explain to me about semiprecious stone jewelry?

July 13, 2015 8:12 PM

I have a weakness for flashy colored stone jewelry. Should I buy all the things online? I don't know if these prices make sense.

On Amazon I see a lot of things I like. I don't know what this stuff ought to retail for. Do these prices seem fair? Does anyone know if these are likely to be real, well cut stones; or are they fakes? Amazon seems to be pretty lax about applying descriptive terms to stuff, so I don't know if peridot actually means peridot; or if it means peridot colored glass...

What about eBay? Better? Worse? Do you think this one is real stones? Is sterling silver really this cheap? EBay seems really lax about applying gemstone terms to costume stuff....

Bonus: if you have a favorite source for the shiny pretties that's better than Amazon/eBay, what is it?

posted by fingersandtoes to Shopping (16 answers total)

The Amazon items have been heat treated - which means a lower price stone which has had the color improved by heat.

The price points you are looking at are reasonable for costume jewelry. They are also inexpensive enough that paying to have the stone verified would be counter productive. A good stone has too much value to usually be set in silver.

If you like the look of these then buy them, enjoy them and don't worry about it. They won't be heirloom quality but so what?
posted by cat_link at 8:30 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Have you checked out Etsy? Here are the results of a search for semi precious gemstone rings, for example. You'll have to sift through a lot of stuff, but I think you're more likely to get reliable stuff from there as opposed to eBay.

For example, I would be pretty wary of that ring on Ebay, since $5.99 seems absurdly cheap for what it claims to be, and it's shipping from China. At least with Amazon, you have reviews that you can check out for the rings, and probably more recourses if anything turns out to be a total dud. To be fair, I've never purchased anything from Ebay.

You might also check out Macy's, especially if you can go in person (assuming you live somewhere where they have a store). If you're in the US, you can also order online and return to a store, so that's an option too. I have noticed that they seem to have a pretty wide selection of these kinds of semi precious sparkly stone jewelry.

Also, yeah, sterling silver jewelry can be quite cheap.

And on preview, I agree that if you like costume jewelry (which I do), then the trade off of it being cheap is that it may not last, but it will still be pretty and fun to wear for awhile.
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:35 PM on July 13, 2015

Etsy is wonderful for shiny pretties and the sellers have reviews!

Also, yes in the product information you'll see that the stone (for the peridot ring) has been heat treated. But it is a natural stone. Personally I don't care if stones are real. My wedding band from Etsy is lab-created pink-sapphire in rose gold and my engagement ring is hand-cut CZs in hand-set in white gold. Lab created gems have less imperfections which is why I like them. If you like sparkly things for fun especially, don't shy away from lab-created.

It really depends on what you're looking for, but just for everyday fun things, those are fine. For long-term (wearing every day for years, etc.) you'd want to look at gold or something similar anyway since silver tarnishes.
posted by Crystalinne at 8:37 PM on July 13, 2015

If you just like the browsing/shopping part - Myhabit.com run by Amazon often has reasonable deals on jewelry, and more importantly limits you to 15 items max and has daily tiny curated sales. You can't get everything there like on Amazon, but it's sort of like window shopping at a sales outlet with small frequently changed stock, perfect for browsing. I got a bag and jeans from there that I loved (I double-checked because you can sometimes get the same item cheaper on Amazon or elsewhere, go figure), and I've been browsing on-off for a ring/bracelet for a while now, waiting for the right one to come. Etsy just felt too huge without a specific item I wanted, unless you curate only your favourite jewelry shops.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:40 PM on July 13, 2015

Best answer: Ross Simons has this sort of stuff in spades, and a "search by price" filter that weeds out the high priced, high quality stones.


posted by slateyness at 8:47 PM on July 13, 2015

Actually, it looks like Macy's is having huge sale right now, so you could probably snap up some nice pieces at a huge discount. Here is a link to their gemstone jewelry.

For example:

Sparkly ring 1

Sparkly gem stone ring 2

Lots of sparkle for under thirty dollars

More expensive sparkly but it was originally over two hundred dollars, now selling for ninety.

Another sparkly ring for a good price

Blue Sparkly for $39.

How do you feel about sparkly bracelets?

Or sparkly earrings like this or this?
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:56 PM on July 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

If you zoom in on that peridot ring, the stone is quite scruffy. So compared to what I've seen in gemstone stores the price is about as much as I'd want to pay. You may wish to read up on what si1 and i3 clarity mean (all the gem ratings are at the bottom of the Amazon listing, and sellers will "round up" in their favor). My guess is none of these rings look as good IRL as the pics would suggest.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:05 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've bought jewelry from Amazon before and it really depends on the item, unfortunately. I've received white gold earrings as a gift that fell apart on the second wearing and bought sterling silver ones that look waaay more expensive and have lasted through a year of me not taking them out, ever. Filtering for 4+ star ratings can help a lot.

