Announcing bitgem.org, buy precious stones (Pegged to BTC!)

[Taxlow]

yeah when you start selling pogs in your little store give me a ring.. i'll make you wealthy

[Anonymous]

I think I'll just get the sapphires in stock instead.

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

Why are them "precious stones" so cheap? How do we know they're real?

And in your post on the 1st you said you have faith in the market, but look at the price today. was 17 not long ago now its < 10. Can you handle that?

[Anonymous]

Well, if you would like to confirm their authenticity I welcome you to take them into a jewler or contact a gemologist and show them what you recieved from me. As for their price, I'm hoping not to adjust my prices no matter where bitcoins go. I don't see the level they're at now as a permanent thing, and since I've already spent the money on my stock, I can't go any lower than I already am.

The only ongoing fee I need to be able to cover is shipping, which is rolled into the cost of the gems I've listed. Unless Bitcoins drop below postage (which will never happen) then I'm okay, realistically.

[msb8r]

Well, if you would like to confirm their authenticity I welcome you to take them into a jewler or contact a gemologist and show them what you recieved from me.

This would be a really great guarantee if I had anywhere to go for complaints afterwards. But I don't. Reporting "Gilgamesh" from the "Bitcoin forum" for fraud is not going to give law enforcement much to work with, but I'm sure they would have a good laugh.

I understand wanting to keep anonymous, but I don't see that happening as long as the consumer is the one running the risk.
If you were running your business on a "delivery before payment" basis then I couldn't care less about yours or your company's identity.

That aside I think it's a great idea and I would indeed be very interested.

Just my 2 bitcents.

[Anonymous]

For those prices and what I paid for my stock, one person calling foul would put off a lot of customers who might be interested. For now I'm getting started using these forums, so yes reporting me to the forums would do some damn good damage. I'm not willing to take all the risk, but I'm interested in working with people to find ways I could build some credibility.

Since you seem to be interested, I'd like to hear any opinions you might have.

[markm]

How "standardised" are such stones?

That is, do they tend to vary wildly in price from stone to stone or is one one-carat type-X stone pretty much like any other one-carat type-X stone?

I am wondering because in for example Crossfire RPG a diamond is a diamond, they are generic, as are emeralds, as are "diamonds of exceptional beauty" as are "diamonds of great value" and so on.

So I am wondering how feasible it might be to do similarly with actual stones; to be able to keep sending out for example the same three types of stone you already showed, over and over again, without much chance of anyone complaining "the one you sent me is utterly incomparable to the one you sent my sister" kind of thing...

(I guess another way of looking at it is could one say like "great, I like that third one, send me a thousand of those!")

-MarkM-

[Anonymous]

Very good question! Gems have a standardized nomenclature denoting clarity, colour, size, and other common traits of gemstones. They aren't generic in that way though, individual gems can vary greatly. That said, what makes them valuable is usually the same within a specific type of gem. For the gems I sell, everything has top clarity unless otherwise stated, and the colours will be desirable as well.

For most stones I can guarantee their similarity will be so great you wouldn't be able to tell them apart without a loupe, though some (like the sapphires I'm receiving) will come in slightly different colours while still being the same kind of stone. Others, like emeralds, will have visible inclusions which are an incredibly common trait in that kind of gem.

So yes, if you bought a pile of the same gem they'd all look pretty much the exact same unless it was explicitly different, and I would be making sure that was obvious at a glance to buyers (for example, different cuts and sizes of garnets wouldn't just believed as "garnet", they'd have their own category.)

[johnyj]

That's pretty much how a bitcoin economy will look like, good attempt!

There is a problem: If there are more than 21 million garnets need to be traded, then the total amount of BTC is not enough to facilitate the trading

[elements]

Is there already a page with your stones or at least one which can show us which kind you are going to sell ?

How will the customer know that the stone is real, and has the value you set?

