I was almost hesitant to watch the series at first as we had a pre-screening up here at the Ridge last year and sort of knew what to expect. A tad frustrating at times in the same vein as the various gold prospectors' series.
As far as the stated $30,000+ per carat for black opal at the start of the show goes, it could possibly come from a buyer desperately paying around that mark for a 1 carat stone that was cut from a piece of opalised wood from a field called Three Trees situated on the Coocoran opal fields back in 2000. The stone was desperately wanted by a collector and somehow that price must have been agreed on to get the seller to part with it? I knew both the buyer and seller of the stone, but whether or not it's 100% true I still could not even say? The dream is nice however.
In reality, we'd be embarrassingly laughed out of the buyers offices asking anywhere near those prices. During the 90's when opal was really selling well and the carat price was at it's strongest it was commanding between $6000-10,000 per carat for the best of the best gemstones, I'm talking 2-6 carats and up with high domes, good pattern and predominately red in colour. Those sizes make perfect ring stones and generally sell very well, though not so much these days due to the market downturn in the mid 2000's. I've yet to hear of a return to those prices, though there's always the odd exceptional stone showing up here and there so you never know?
We hear so many over exaggerated things in this industry that you become somewhat numb to the ridiculousness of it all after a very short while. :lol:
A bit of light entertainment never goes astray though. :Y:
ickshovel: 
