Hobby Carver Selling Opal. Low Budget Honest Perspective
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- Опубліковано 4 сер 2024
- Hobby cutters guide to buying rough and trying to sell opal. Break even or even small profit if you can get good at it.
Riley Gunn @nnOpals also touched on this topic here: • The Opal Trap
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Timestamps
00:00 Selling opal
01:13 Rough opal buying strategy
04:04 Issue with cheap stones
09:45 Goodbye
Thanks Roy. Great advice for a beginners. Looking forward to the next video. Much appreciated, as always. 😊
No worries Nancy. thought I'd give a different opinion on the topic
Thank you for the great explanation. I’ve decided what I want to do now. I’m cutting and polishing poker chips.
Easier job than opal!
Good vid mate. Depends on your needs. Hobbyists don't look to make a fortune. Opal hobbyists do. 😉
100% Most are happy with breaking even and rolling it into the next bunch.
Excellent explanation with the chops
Great description Roy
Hope it helps people to see it from another perspective.
Thanks for the video Roy.
No worries Chad 👍
Thank you so much for this.✌❤
No worries Karen hope it helps a few out there.
What a great idea to use the poker chips for your demonstration. That was so much easier to follow along. I mostly have practice materials and am happy working with that for now. I prefer to make a mess with practice stones before I attempt anything of value.
Prac parcels are the best place to start. Like I said in the video those are the ones you can grind away into dust and not cry over.
Just keep a careful eye out for a hidden gem. Sometimes a garbage stone turns out not so garbage and can come out of nowhere.
Great video of early. Love the way you break it down. Made a lot of sense. Kind of where I’m at right now. I just finished my first doublet. Getting excited about opals. Keep up the good work.
Cool that you have started doublets. They are a great way to go for cheaper grade crystal opal which can really pop with a bit of help.
I have a learning disability and the way you did all that with the poker chips. I totally understand everything. Thank you very much for breaking it down like that. It’s a lot easier to understand now and I do understand what you’re saying because I’m in the process of buying somebody’s parcels that have one really nice stone in a couple little stones that I guess I just use for practice I guess but I like these videos. Keep them coming. Keep up the good work.
And as always take care, and God bless
No worries Charles.
You are not the first I have helped with learning disabilities.
While at uni my tutoring became really high in demand so I restricted my services to those with learning difficulties who were repeating uni courses so I understand the value of repackaging information in as easily digestible ways as possible.
Now when I teach I always try to fit as many learning styles as possible.
I never ever thought I would I come to point where opal is no interest to me..lately I just lost the passion for It.
Help needed
What happened to lead you that way?
I have only ever had very brief moments like that but even then it was more about youtube/recording opal cutting rather than opal in general.
some good info and explained great
Hopefully helps a few out there that keep asking about it.
Good video especially if your starting out and even better that it has given me an idea of what to look for while I'm in Lightning Ridge atm for the Opal Festiva. So much to choose from 😊l
Oh man so many people asking if I am going to be there but unfortunately not.
Hopefully you have a great time at the festival!
Happy opal hunting.
@@RoysRocks l was wondering if you would be here. This is my second year coming here. Lots to see and buy 😉
And thanks l love coming up here 👍
Awesome and very informative share 🤔🤔🤔
Thanks hope it helps a few that feel a little lost and confused.
