An ebay lesson hard learned and long time coming

[shivan]

G'day all, just thought i would throw this up as a bit of a reminder to be careful buying off of ebay.

My brother is getting married soon and i have been trying to decide what to get them. As they live in Norway i wanted to get them something a little Australian. I remembered that my wife had brought a couple of small polished opals off ebay years ago. I thought these would be nicer than any other uncut stones i had laying around.
Got the wife to pull them out and as soon as i saw them i knew something was wrong. Looking from the top they look ok, and i dont think my wife ever took them out of the case to check them (not that we would have known what we were looking at back then). But upon removal you can see they a clear plastic with a hard black backing that makes the plastic look like opal

Not hugely out of pocket from it, i think she paid $15-$30 each, but a bad time to realize you have been fleeced. Way too long after the event to do anything on ebay, and has left me little time to find a replacement. But at least i caught it before we sent them..... That would have been embarrassing

 

[backcreek]

Hay Ian,
Good to hear from you, how's things going?
You were lucky to find they are fakes before sending them to your brother. He'd have thought you were a cheapskate.

 

[AtomRat]

Always the problem with ebuying and not being able to visually inspect something personally.

In the op shop today I saw a black opal pendant that I thought was miss priced as $4. Nope, exactly the same, plastic with a image backing but easy to identify as fake

Big bummer for the missus though mate. The first thing my missus bought on eBay never arrived at all. Needs to be a slogan "Ebay - experience differs with individual's.. " batteries not included.."

 

[grubstake]

You blokes do understand about opal doublets and triplets don't you? https://www.gemsociety.org/article/opal-jewelry-and-gemstone-information/

Doublets and Triplets make use of opal that is too thin to use as a solid gemstone. A doublet is a thin layer of precious opal glued to a black base. A triplet adds a transparent, quartz cap.

They're not 'fakes' unless they're being passed off as solid opal, which from the prices mentioned above was clearly not the case.

 

[backcreek]

I always check the feedback, particularly the negative feedback before I purchase anything on fleabay.

 

[shivan]

We have always checked feedback, and never brought off of anyone with any sort of consistent neutral or negative feedback, or any seller with fewer than 100 sales. With this we have still been burned a handful of times now. Hence why i may have jumped to conclusions....

grubstake, i did not know about doublets or triplets, having nothing to do with opal before. Thankyou very much, you may have saved me a few bob before i threw them in the bin.
There does seem to be a layer above the black backing and what i thought was plastic may be quartz or glass as it will not scratch. The wife is still adamant that the auction was for 100% pure solid polished opal, but i guess the devil was in the detail and she got what she paid for rather than the bargain she thought she was getting, but again this was a while ago so who knows.

 

[nucopia]

About three months back I bought a cell phone replacment screen for my son on eBay from alltech_australia
When it arrived it turned out they sent me the weong screen, i think i paid $78 for it.
i notified the seller and they said send it back and we will send a replacment.
I sent it back to them but had not put enough stamps on it $2:80 instead of $8.60 ..So their was a $5.80 balance for postage.
They refused to take delivery and it got sent back to me I had to go to the post office and sign to get it and So I pay the extra $5.80 and send it back a second time.
After a week I message them and ask when will I receive the replacment or a refund.
They inform eBay they never received the item back. short story...I'm out $78 for the item and $8.60 postage
Because they claim to have not received the item..my mistake was not sending it registered as my post office payment recipt is not proof of postage according to eBay.

 

[Lefty]

Fleabay can be useful for some things but I would not even think about buying gemstones or jewellery from there. If you paid say $50 or less for something and all you were after was a nice piece of bling that didn't cost an arm and a leg and you were happy with the article when it arrived and didn't much care what it really may or may not have been then go for it - so long as you're happy.

But as we have all been taught, if something sounds too good to be true - it probably is. If you paid $75 for a genuine 9-carat gold ring with a quality natural 2 ct blue sapphire set in it then you either got the deal of the century or much more likely, it isn't what was sold as.

A jeweller I know was given a 9 carat gold ring a while ago that had been bought from eBay to make alterations to. When he tried it became obvious that whatever the alloy the ring was made from was, it was not 9 carat gold and the metalworking would not take. The owner was upset that she thought she had gotten a bargain but had actually been taken.

If you were wanting quality bling, I would tend to see a jeweller. Their livelyood is dependent on their reputation, unlike a seller on eBay.

 

[Heatho]

Yeah, a mate bought about 10ct of cut Sapphires on ebay, when the parcel turned up it was about 2ct...... There are some very dodgy people selling on ebay. I've never been burned on there but many I know have.

They sound like triplets to me also Shivan, although not a solid crystal they are still opal.... hopefully.

 

[Jukebox]

Ah that sucks, as you said at least you didn't pay big money.

The warning signal would have been $30 for a black opal - opal is one the most expensive stones on the planet. An opal the size of your thumb nail can be worth thousands.

That being said the jewellery world is rife with danger as well which in my opinion almost rivals ebay.

 

[Danielkrupski]

Triplet for sure. Couldn't buy a solid black rough for that price. Well you could but it would be real tiny. And of poor quality.

 

[DeckyDan]

Hrmmmmm, mother has some large opals in really old silver.
Have to get her to check them out, she didn't like the item as it was so large it looked fake..

 

[Keen Ken]

If you are thinking of buying opal or gems on ebay be sure to read the detailed description. Most will say Opal or Genuine opal, they do that to get your attention, then they might say something like natural opal doublet or natural opal triplet. Some of these are quality gems and good patterned doublets and triplets are still quite valuable.
Don't be put off, be sure of what you are buying.
I have bought some really nice faceted gems for good prices, even some large synthetic coloured Quartz for very little money.
Hope this helps, do your research before you buy.

 

[shivan]

The opal in the stones is the bluey/green. The black part is the back of the stone which the opal is attached to. This is not visible when in the case, as they are sunk into foam slightly.

Again these were bought many years ago now, when we first started on ebay. We probably ended up getting what we paid for, just that my wife thought she had a great bargain all these years. Still have to check them out but at least it looks like they were not fake.