More than meets the eye.

Was not aware of the huge colour variations of sapphires

Would you like to share a photo of what you are referring to.

Possibly Sstein was referring to Triabannana's Tasmania sapphires posted around the same time yesterday (Gemstone & Mineral Show n Tell #1946).

Many other stones show great colour variation - another common gem (diamond):



I once visited the Premier (Cullinan) diamond mine in Pretoria (South Africa) many years ago, and was taken under guard into their display room. I had never seen such beautifully coloured diamonds before. They said at that time that there was no market for them, that everyone just wanted white (colourless) diamonds. When we started diamond production in the KImberleys here, the "champagne" diamonds so characteristic of the Argyle pipe were not considered valuable for the same reason, However a very clever marketing campaign succeeded in convincing people that they were desirable, so coloured diamonds were "in".

Personally I think coloured diamonds are great.