IS THE PRICE RIGHT for these beautiful gems? How do i tell?

since i'm very inexperienced in buying stones, i'd like to seek any help from you guys.

so i wanna buy these stones online but i dunno if the price they listed are reasonable. especially since some people ranted on this Etsy seller about how she named her stones in misleading names. however, i also got good reviews about her service.

these are the stones i want: (supposedly there were 5 of them, i already put them in my cart but one gone missing :\ dunno how etsy work on their carts =\)

1. X-Large Cognac Quartz Faceted Drop - $39

2. Glossy Smokey Quartz Hearts - Pair - 16.5mm - $22

3. Deep Cognac Quartz Focal Heart - 20mm - $38

4. X-Large Cognac Quartz Faceted Drops - Pair - 15x20mm - $45

and these are from another seller (Migem)

5.

Rainbow Fluorite Halfdrilled Drops

Rainbow Fluorite graded A+ by the vendor.  Smooth drops measuring 6x11 mm.  You are purchasing a pair.

$13.50 / pair

6.

Brazilian Carnelian Halfdrilled Faceted Drops

Brazilian Carnelian graded A+ by the vendor.  Faceted drops measuring 8x12 mm.  You are purchasing a pair.

$12 / pair

7.

Amethyst Halfdrilled Faceted Drops

Amethyst graded AA by the vendor.  Faceted drops measuring 10x15 mm.  You are purchasing a pair.  LAST PAIR

$28 / pair

8.

Hickoryite Frosted Halfdrilled Drops

Beautiful Hickoryite with amazing banding, grade A+ by the vendor.  These large drops have a frosted surface and are half drilled.  Beads measuring 10x40 mm.  You are purchasing a pair.

$18 / pair

9.

Green Fluorite Halfdrilled Smooth Drops

Green Fluorite halfdrilled smooth drops measuring 10x20 mm.  You are purchasing a pair.

$15 / pair

10.

Green Zebra Jasper Half-drilled Cones

These are pretty big but absolutely amazing!  Green Zebra Jasper with wonderful markings in a large smooth cone shape measuring 16x35 mm.  These are half-drilled at the narrow end.  Sold in pairs.  These will be matched the best we can.   Last 2 pairs

$15 / pair

11. Labradorite Rondelles (big picture)

Firey Labradorite Faceted Rondelles

Labradorite Faceted Rondelles with lots of flash! Beads measuring on average 3.5 mm, 14.5" strand. 4 strands available.

$34 / strand

Sure that i may have or may have not have that much money, but aren't these lovely? <3 *swoons*

I'm swooning over some of those too-Labradorite & Flourite specifically.  The prices for the actual stones don't seem too bad for A+ quality stones.

The quartz ones are pretty too, but I'd hold out for Deb's opinion as to whether it's really quartz or just fancy glass.  If it's glass, just buy some of the new Swarovski components instead and save yourself some money.  Personally, I wouldn't pay that much for those.  The Swarovski I have in my FMG wish list seems expensive and they're only a couple of dollars each.  Either that or look for some nice handmade lampwork beads!

posting them here is a part of my thinking process.. i'm drooling over them and obviously not thinking straight! XD i wanna know if most of you think they're too expensive, i will let them go :P i really want the labradorites tho.. XD

if any of you have any suggestion on where can i get cheaper price, feel freeee!!! :D

i saw some cool swarovski focals today at the market, Jen.. *sigh* XD

I found some Labrodite Rondelles that seem to be very similiar to what you are looking at on Etsy for $18 a strand ... LillysBeadBox...  not sure if she has more but she had them on sale with a 25% discount too... here's the link... I hope it helps...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8948625

awww.. it's sold out! D: thanks tho, Melinda! i'll check the rest of her stocks.

what do you think of this seller? her price isn't all that high like the others! and she graded AA-AAA for most of her stones. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5878657

oh, she still have the half strand ones.. cool.. would love some review of her stuffs tho.. my untrained eyes can only see visible beauties XD

I just made a small order from her. Her rating is 100% so I give it a try. I ordered twisted sterling wire and a pair of Garent drops. Will see what time frame she ships in.  Thnaks for the site

Hi Kay,

My inner moderator is very much alive today... Do you have a permission to post the pictures you have posted? If you don't, you should change them to links to the actual pictures, since they are copyrighted material (you can only post pictures you have the copyrights for, or a permission from the owner).

