spacegold
has rocks in the head
Member since September 2006
Posts: 732
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Post by spacegold on Feb 7, 2007 19:43:22 GMT -5
This is the ebay seller with the ocean jasper tumbler stock that I posted on the Rocks board. He has 16 lots for sale and pictures the top of the bin. I asked him if he could send me a couple of pictures of actual lots that I could bid on. This was the reply:
"THE PIC IS OF ALL THE LOTS I TAKE AS MUCH OFF THE TOP AS SOME ONE WANTS IT'S NOT BROKEN DOWN INTO LOTS UNTILL IT'S SOLD IF THATS A PROBLEM PLEASE DON'T BID I SELL TO MUCH OF THIS TO WORRY ABOUT ONE LOT".
I don't think I will be bidding on this item, and would suggest others do so only if willing to risk being burned buying rock sight unseen.
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Post by deb193 on Feb 8, 2007 11:45:39 GMT -5
The reply almost seems a bit unfriendly and that is off-putting. I hate the phrase "then please don't bid" because it is kinda like "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out". It would not take much effort to have expressed a little regret that individual pictured lots are not available at this time, or just to say that the offered price does not include the option to choose lots. It seems unfriendly to go right to "if ya don't like it, don't bid".
Having said all that, and while I generally avoid the auctions that only show pictures of the barrel, the one picture offered makes it a little better than completely sight unseen. I have also gotten some decent 2nd and 3rd grade OJ here for $3-$6 a lb. I bought several 2-4lb chunks last year. It was lower grade stuff that had vugs or dark areas or only small orbs. I also note $5/lb is the same price as the crushed tumbling OJ at thegemshop.com, only this picture looks a little more colorful. You only get to see the barrel at thegemshop - unless you go visit the store. You can't call thegemshop either and ask them to send you a picture of exactly what they pull before you give over the cash.
If you are trying to get cabbing grade OJ, this may not be the best method. But I think it is an OK tumbling grade, and there may be some small chunks that can be sliced into 2-3 slabbetts that would yield a nice tumble finished piece or cab. This seller has some 1st grade OJ offered at $12 to $20 a pound. The pink/white/green stuff with large red/green orbs. Likely some small chips of that good stuff has found its way into this bin.
Admitting that there is some risk, it might be worth getting a 4lb lot with combined shipping.
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stefan
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,113
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Post by stefan on Feb 8, 2007 12:45:52 GMT -5
Yea I looked at the auction several times- He cherry picked the best stuff for the pic- (I know they all deny doing this- but would you REALLY do a random draw for a picture of stuff your trying to sell???) and the stuff is shown wet- very very wet! The Gemshops picture is shown wet too- and I was very disapponted when I got my box of it- TILL I wetted it- Even crappy (not saying this stuff is crappy) Ocean Jasper looks good when wet- I would say this is a pretty fair price for grade b/c OJ.
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spacegold
has rocks in the head
Member since September 2006
Posts: 732
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Post by spacegold on Feb 8, 2007 16:08:06 GMT -5
I agree with you about the "please don't bid" phrase, Daniel. Since buying sight unseen IS a problem for me, I will give him his wish. I liked the look of what I saw, and I thought it might be nice to tumble a little ocean jasper if the price is right. But it is just too easy to send something that is totally unattractive to my eye, when the seller is not bound by any picture. Like the picture I posted a couple of days ago, I would not pay anyone $5 a pound for tumbler sized pieces of THAT "ocean jasper".
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Post by beefjello on Feb 23, 2007 23:47:27 GMT -5
After Spacegold originally posted this link on the General board I decided to try a couple pounds and see what it was about. I wanted to try some ocean jasper and figured I could give you all a report on this vendor's product. So here goes.. I bought 2 pounds @ 5 dollars a pound. Shipping was $4.50 for the first pound with discounted shipping on additional lots. An extra $1.25 was added for the additional pound I bought. I secured this and paid instantly with paypal on Feb 6, and received my package 11 days later on the 17th. The material was wrapped in newspaper and placed in a usps mailer which was folded and placed into a small usps priority box. I removed all the tare and weighed the product on a small electronic scale. This scale has a nominal capacity of 5 pounds and a readability of .1 ounces. The total weight was 2 pounds 2.4 ounces. This included .2 ounces of 'dust' and green sand. Still the total weight was slightly over the 2 pounds I had paid for. Here is a picture of the lot. Forgive the glare. Pictures were taken of dry material. I divided the lot into 3 sections which I will discuss below.  First of all the pieces to the left:  These pieces were all smoothed and appeared to be already 'rough' tumbled. It is possible they were 'ocean tumbled' pieces that were gathered off the coast of Madagascar (or wherever), but it is my opinion after doing many coarse recharges this past 2 months that these pieces were previously pulled from rough tumble stages.. possibly due to pitting, vugs and a couple small fractures I see. There is a good variety of colors and patterns and I am quite hopeful that I will get a few nice finished pieces out of these. The pieces to the right:  These were not previously tumbled. Several of them are quite porous, and some contain multiple deep vugs. A couple seem more silicified. There are many 'eyes' and again I'm hopeful some will tumble well. A couple I'll probably save as specimen pieces. The ones in the bottom center:  These are small cut pieces. The top one appears to be a small broken slab, the center one is a very thin end cut and the bottom left piece appears to be a cut tumbled pendant that mis formed a bit. I've tried to remain objective in this report. I feel neither ripped off nor that I got a killer deal. It is what it is. I'll post pics of the finished tumbles once I get it going. Thanks for reading. |
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Post by lbowman1 on Feb 24, 2007 14:27:55 GMT -5
I won an auction for garnets from him on Feb 5th and sent him a US Postal money order the next day. It's now the 24th, 18 days from the day I mailed the money order and still no garnets have arrived.
Lori
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Post by lbowman1 on Feb 27, 2007 12:07:09 GMT -5
The garnets finally arrived yesterday on the 26th. Nothing to write home about but they are sized as in the pic. For awhile I was scared I was going to get 3 lbs of red pea gravel. These are good enough for tumbling at any rate.
Not sure I'll buy from him again. Too many other sellers out there with good quality stuff at competitive prices.
Lori
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