Nov 10
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How to buy opal gemstones at auction
When looking at auctions online check whether the auction will be live online or whether you can just place on bid online. Auctions sites will vary so you need to know which you are doing. Most sites that do live auctions will tell you the amount time left and you can see what the previous bids have been.
On sites where there is only one online bid allowed per user you may be able to request a condition report. This will be sent to you via email and gives you more info on the item that you are interested in.
For live auction sites you need will be there and you will be able to contact the seller to ask any more questions.
Be aware then when you are looking at opal gemstones online that they may appear different to how they will appear in reality because of the set up of your PC. Your monitor may give a distortion of how the opals will look and this is especially important in the case of opals because the play of color.
Registration for an auction. This is registering your intention to buy but doesn’t mean that you will buy anything. Some website will sign up immediately whereas others will take time to process your details so give yourself enough time to sign up. Some times during the registration process you need to read through the terms and conditions and if this isn’t required still take time to find them and read them. You don’t want any nasty surprises after you’ve bought an item.
Find an item you’re interested in.
Get a condition report or find out as much as possible about the item.
Decide on what you want to pay for the item. Don’t get caught up in an auction where you pay more than you wanted to for an item.
Make sure you know how you will pay for an item (since payment is due as soon as the auction is finished) and how you are going to get the item shipped to you. You’ll need to find out the shipping costs, additional payment fees such as extra charges for credit cards etc. Also find out what insurance is included in the shipping or whether you need to buy that separately.
Customs. If you are buying from outside your country make sure you know if there will be any customs duty involved when your opal gemstone is sent to you.
There are some items that will have no reserve. This can be an easy way to get into buying an item an auction since you will learn the process and may grab a bargain. However as mentioned earlier may sure you know how it will be shipped to you.
Some website have ongoing auctions such as opalauctions.com and others only have auctions at certain times such as Bonhams and Sothebys so always check the websites for auction details.
On the whole if you can buy direct from the miners of opal gemstones then you’ll get a better bargain. Some of the miners have their own websites where you can either buy opal gemstones or you can buy jewelry such as a white gold opal ring.
Most of the opal (but not all of it) comes from Australia so you can use a search engine such as google.com.au to search specifically for websites in Australia or you can use the advanced search and specify a country for the website search.
Fire opals are found in Mexico so you may want to search on Mexican or USA sites if you are looking for fire opals or fire opal jewelry, whereas black opals tend to be found in Australia.
Some miners may have their own shops on auction sites such as Ebay. In Ebay it will search all countries unless you specify that you want to search in a particular country.
Before searching on auction sites decide what you are looking for. Is it opal gemstones themselves or a specific item? This will cut down on your searching time otherwise I find that I can be browsing auction sites for ages.
Make sure (as always) that you know what you are buying. Don’t be afraid to ask questions from the seller. Always buy an opal that has lots of pictures. It’s hard to see what an opal looks like through a PC screen but if there are lots of pictures that will help. Know the size of the item that you are buying – if there is a ruler in the picture make sure you know whether it’s in inches or millimetres.
Check what the refund policy is or even if there is one. What is the postage of the item and is there any insurance included? You want the opal to reach you in one piece. If you are buying from outside your country there may be taxes to pay when your opal goes through customs.
I know that most of this is common sense and shopping online is different than shopping in person but the same rules apply.
