow along!

Joshua D. Lents FGA, GG

Is Your Jewelry Insurance Up-To-Date?

Did you know insurance appraisals for your jewelry items should be updated every 3-5 years?

Jewelry tends to fluctuate in value. Metals, labor, and gemstones all move in price throughout the year, and over time, these values tend to gradually increase enough that the evaluation you received 7, 10, or 20 years ago, may be significantly undervalued, which could potentially cost you thousands of dollars should the need to file a claim ever arise.

At GAL, we try to estimate a value that will provide you with a valid assessment for at least a 3-5 year period. By anticipating an average rate of growth during that time, we build in the extra value that we foresee the market to increase over time. By taking an average annual increase from previous years metrics within the market, we are able to provide a more accurate appraisal that sits right in that sweet spot of both allowing for a little time in between updates, and preventing you from having to update the appraisal each year.

So why not just estimate a 10-20 year rate of growth?

For a couple reasons: One, your insurance premium is typically based on the value of the jewelry that we determine for your appraisal. If we were to anticipate a value with a 10, 15, or 20 year rate of growth built in, you’re just simply paying too much for your insurance for the first several years. And who wants to spend more money than necessary, especially when it comes to insurance? Secondly, a 10-20 year period is a LONG time when it comes to determining market sentiment. 5 years can be tricky, but again, we’re basing off of previous years averages, so the difference of a couple of years isn’t usually that significant. 3 years is a pretty straight forward timeframe to estimate though. The supply from gold and gemstone mines usually takes a year or two just to go from its country of mined origin to a retail showcase. There’s wholesale markets all around the world just for the uncut rough before it even gets to the planning and cutting stage. Once the uncut gem is purchased, a rough expert and/or lapidary carefully plans, cuts, and polishes the gemstones, at which point it gets distributed through an entirely different channel of wholesale dealers, specifically trading the newly cut and polished rare beauties. Once the finishing process is completed, it gets selected to serve its purpose where it will generally be set in a piece of jewelry to be worn and admired. This is the stage in which it can take just a matter of days for more commercially available material to be set into a piece of jewelry, but there are certainly occasions that it might be months, if not years to finalize the design and execution of a handcrafted setting. I have personally been involved in projects that took well over a year before the setting was finely tuned enough, often going back and forth between the client and designer several times before the last shine is complete. Based on the rarity to source and supply some gemstones, to the cutting and polishing process, to the design and completion of a setting, this entire process can take quite some time. Appraisers are generally quite well connected in the jewelry industry, so we hear and see a good portion of this process, sometimes even having a hand in the process to provide pre-grades and cost analysis, which gives us a great deal of insight into the overall market and the direction it might be headed over a period of time. (ie. which countries are in short supply, geopolitical and economic conditions in those countries, market demand based on fluctuations in the fashion industry as a whole, as well as overall labor costs. We see it all.)

But if market prices fluctuate that much based on just a handful of factors, why risk undervaluing the piece at all and just provide an annual appraisal?

That is certainly an option; however, for the same reason we are here to prevent you from paying too much in insurance for unnecessarily high appraisals, we also don’t want to unnecessarily charge you update fees year after year. Over 4 decades of market exposure and experience, as well as seemingly never-ending training, we have found that 3-5 years is a good average to establish for insurance values to be both economical and accurate enough that the margin of error becomes relatively insignificant. BUT… anomalies do occur, which is why we also try to encourage all of our clients to reach out to us if there has been some distinct event that could act as a catalyst for greater than average fluctuations in the market. Ya know, something like a worldwide pandemic or catastrophic geopolitical events that send supply into a tailspin or the market into an economic free-fall.

Insurance is important to keep up-to-date on your jewelry items. It is actually one of the few things that insurance isn’t egregiously cost prohibitive these days compared to what it covers. Jewelry coverage has a wide breadth of applications and should be discussed in detail with your insurance agent. Linked HERE is list of questions we have put together to help you navigate your next jewelry insurance policy with your local agent. Every insurance carrier is different, but from our experience, they are usually pretty helpful when trying to determine what kind of coverage is best for you.