The biggest difference I saw was in setting material. SS is much, much cheaper than gold. Most of the affordable stones will be lab-created--a plus in my book but maybe not yours.
posted by estelahe at 9:30 PM on July 13, 2015

Best answer: You can benchmark your prices by flipping through JC Penney's or Macy's or similar ads ... the materials will be correctly advertised in the circular, on the web, or in the store, so you can get an idea of what kind of range of prices you're talking about for a peridot-set-in-sterling-silver.

Cheap jewelry shipping directly from China, buy it because you like the look of it but don't mind if you end up wasting the $6 or $20 or whatever on something very low quality, inaccurately described, or deceptively photographed. Sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised! Sometimes you will get the same jewelry you could buy at any department store, but cheaper! And sometimes you will get what is basically a McDonalds Happy Meal toy ring that is probably giving you lead poisoning just from looking at it.

In general I've had very good experiences on Etsy (even buying from sellers in China) because shops have reviews, people try to leave clear reviews that will help later shoppers, and the pictures are pretty good. (Descriptions are NOT vetted, however, and I have run across flat-out lies -- less so when you're shopping from an established shop with a lot of reviews.) The thing you find at Etsy is that it's all supposed to be handmade, but you find jewelry sellers just reselling stuff you can find for sale in lots of 100 on AliBaba ... but if you like it and the price is reasonable, so what? They took the trouble to break down the lot into 100 separate sales for you. The problem I run into from time to time on Etsy is that the SIZE of a piece isn't always clear (even if you get out a ruler, it can be hard to tell how big a piece of jewelry will actually be, especially if it's asymmetrical). Because of that I prefer shopping at sites that have a human model for jewelry (if not the exact piece, then a similar one to get an idea of size) or at least use human-shaped display heads or whatever (rather than CGI heads or nothing).

Plain sterling silver wedding bands seem to bottom out at around $40 from larger retailers in the US (i.e., who are likely to comply with labeling laws or get sued like whoa) based on a quick google. So if it's a LOT cheaper than $40, it's probably not sterling silver, as the metal has an actual tradeable-for-cash-by-weight value in a way that gemstones don't. (My next door neighbor is actually a sterling silver jewelry artist, and BOY do I hear a lot about silver prices.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:41 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have a lot of silver and gemstone jewelry, some of which is quite pricey (including a couple of pieces made with Byzantine glass recovered from a shipwreck as the "stone"). I buy from a jeweler in my hometown who knows my price range, my taste, and that I want actual quality stones when I'm going to buy stones. If you want nice sparkly things in silver and gems, I suggest asking around among your friends for recommendations for a local non-chain store. If you were in Houston, I'd send you to my guy!
posted by immlass at 9:54 PM on July 13, 2015

My pal Stef makes some things.
posted by vrakatar at 10:09 PM on July 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Overstock carries a lot of affordable gemstone jewelry. Most pieces have a bunch of reviews, which should help you gauge the quality.
posted by katie at 2:27 AM on July 14, 2015

Now if you're looking for chunky raw pieces, this shop on Etsy looks promising.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:27 AM on July 14, 2015

I personally think semi-precious stones, even due to their lower prices, should be bought locally, as shopping is an experience in itself. The online stuff just don't... feel right, and often it's just... too cheap. If you want something you'd be proud of, shop locally.
posted by kschang at 4:52 AM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It's a lot more common these days to find semi-precious (or even precious) gemstones set in sterling. This started happening more frequently after the price of gold skyrocketted a few years back.

As for the prices, a lot of that will depend on the quality of the gemstone. Like diamonds, semi-precious stones can be rated for various factors including colour, cut, and clarity (inclusions). Since some of your examples include peridot, let me start there. Lots of cheaper periods are either very washy/pale in colour or are full of inclusions (black spots that are noticeable to the naked eye). You can pick these kinds of stones up for a song. Sometimes you can luck out and find a decent (or even good quality) stone for cheap, but in order to do that, you have to be able to inspect the stone in person, or at least buy it from a place that allows you to return it if you're not happy with the quality.

If you want a really good peridot, however, you should be willing to pay for it. I can say that because it's exactly what I did. I needed to replace a stone in the primary ring I wear. Over the years it had got scratched and chipped. I knew exactly what I wanted and what my criteria were--I'm very picky about the cleanliness of stones like peridots, and I wanted a really strong colour--so I contacted a stonecutter and ordered a stone. While it wasn't a fortune (i.e. not in the Hope Diamond territory) it still cost me a premium over just buying a loose stone online. But believe me when I say it was worth it. The cut is really, really good (a lot of commercially cut stones are too shallow), it is perfectly clear, and the colour is amazing. I get compliments on it all the time, which never usually happens with peridots. Given where the stone originated, I can call it a Kashmir peridot, but I find that label a bit of made-up branding, to be honest.