I hope you can make up your mind about the beauties :)

Br,

Kirsi

Let me preface this by saying right up front I'm really cheap--these are higher quality than I usually buy, and certainly beautiful, but I gotta say, I think they are all pretty pricey. I never spend that much per stone. I usually buy most of my stones at bead shows because the prices are so much better than you can usually find online, plus you can see and touch the beads. 

Fire mountain gems (www.firemountaingems.com) has pretty good quality, lots of selection and you can get a lot more for your money. Everything is guaranteed, so you don't need to worry. Another good source for single stones is www.stoneagehardware.com.

check them out and see if you don't find some good deals!

Erin

@Troll: hmm.. i dunno about that copyright thing, but i just direct linking the image from her site. the reason i did that is because these beads don't have an actual page. they are all posted in a page or another as group. so it would be impossible for me to point at particular stone i wanted unless you guys don't mind digging in her website looking at the product numbers. example page

i would just post links like what i did on the first 4 if that wasn't the case :)

@ Sue: cool. which seller did you buy from? the one MelindaB linked us to (Lily's Bead Box)? or from TuMiCompleti?

@ Erin: thanks for the reference site! i'll check them out :D oh, so much pretty sites to checkl *swoons* XD

popnicute:

 

@ Sue: cool. which seller did you buy from? the one MelindaB linked us to (Lily's Bead Box)? or from TuMiCompleti?

Yes Lilly's Bead Box is who I ordered from.

I hope all is as wonderful as I think it will be.

Sue B:

popnicute:

 

@ Sue: cool. which seller did you buy from? the one MelindaB linked us to (Lily's Bead Box)? or from TuMiCompleti?

Yes Lilly's Bead Box is who I ordered from.

I hope all is as wonderful as I think it will be.

 

let's hope so! she sure had lots of sales! 4,765 sales in a year time is a good record for an etsy seller, i think. i rarely saw that high numbers.

A little experiment...

Faceted labradorite rondelles - 15" strand

edit: easy peasy... Although pointing all this out (and changing the pics into links) would have been a moderators job.

troll:

A little experiment...

Faceted labradorite rondelles - 15" strand

 

edit: easy peasy... Although pointing all this out (and changing the pics into links) would have been a moderators job.

 

oh, you mean like that... somehow i thought of differently. thought you mean i should link the page like what i did to 1-4. xP

Kay,  You definitely have the famous "magpie gene" I tell my customers about. The one that makes us fall in love with all the sparkly pretties!

[DISCLAIMER: All views expressed in this post are purely my own opinion and should not be considered to be an expert's or gemologist's opinion. I merely am commenting in reply to Kay's question with my PERSONAL feelings.]

I'll comment about the quartzes, first. I went to the Etsy site as linked and the smoky quartz seems to be okay. "Cognac" is possibly quartz, but could just as likely be a colored glass. Inclusions mentioned tend to make me lean toward quartz over glass.

Prices for the quartz drops seem high to me, knowing what my cost and markup would be. If you are buying them to re-sell, the prices are VERY high. Remember that you have to mark them up to make a profit and I'm afraid that a majority of customers will look at the prices for "just" quartz and walk away, regardless of the design or the other materials used.

Migem - Reminder: see disclaimer above - I browsed their site to see what they had to say about "hickoryite". No information. Same with a few other stones that I saw that looked interesting and others that had names I'd never heard before. They had something called Zarape Azul that in one form looks very much like "Owyhee Jasper". (I looked "hickoryite" and "Zarape Azul" up on mindat.org and didn't find either one.) They also DON'T list goldstone as "manmade". I sent an e-mail to Migem asking about "Hickoryite" and "Zarape Azul" and will let you know when I hear anything. 

Other than the "Hickoryite" you posted here, everything you listed seems to be appropriately labelled, though "green" zebra jasper is not one I've seen. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that I haven't seen it. They ARE beautiful stones and I can see why you would be itching to add them to your collection!

Again - see disclaimer above -  prices seem high for A+ or AA gems, but you DO have to take into account the cost of faceting and drilling, which is added to the price. If you are re-selling the finished product, it seems as if your markup would be rather high on these stones as well. If you are making things to keep and you love the stones, it's a different story.

Hope this helps!

Deb - AZ Bead Depot - who has almost 600 of our 40,000+ items put on the POS program for the store. I'm not sure we're going to be finished before the end of the year. <sigh>