Buying Wholesale Faceted Gemstones

Wholesale faceted gemstones for sale in our website stock are sometimes purchased right here in Thailand in large quantities. Saving money on gemstones when buying is important for everyone, the thing with wholesale purchases is that very large quantities must be bought!

By buying a large bag of gemstones at once and in one type of gem, means we must choose very carefully. Trying to ensure we get the best quality for the best price.

Often going to gemstone trading towns entails a very early morning start to the day, driving many hours to the source, where the brokers lurk around with their wares in bags strapped to their bodies, going from one buyer to the next. It can take the entire day to make sure we have seen everything available on that particular day of trading.

Huge amounts of cash are passed over for the most beautiful gems of all. Being on the spot means we are able to sift through everything making it possible for us ‘The Original Australian Gem Hunters’ to hand select in person. It’s what we do best, we know our gemstones and enjoy seeing them piled high in front of us. If we are ever in doubt of a gems authenticity, we run them up to the local trusted laboratory for testing, but we are so used to visually detecting which gem is what, by colour, inclusions through loupe in the form of crystal growth, and the weight of a gem per size. We have learnt to judge a gems true identity very quickly, we have to, as we only have about 15 seconds to think as bags and bags are whizzed around in front of our eyes.

The actual owners of the gemstones put in front of us are never seen on these occasions. They are secluded in a back office away from the buyers. It is up to the brokers to do all the work. These runners work on a small commission, based on a percentage of sale. There as an array of folk acting as brokers.  Some are local farmers supplementing their income by running the gems around town, they are nobody’s fool, they know the gemstones and all the ins and outs. For others it is often part time work for them on top of their farms and crops to organize through the week, the added income of being a weekend broker helps everyone.

We are lucky enough to count among our good friends the renowned gem dealer Mr Mike Eghbali , who thankfully can speak all the languages necessary to put everyone at ease and discuss at length the gems being offered. A little bit of Cambodian, Burmese, Pakistani, Indian, Thai, German, Dutch, the list goes on, I nearly fell of my chair yesterday at the gem markets when he spoke a dialect of Cantonese with some passing brokers who were having little success selling their beautiful selection. So a very revered friend and advisor indeed.

When we are after a particular selection of gems to sell for listing in our online website store, we must frequent these gemstone buying towns.  There is a basic system to the gem buying and selling, to put simply if you are sitting down you are a buyer – if you are wandering around with a bag, you are selling gems!

There is often debates amongst ourselves – all avid lovers of gems, which bag to select. Last Saturday we wished for and got:

• Blue Cambodian Zircon in large sizes, well cut and clean to the eye and loupe.
  Smaller sizes of blue tourmaline in affordable prices.
• Natural non irradiated pink tourmaline in small sizes having amongst them a good selection of long crystal rectangle shapes that is so popular with gem collectors.
• Rhodolite garnets from Arrissa which have the most unusual, rarer colours of pinks, mauves and lilacs hues. Not seen in the African Rhodolite garnets  more often see available for sale nowadays from the Umba river in the Tanga Valley region.
• Pale blue untreated aquamarine that has been well cut. Faceted for beauty, rather than size. I was happy that I was allowed ‘to select’ which means I could go through the large bag and choose only the best….. a rare treat but sometimes allowed to make the sale.

What we didn’t buy is the giant cabochon rose quartz parcel, but the lovely lady almost swayed me with her beautiful smile and charm, but alas – what could they be used for, if not paperweights.

Also I sadly did not buy a lovely oval pale lemon colour Danburite gemstone on its own. The price was far too high, it is a rare gemstone favoured by collectors of gems. I would have liked it, but the trader/broker would not come down in price and I haven’t recently researched today’s market value of this particular gemstone, maybe it had also jumped in value, but I couldn’t take the risk of overpaying.

London blue topaz along with Swiss blue topaz, I saw many offered, but did not buy, the asking price far exceeded my estimated value of them, going only via the price of them two months ago.

So many more bags of gems, I wish I could have taken home, but there is always next time.