The one thing I should note about peridots is that they should NOT be heat treated. If you see that in an ad, you should run away. (That's just one general reference, but you should find the same information on pretty much any gemstone site on the Internet.)

Now I know that's a lot about peridots, and your selections have other stones as well including garnets, amethysts, etc. For the most part, you can look at them the same way. Both of those types of stones should be deep in colour and relatively inclusion free. If we were talking emeralds, we'd be having a slightly different discussion about the acceptable level of inclusions.

You also linked to a blue topaz piece. I'm not sure if you're aware, but those are essentially man-made stones. Don't get me wrong, they're natural, dug out of the ground topazes, but in their natural state they are white or pale yellow. They are treated (irradiated) to get them to turn that blue colour. It looks like the ring you liked are of the garden variety colour. Deeper coloured stones (more like a navy blue) are known as London blue and are usually more money. There are other colour variations that also command a premium. I tend not to buy stones that are this heavily manipulated, so I can't speak from experience, but I've heard that over time blue topazes can loose their colour and start to fade.

My advice is if you're going to buy any kind of gemstone, do your research first. Get a general idea of what the stone is, how it is typically treated, and how suitable it is for the type of application. (If it's too soft, cleaves too easily, it might be better for a necklace than a ring, for example.) Now I'm not saying you have to get a degree in gemology, but even if you're only spending $10 or $50, I figure you're better off as an educated consumer than if you're just buying things blindly.

Now that the lecture is over, let me direct you to one of my favourite resources: Alpha Imports. If you really want to see how cheaply some of these jewellery items can be created, take a gander here. Mainly it's a site for selling loose stones and parcels of stones. It also sells ready-made jewellery and settings (findings). I've bought both finished products and loose stones from it, and the quality has always been as promised or a tiny bit better. Having said that, you'll see I didn't source from there when I wanted my really good peridot. I consider this place to be a very commercial-grade source. But what I love about it, is that it puts prices in perspective for me. For example, a 7mm round 1.25 carat peridot, which is the size of the stone in one of your linked rings, can be had for $9, and that stone appears to be of a higher grade than the one in the ring. If they vendor originally purchased a large lot and bought them when prices where cheaper (it seems as if peridots have gone up a bit recently), it's easy to imagine the stone being purchased for a price that is considerably less than that, so a $29.99 ring is certainly feasible.
posted by sardonyx at 8:31 AM on July 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

I have recently bought several pieces of jewelry made of semi-precious stones (in an effort to transition to a more professional looking wardrobe than grad student attire), and I have found either vintage pieces from Ebay/Etsy or handmade stuff from Etsy to be the way to go. In particular, I recently bought a bunch of pieces from this shop on Etsy (she's an artisan outside Chicago: her dad is a silversmith and her mom designed for the Bollywood regency). I was really impressed with the quality of the work, the prices, and the fact that she is clearly really invested in people loving her creations and guarantees them for life. She also has frequent sales (currently she's having a 50% off sale right now, as the banner on her store says, so what you pay is actually half of the listed prices).

A few other tips. When I search on Ebay (and to some extent on other sites), I always avoid stuff coming from outside North America: on Ebay, at any rate, you can click the circle that means that they will only show you things from within North America, which I think is by far the safest option. Stuff from China/Asia in particular is suspicious (and I say that as someone who bought a couple of dodgy things). Also, I avoid shops that use generic pictures for all their items (and if you read the comments you see that often people are disappointed by the particular item that they receive, feeling that the colors were brighter in the picture, or there was something specific about the product advertised in the pictures that they felt wasn't replicated in the item itself). I also try to focus on places that have a fair number of reviews, which typically means Ebay and Etsy. Read the reviews (especially the negative ones) to get a sense of whether you can live with what people are complaining about, and what sort of remedy the seller offered, if any. Amazon seems to have higher prices and I have a far less clear sense of what exactly is being sold and where it's coming from. Overstock, on the other hand, does seem to have far more reviews on their jewelry and far more info about the products. I've never bought anything yet from Overstock, but I'm contemplating a few things.

All this is to say that in my experience, the best shopping for this sort of thing is on Etsy by sellers with plentiful good reviews - typically by artisans who handmake their products and can tell you exactly what is in them (sterling silver, actual peridot, or whatever). Ebay is hit or miss, but if you stick to US sellers and likely vintage items you might find some diamonds in the rough (so to speak). Other places are trickier, and a lot of department stores etc. seem to have fairly generic stuff that is very overpriced.
posted by ClaireBear at 11:02 PM on July 14, 2015