FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[texasdigger]

This is a newer listing on Ebay.
They are the most expensive Tourmalines presently on Ebay...and its a glue job
Search Tourmaline then sort as most expensive first or
MUSEUM GRADE WATERMELON TOURMALINE CLUSTER (PINK AND GREEN CRYSTALS ON QUARTZ)

[Don Lum]

[texasdigger]

search Tourmaline then sort as most expensive first or
MUSEUM GRADE WATERMELON TOURMALINE CLUSTER (PINK AND GREEN CRYSTALS ON QUARTZ)

[Don Lum]

[Jean Sendero]

With the end of the description....

This magnificent piece will be fully insured by third party carrier for the purchase price.

SOLD AS IS. NO RETURNS ACCEPTED - NO WARRANTIES OFFERED OR ASSUMED.

[Fiebre Verde]

It also says
"... matrix is professionally created and not originally formed by nature"
Looks very unprofessional to me!

[alfredo]

Anyone willing to spend a quarter million $$$ on E-bay, and for something with no warranty no less, needs their head examined ;))

[texasdigger]

Agreed thats a very obvious, bad glue job.
Maybe with the $225,000.00 they can afford a better camera.

The seller needs his head examined as well. He is serious about the price. I messaged him about it.

His response, "We don’t debate or argue with ignorant people...

we have no interest in your likes or dislikes....

But to further enlighten you, given the size and magnificent quality of the tourmalines, the same exact piece would fetch close to 1 million in todays’ market if it were a naturally formed.

You are blocked from our site..."

[Jean Sendero]

Run, run faster...no big deal to be blocked from their site.

[John Betts]

Thank you for providing me a good laugh! It really made my day.
That takes real chutzpah!

[Bob Harman]

For those that do not know "chutzpah" is a NYC euphemism for...........balls!

What I find somewhat interesting in all this is that some very large complex tourmalines and Colorado smoky quartz/amazonite specimens etc are multipully repaired, restored, reenforced and otherwise fixed up. The jobs are professional and look good; then the high end dealers tell all and their high end customers actually do spend the similar $$$ to buy the examples with no regrets. BOB

[alfredo]

Another way to look at it is that they are selling a work of art, not a real mineral specimen, and they openly admit that, so they aren't cheating anyone. What's the price of art nowadays? There's an item in the news today about a painting that sold for $100,000,000...
Makes mineral collecting look like a poor person's hobby ;))

[texasdigger]

Some of the most beautiful, striking tourmaline are indeed repaired.
Look at all the Pederneira clusters. The differences I see are that they are restored to original condition and the repairs are not so evident.

Ill commend him for admitting its man created but the price is off no matter how you look at it. Maybe12K in rough, (sadly, not enough good pics to accurately determine individual value), plus cost of epoxy and labor should not equal $225,000.00.

Oh, I love the "art" angle because it works. Remember the potato photograph that sold for 1 million Euro.... insane.

[Pierre Joubert]

[Jordi Fabre]