Beautiful, isn't it? The funny thing is that I'm very familiar with gems (this has been a business for me in the past, and a serious hobby always). However, this is the first time I've ever heard of, or seen, this gem.
Since this necklace was on ebay, retailing at around $50, I figured I'd shoot a quick question to the seller: Is this stone manmade, or is it mined? What he wrote back surprised me: It's mined, he said.
So, armed with some healthy skepticism, I did a little more research. It's 100% manmade. It's essentially glass, but retains the title of manmade quartz because (like cherry quartz) it's powdered quartz, melted down and formed. In the case of Fire Cherry "Quartz", it also has powdered and melted down additions that give it such a distinctive look.
Yet another case of Buyer Beware on E-bay.
14 comments:
Wait----can't he be reported for fraud?
And how did you know it was manmade? Was this something that the seller made? Don't you have to touch/feel/see it before analyzing whether or not it's real?
Ebay always makes me curious.
Hmmmm... good to know. I am so afraid to buy anything from E-Bay. I don't like to get ripped off. I was looking at some really cool Burberry ties on the site for 35.00 a pop. Then I saw that the seller was from China and I didn't even take a second look. They are really good at copying stuff, they even copy the packaging. It is funny how people can say, "It even came in a burberry box!" as if the package can't be imitated but the clothing can. I don't mind getting a bargain for the real thing, but I've never been a fan of knock-offs.
ouch
So men can make rocks now? Wow. And here I thought it took hundreds of millions of years - maybe billions of years, at least one supernova, a giant cloud of dust, and crazy heat to make rocks.
Maybe what the seller was trying to say was that the raw materials were mined?
Let the buyer beware.
Well, I do have to say that it's pretty anyway!
I'll have to ditto Lucy. It's pretty anyway, and I bet they sell a bunch of them.
Saur,
I don't smoke crack but I do love buying fake expensive sports stuff on e-bay. It looks nice in my media room.
As one who has bought and sold many things on ebay I agree - you definitely have to know what you are bidding on or selling.
But you can get taken for a ride anywhere you shop if you're not careful.
Sadly, scammers are out there who peddle crap and make it look like chocolate ice cream (well, not really but you know what I mean).
That's cool that you knew, I wouldn't have had a clue.
Loved the joke you left on my site!
lol!!
Fake gemstones bug me, kinda tacky. Glass makes great looking jewelry though, but just call it what it is! Glass is probably the best looking of all materials, if used in the right way.
Thank you.
I had just started researching if this stone was man made or not. I suspected it was and you have confirmed my suspicions.
It's not really a rip off, is it, if the buyer likes the stones, regardless of where it comes from.
Sure the seller shouldn't have said it is natural if it's actually man made, but $50. for a nice, large necklace isn't that bad, imho.
Good job for spotting this one.More and more man-made stones are pretending to be a real deal, or lesser ones being described as gems. I particularly " like" when you buy an expensive turquoise, just to find out- it is howlite. Sadly it happens often :-(
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