Gemstone question

[Paramedic]

I'm hoping someone will be able to give me some advise on a strange situation I have found myself in. This is not Rolex related, but here goes. My question is, how would someone go about selling some rather large gemstones? Emeralds, opals, etc we are talking 35-50 carat each. These are cut, just not mounted, all are very real. I just have no idea where to even start with pieces this size. I stopped at a few local jewelers, after they picked their chins up off the counter they really did not have any good ideas. Any advise would be helpful.

Thanks Everyone

[andromeda160]

No idea, i'd love to see some pics though, although respect your discretion. I've held a 40ct diamond once at my parents jeweler with a $240k price tag. Wasn't very good quality. I'm guessing you would have to talk to a gemstone broker of sorts who already has the clientele for the product. Large emeralds and opals are being sought by people from many countries for long term investments, so I don't think there would be a shortage of buyers for high quality stones of this size.

[James K]

Tiffany & Co. has been known to buy one off stones but I think you'd get more money using a gem broker.

[chieftd]

Bill (Paramedic), check with Pricescope.com in the colored gemstone section. You can get a lot of good information form that website. Good luck. P.S. Would love to see some pics and specs of stones that big.

Cheers, Tim

[jjnd08]

There is a gemstone forum out there. I can't remember the site, but I visited it and asked some questions when shopping for an engagement ring last summer (my now fiance wanted a sapphire instead of a diamond).

I would search that site out and start asking questions there. You'll probably get much farther there than on here.

[vitalsignsrn]

If the stones are already cut, a good start would be to send the stones to either the American Gemological Laboratories (my 1st choice as this lab deals with colored gems) or Gemological Institute of America for grading & authentication. The next step would be to contact an auction house if the stone are that substantial in size. Pricescope is a good place for some ideas. There is a sticky on the Colored Stones forum Re: vendors that you might want to contact as they cut their own stones. The regular members will help you with that. Then there is Ebay.com, Rubylane.com & a slew of other estate type places which I dont think is a great avenue for selling loose stones at the size you say you have. They seem quite valuable. Again, the regular members of the Colored Stone section will be able to help you. :-)

As jjnd metions, there is a Gemstone forum out there I just dont know the name of it. If I find it, I'll post it.

[vitalsignsrn]

Found the name of the site I was thinking of....gemologyonline.com

Give them a try.... :-)