(A picture on a photo may be an indicator but for precious stones I think it might not be enough to identify the value of a stone, right? Not much experience with precious stones)

[Anonymous]

Frankly, there is no way to find the value of a precious stone without a lot of expertise and the stone in hand. Even then, it depends a lot on the market and the buyers.

I've said that I'd be happy to have anyone take stones I sell to a jeweler or gemologist and have their authenticity tested, and I stand by that. The value is set based on where I expect the bitcoin rates to be in a bit of time, otherwise I'd be forced to adjust my prices all the time to not be vastly overcharging for things!

Those pictures are ones I took of the stones I'm selling. I'll have a terrible small page up soon with basic information (including carat weight, dimensions, cost, etc). Pretty soon I'll have a better site up.

Also, the bitcoin cost will be including shipping worldwide. I'm pretty sure I can send all of these in a normal envelope, which should make it affordable unless the bitcoin drops to around $1.

[msb8r]

For those prices and what I paid for my stock, one person calling foul would put off a lot of customers who might be interested. For now I'm getting started using these forums, so yes reporting me to the forums would do some damn good damage. I'm not willing to take all the risk, but I'm interested in working with people to find ways I could build some credibility.

Since you seem to be interested, I'd like to hear any opinions you might have.

So, I did a little more reading on gemstones, and as far as I can tell there really isn't any established exchanges for gemstones. So a gemstone exchange based on BTC would be very nice. Even if we're talking relatively low cost stones.

To follow expand on elements inquiry; I assume the stones don't come with any certification as to their genuineness (given their value)?

To establish some credibility I think I would start selling some stones quickly. Even if I'd have to do part of the process manually.

The exchange would still need more transparency on your side. Following the debacle with MyBitcoin I think it would be extremely optimistic to expect many to entrust you holding both BTC and gemstones on their behalf without name/address/company information.

[Anonymous]

Like I said, I understand that the speculative side of things where I'm being trusted with both money and product isn't going to work as long as I don't reveal personal information. Until such a time as I decide to reveal that information, I am canceling that part of BitGem.

There is a small site up here just until I have some better code and the URL propagates. In the future it will just be available at BitGem.org.

http://bitgem.nfshost.com/

I'm not ruling out the speculative market (and you're right, there isn't anything like that yet), but in the time being id like to see how this goes. Besides, it doesn't seem to be the best time to be starting a truest based business since a lot of people are skitterish.

[elements]

Do you have any photos and approx. prices in BTC and USD or EUR (for comparison) of more "common" stones to the layman

such as:

- Diamond
- Saphire
- Emerald
- Ruby ?

[Anonymous]

No pictures, what kind of comparison do you want? At similar sizes and clarity all the stones are far more expensive.

[elements]

No pictures, what kind of comparison do you want? At similar sizes and clarity all the stones are far more expensive.

Samples of what you will offer

Something like this:


(PICTURE of Sephire) / approx. price in BTC XX.XX / current market price in USD or EUR or GBP (whatevers suits you most)

Descripton of sample

Weight:
other important characteristics (which I have no clue atm, like clairty and so on)


Something like this

[Anonymous]

There isn't really a "standard market price" for gems. Think of them more as art and less as oil. Both are valid investments, but the natures are different.

[alan2here]

Stock Bistmuth crystals.

I assume you mean the attractive lab grown ones?

Yes :¬)

As I understand there is an art to getting them looking really nice, also unlike many other items each individual looks significantly different.

[Anonymous]

The first BitGem sale has been made and the gems sent. I look forward to feedback from the purchaser and further sales.

I have some more stock coming in soon, is there any kind of gem people would like to see? And I'll look into the bismuth, though that tends to be pricy and with limited appeal.

[msb8r]

The first BitGem sale has been made and the gems sent. I look forward to feedback from the purchaser and further sales.

and I was the first buyer. Ordered Sunday, received the stone today, Wednesday.
Seller kept me informed through-out the process, and the stone was exactly as expected.

Bonus info: ran the stone through http://gemval.com where it valus in the $40-50 range (paid 3BTC incl shipping).

I am a very satisfied buyer