Let us know if you have any questions as well. And of course, if you’re in need of an appraisal, please feel free to schedule your appointment HERE.

Joshua D. Lents, FGA, GG

All About Sapphires

Overview

Sapphire is one of three varieties of corundum found in the world. The red variety commonly referred to as Ruby, and the lesser known pinkish orange variety, as Padparadscha. The name Sapphire is then referred to any other color outside those falling under Ruby or Padparadscha. The most commonly known and cherished blue variety has been adorned for centuries, representing nobility, royalty and faith of many throughout the world; however, hues of green, yellow, purple, and even orange are just a few of the other colors that are also labeled as Sapphire. The blue variety of Sapphire has a rich history in folklore, art, and most prominently, among royal families throughout history, and even attributes its name from the Persian word, Safir, which is derived from Greek, meaning blue. Found on nearly every continent, ranging from countries of India, Pakistan, Thailand, African, and even the United States, just to name a few, mining operations today are some of the most prominent among prospectors and site holders of any gemstone.

What Qualifications Should Credible Jewelry Appraisers Have?

Appraisers are part of a niche group of experts that form just a small, yet very critical aspect of the jewelry industry. Our skill sets derive from years of industry related experience, ongoing studies involving new and advanced scientific procedures, extensive research of market fluctuations and fashion trends that affect production cost and material value, to intercommunication with larger research labs and organizations to keep up on legal guidelines for correct disclosures within the context of what is used in most circumstances as legal statements and documents. Bias aside, we must be experts in almost every key role within the vast and often convoluted jewelry industry in order to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information to our clients.

Magical Machines?

There has been a growing trend among many gem and jewelry professionals that there is a mystical box that laboratories use that will, at a moments notice, produce the results of any gemstone, revealing its identity, treatments, or even where in the world it may come from. Since most testing is done behind closed doors, I thought it would be helpful to shed some light on what actually happens when gemstones undergo analysis. Although this short article isn’t meant to provide a comprehensive step-by-step, it will give the reader a better idea of the various tests that are involved and why a seemingly simple analysis can take hours or even days to complete.

What is Spectroscopy?

Spectroscopy is the science of analyzing the way light breaks into its component colors. By analyzing these different colors, we are able to determine a number of very specific properties in the gemstone being studied. Depending on the type of spectrometer we use, the varying test results will help determine not only the chemical makeup of the gemstone itself, but specifically, where it gets its color from, whether the gemstone is synthetic or natural, if it has been treated, and even what part of the world it is from.

(See below for varieties of Spectrometers)

The Ongoing and Critical Need for Laboratory Identification

It goes without saying that we are in a rapidly increasing technological era. Our capabilities in the broad world of science increase exponentially each year in fascinating ways. The gem and jewelry industry certainly is not left orphaned in that world of development. In the past couple of decades, our trade has witnessed the progression of imitations more closely relating to their natural counterpart, highly advanced synthetic diamonds and colored stones, and an abundance of treatments that have left even the most shrewd Gemologists scratching their heads in confusion.

I’ve Been Duped! What Do I Do Now?

More frequently than we care to see, as appraisers, from time to time, we are faced with the absolute worst part of our job: Having to utter those words, “I’m sorry, it’s not a real diamond.” or “It’s only worth “X” of what you paid.”

Not only is it personally devastating to break this news to hard working individuals, who are typically buying jewelry for what is often supposed to be a special occasion, it is completely maddening to often learn that the misrepresentation of the product is purposely done so by the retailer, and that they are fully aware they are selling something completely inferior to what they are claiming it to be. Not only is it unethical, it probably goes without saying that it is 100% illegal. Regardless of disclaimers and disclosures on the sales receipt or a lab report provided to the buyer after the sale, not explicitly disclosing treatments, accurate qualities, and the material being sold is just plain fraud. Unfortunately, many consumers do not take the time to get an independent opinion from a professional who does not have a vested interest in the buying/selling aspect of the item in question; they’re just giving their objective, professional opinion.

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