It can be super tricky working this out and using the poker chips really brought it home👌👌👌@@RoysRocks
Frankly I think you hit the nail on the head. I have some stones that are over a hundred thousand dollars but I also could sell a thousand one hundred dollar stones in the time to find the right buyer when I was dealing directly with buyers. Now to be honest I do not deal with buyers at all and get all my rough directly through certain mines and miners or if I don't have direct mine connection it is a single dealer I trust that's out of Thailand, the nice thing is that the relationship I have built up now I send all the stones I cut to the same dealer in Thailand and he sells all the cut stones for me, this of course took years to establish. Also even though I like very much certain stones I won't cut them, I am horrible with opal and frankly always lose money the other thing is what is the value of a cut stone vs. the rough, so emerald and I do love emerald only increases in value average 25% cut comparing to the rough prices it can be more but most likely that's the value of cut to rough is only 25% difference. Now I have what I call my money maker cuts a great example is any Stone with a nice inclusion that fits the rough shape I will cut a illusion cube they sell overnight it is a extremely easy fast cut but the value you sell it for is a fancy cut price but the standard is only six facets and the girdle, and a beginner can do a great job in very little time, so it is quick easy money I adapted it and facet the girdle also add some small corner facets, I also do fantasy cuts like Cleopatra's eye and that is time consuming and takes a great amount of skill and time but a cheap stone becomes valuable because of the quality of cut, and finally there is the precision cuts that are cuts you find regularly but done with very exact matching of facets angles etc that usually must be within a .001mm tolerance, but takes great time and is done on more expensive higher end rough but to increase the profit and make it worth the time is to wait before selling them and getting enough stones to where you can do matching sets on many this can take a year or two of cutting to match the set but the increased values of a matched precision set goes much higher then selling individuals and you have to be able to hold that investment over, so it isn't recommended for hobbiest or beginners but a way of established lapidarist to increase the profit margins. The number one bit of advice I can give is to find the simplest cut for the rough that has a high cut to rough value that's where you can make money to fund what you really want to do and make, taking the illusion cube making it a bit fancier by doing a four extra corner facets and going from a straight girdle to faceted increases the look of value of the cut and any rough that has clarity with inclusions in center tends to look awesome and sells instantly just only put one or two out at a time lol that makes customers think rarer more valuable because at the end of a day what is a gem worth??? What someone is willing to pay for it.... Unless insured and robbed and strongly advise against that tactic. Lol now one last bit of getting rough go to pawn shops and purchase broken scratched or badly cut gems usually you can get them pretty cheap you can know what you should be able to recut repolish it into knowing a value you can then make and for many stones it isn't worth it for them to send them overseas to get cut and resale so buying a bunch at once is much cheaper then actually buying rough most of the time and much clearer ideas what yield clarity results will be, also learn as much as possible about the gems personally I only purchase natural untreated or only heat treatment and lightly oiled in case of emeralds. Lab created and enhanced stones over time go down in value natural untreated or just heat treatment stones go up. I also strongly suggest stay away from white diamonds they are everywhere and not worth the time energy. There's reasons why a person who cuts colored gems (including white and clear) is called a lapidarist, while a person who cuts diamonds is called a diamond cutter, they are different things but yes you will find lapidarist that do cut colored and white diamonds, but they are two different trades.
Building a relationship with miners/suppliers is soo underrated and not something most people even think about but they really should!
"what is a gem worth??? What someone is willing to pay for it" 100% and finding the right person can be easy or incredibly difficult depending on the stone.
Oh another thing most pawn shops know a little about gems but outside the diamonds, I am the only certified graduate of gemology in my area, I have a reputation for being honest and straight forward, I give knowledge about gems natural/lab, what they are, treatments, most likely origins, quality, clarity, cut color, hue, saturation of color, grade, precision ct weight, but I don't give a value or monetary appraisal. With the information I give they can use several sites to get what is average retail and wholesale values but it does fluctuate so that is why I don't state values also it is cheaper to purchase Montana sapphires in Montana then California. The thing is most pawn shops don't have access to a gemologist and sending things to the get certified isn't cheap and honestly who would really spend more than ten percent of the wholesale value of a gem on a certificate intentionally. So I provide the pawn shops in my area I like evaluation services at no charge, this gives me a great repore with them first chance to purchase at much lower then they would charge others and frankly free stuff or major discounts many of the gems that are damaged or bad cuts I get very inexpensively or free also a nice free lunch, some great conversations, so every month or if they call me I have twelve stores I like that I visit and spend half a day evaluating gems (I don't do white diamonds, it is a personal thing I hate white diamonds). It's a great way to make money now I could charge a fee and come for a few hours to evaluate the gems, but not charging actually makes it a better bond relationship and actually makes me more money, the discounts and free gems they give me is worth more than if I charged a fee a lot more, to them many damaged and badly cut stones are worthless or very low value but for me it is good quality rough. Also if they have someone come in with something that is gem based value being able to call me in and do a evaluation makes it to where if the customer doesn't have it certified they can accurately access a value giving them more business, I don't charge them and many times I can come within a hour, this makes them more money since some people know that they have value in gem or think they do (many times I have seen people who purchased jewelry containing gemstones and the jewelry store really misrepresented it as dramatically different value, also wholesale vs retail is different often dramatically. Most important is the relationship it builds between me and the shop and the shop and customer. Plus yes it is fun for me.
Informative video 2x👍
I just cant let any of mine go. 👍(I have 99% and just give a few away to friends)
I usually dont buy parcels, you might get 1 or 2 but the rest are cr@p.
Sometimes I buy a parcel of 2 but never more.
I like the hunt of a big heft parcel every now and then. It does mean sifting through a lot of rubbish thats for sure but thats half the fun.
I am beginning to feel that way, myself, like a dragon hoarding gold. But I know I MUST sell some if I want to continue this hobby and, hopefully in the future, grow it into a business.
Think you explained this in a very 'easy to understand' way, well done as always 😊👌 Hope your arm's getting better, Roy? ❤
Thanks hope it was clearer than using stones.
Shoulder is better for sure, I can lift it fully up away from my body. Only took 3 weeks to get there.
@@RoysRocks Absolutely, only part left is getting good at reading the material. That takes a bit of experience with some parcels, others speak clearly for themselfes.
That's good news 😊 Try to set a timer at 10-15 min apart when you're working, take a few seconds to strighten your back and neck, shake your arms and roll your shoulders. 🙂
Thank you for the video and I believe you're right, several years ago Australian rough was much more affordable. It took me awhile, but I've slowly gone over to Ethiopian opals (don't hate me). I love Australian opals, but for a medium to low quality parcel of Australian you can buy higher end Ethiopian rough and at least where I live in the US, people aren't nearly as concerned about where the opal came from, as they are price, size and color. For a beginning seller it's hard to charge premium prices, even if the rough is selling for premium prices. I'm not complaining, mining is incredibly hard work and miners have to feed their families. A store like Black Opal Direct could sell stones at a high price and deservedly so, because Mr. Thomas has worked very hard to earn his reputation, but if a new seller had the exact same stone they would get much less in a sale.
Oh if I were in the USA Ethiopian opal would be my go to as well. I see the USA prices of Aus opal and it is crazy sometimes!
The brand name effect is very real with BOD but they do honestly have some of the best opals out there and of course cut well. Bonus for all of us that they even bother sharing through their youtube channel.
A couple years back I bought heaps of opal for decent prices but as you said times are changing. Good quality, low price opal is getting harder to find. I’m glad I stocked up in time and I’m sure what I have will keep me occupied for 3x as many years to come. :)
Yeah it was good times even just a few years back. If you look at newspaper articles from WAY back in the day at CP or LR the prices per ounce were incredible even factoring in inflation.
great video. you should show the stone whether or not it is a success. its a good time to recap errors, mistakes in judgement, and pitfalls. knowledge hoarded is knowledge lost.
I've scrapped soo many carving videos in the last few weeks. I might stitch them all together into one super fail video 😭
@@RoysRocks Roy's Rocks dusty memories
Appreciate the perspective here. As a hobby parcel seller, I see myself using some of the though processes when putting parcels together (do I list a stone singularly or include in a parcel. Will someone see the value, color or potential in the rough stone vs what I can list it for at a price that will sell? Will making a video be worth my time and help a parcel sell faster? So many variables).
Yeah it's a complex set of variables to because the answer can vary depending on the buyer. It's why I have left the selling side of everything alone most of the time.
Great info! Love the poker chip analogy. Works on several levels. ")
My take on rough opal sellers' thought processes when pricing parcels... a cutter should break even on the sale of the best opal in a given parcel. The lower quality opals should be the cutter's profit.
I don't think that this is unfair. However, doesn’t leave much profit (for cutter) when finished gems only have modest market value. Adding value by making inexpensive silver jewelry can help. Doesn't take much skill (or time) to place opals in pre-fab prong pendant settings. ... hey, maybe a good idea for future videos?
When I get into setting stones for sure will.
Most sellers are pretty good at not sending out complete rubbish and I have never had zero stones come out of a parcel... yet. I have come close a few times though (Mintabie hell).
@@RoysRocks Hahaha, ... Mintabie can be a real heart breaker. Ironically, one of my nicest gems is a super bright Mintabie crystal.
Great advice Roy, and implied advice, forget opal go to the casino, better chance of a return 😂😂😂😂😂
Haha depending on the opal for sure!
In fact, I am probably up more in the 2 casinos I have been to than the opal game so far.
@@RoysRocks I would be as I can’t bring myself to sell any of the opal I cut ……. But like you I have jars of low grade opal I can’t be bothered with, I buy single nice potential stones, the dream is that big 20carat crystal opal rough…. One day.
its always about the kingstone.
Greetings from Dimboola.
If there is one... 😂
@@RoysRocks yeah, no guarantees.
@@nancycurtis7315 greetings from Idaho
Know of any reliable places for rough boulder opal parcels that do worldwide orders without fortune in delivery fees? Bit of an ask i know, I'm in the UK.
Same goes for 0.3 micron aluminium oxide, can't find any in the UK
Thanks
Postage to the UK is a killer especially when rocks are heavy. Nick hoops will get you the value you are after for the Boulder opal but postage is unavoidable.
I have sent a lot of AlOx and CeOx polishing powder over to the UK since making them up so not surprised there is not much over there.
Im just an opalholic...😢
Haha nothing wrong with that!!!
Good on you roy another great show with you sharing your knowledge that helps all beginner Opal people on their opal journey 🫡👍👍
Always trying to help the beginners out there. I still remember how hard it was to get into it when I started out so hopefully I can cut down on the learning curve to get people out of confusion.