Crystals on Ebay

Been looking on ebay for some crystals and they are dead cheap. Pictures are beutiful but then you can't tell if this is the one you will get. Been tampted to try it..but since it is coming from China and they are becoming an expert in excellent fakes, I'd like to know your opinion. There was also another one from Turkey selling Lapis Lazuli wands and other great stuff. Or if you have a trusted seller I could check.

I am also on a tarot forum which a women I speak with there bought bulk crystals/stones on ebay (if I can bring up the old post later today I will message you the seller she bought from) she showed me the link because she got the order and none of the gems were labeled so she was asking for help to identify them. I believe her's did come from India but again I'll have to double check. She said her stones were all legit. Unfortunately I think it would be very hard to tell until you got the order and even then it could be difficult to tell. If it is very important to you that these be geniune I would recommend traveling to a shop that sells crystals I know it's tempting for the price but what would you do with 50 fake gem stones?! I'd also like to add the picture she saw on the lot she bought were not what she recieved they doll up the photo to get people to buy them they usually are not tumbled stones they are all in raw form, she was happy with her order though.

Also are there any reviews on this sellers site? That might be your best bet and I'm going to try and find out where she got her's and let you know (:

[Clover]

Your best bet is to go to your local shops. Even most major malls have at least one spiritual shop where they sell exotic items.I have a hard time trusting items from Ebay because a lot are artificial products from overseas.


Oh,and just a reminder just in case,this is an ad's free board and commercial links are not allowed. No one's broken rules,it's that usually these threads lead to links being provided.





Rules on commercial links
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/fa...q_new_faq_item

Commercial Links: These are currently not permitted at SF, however there are several grey areas such as links to forums with free ads, these are ok, and donation buttons are also ok. If you post a link for your forum please return the favour and post one for SF in return. If your forum/website or link sells anything including psychic readings and the like, please do not post it as it will be removed. Persistent posting of the same link will be treated as spamming, one warning will be sent and if it continues a suspension may be imposed.


Advertising: Advertising is currently not permitted at SF, blatant advertising will result in a warning, and persistent advertising will be treated as spamming which will result in a permanent suspension.

[Hawaiian Dreams]

I would also try staying away from eBay sellers in Thailand. I ordered an ametrine and it was clearly painted glass.

[Astral Explorer]

Originally Posted by azuly

Been looking on ebay for some crystals and they are dead cheap. Pictures are beutiful but then you can't tell if this is the one you will get. Been tampted to try it..but since it is coming from China and they are becoming an expert in excellent fakes, I'd like to know your opinion. There was also another one from Turkey selling Lapis Lazuli wands and other great stuff. Or if you have a trusted seller I could check.

Local shops are good but extremely expensive and overpriced because in most cases they buy from the same dealers you can access online and just crank the prices up. If you're going to buy a stone on eBay from an account in another country the first thing you want to do is learn about the stone itself. The thing about China is because of their booming economy at this point they tend to have their hands in anything and everything that can be profitable. So with that said everything you see being sold on eBay coming out of China isn't a fake, but there are definitely a lot of fakes and scams coming out of China. A huge percentage of the world's fake and counterfeit products (including crystals and gemstones) are being produced in China, the other country to watch out for when it comes to fake stones is Thailand. Thailand is actually the gemstone Mecca of the world and where there is a huge economy for something such as gemstones there will always be a good amount of fakes coming out of and being sold from that place. But anyways do your research on a stone if you're going to take the risk and buy it out of China or any other country for that matter. I mentioned that China has their hands in everything because even if you research that a stone comes from some distant country no where near China it is certainly possible that they have people in that country dealing with miners and things of that nature so that they can gain a foothold in the market.

But if you see some stone that is only mined in the United States being sold out of Indonesia for example then you can probably come to the conclusion it is a fake. Second rule about buying on eBay is NEVER buy a cut stone, only buy them in their raw form. So you are going to want to research what a stone looks like in its raw form and its variations as well since all stones of the same type do not necessarily look alike. But even if you research everything you can about a stone and you choose to buy something out of China there is always a risk that it is fake, synthesized, or not what you actually ordered. Unfortunately that risk cannot be avoided and so you have to calculate the risk itself. For example I bought a couple large pieces of Indonesian Amber from a dealer out of China and if I had bought these pieces of Amber from an American dealer or any other dealer for that matter I likely would of paid ten times what I ended up paying for them. I only ended up paying a couple dollars US for like a 50 gram piece of Amber and so the risk/reward was worth the gamble. The more homework you do and know about a stone the more you can minimize your risk. Luckily after owning around 10 pieces of Moldavite and seeing just about every type of fake out there it was extremely easy for me to spot a real or fake piece of Moldavite and with that knowledge I took a 15$ gamble on a "vintage" Moldavite pendant and the gamble paid off. Retail this pendant would easily go for 150$ so once again my successful gamble allowed me to pay 10% of its actual price.

So what should be considered when buying a stone out of a country like China? Is this a really good deal? Is the deal worth losing the money if it is fake? So spending a couple bucks on something might be worth it. But spending 25$+ on something might not be. Also you can do your homework on the specific dealers itself. I suggest going to their reviews and reading the negative reviews. You should also try and find reviews of people buying the same thing you intend on buying that way if someone says "I RECEIVED MY STONE AND IT IS NOTHING LIKE THE PICTURES, IT IS FAKE!!!!" then you know not to buy from them and you can move onto a different dealer. I would only take the risk if it's a cheap stone and the difference between what you pay from a Chinese dealer and a dealer from another country is quite a big difference. It's all about the risk and reward. In my personal experience using these methods I have had about 15 gambles turn out good and only one or two turn out bad. So all in all I saved more money than I lost and would certainly gamble again in the future. Another thing you can do is ask someone else on these forums what they think. Link them the actual eBay listing of which one you're intending to bid on or buy it now and you can get some advice or helpful information. Personally if I can help and know about a specific stone I am more than happy to tell you my opinion on it. Happy buying!

[FairyCrystal]

Most Ebay sellers clearly state whether "This is the exact one you will receive" or "you will get one similar to this".
In the first case, no problem, buy if it's what you like. I've bought an awful lot of crystals on Ebay, mostly from China, some India, some HongKong. Never had a problems. Once I got 3 crystals (they came in a lot of 3) that were supposed to be citrine, clearly weren't. I addressed the seller and got my money back INCLUDING shipment.
Sellers are afraid to get negative feedback, as most buyers on Ebay do check the positive feedback percentage. If someone has less than 90% pos. feedback, I don't bother, or if I really want the crystal, check what the negative feedback is about.

As far as I'm concerned Ebay is one of the safest places to buy as you have Ebay guarantee whenever there's a prob and PayPal.
And like you said, it's rather cheap, although prices have gone up quite a bit last 5-6 years. But it's not like you're risking thousands of dollars!

Do steer clear from Istonesus. They're total w@nk**s when there's a problem. The only ones I ever encountered to be unpleasant and difficult or not reacting to emails anymore. (in such a case you can take it up with Ebay so you get your money back)
No loss really, as they don't sell high vibration crystals anyways.

[Astral Explorer]

Originally Posted by FairyCrystal

Most Ebay sellers clearly state whether "This is the exact one you will receive" or "you will get one similar to this".
In the first case, no problem, buy if it's what you like. I've bought an awful lot of crystals on Ebay, mostly from China, some India, some HongKong. Never had a problems. Once I got 3 crystals (they came in a lot of 3) that were supposed to be citrine, clearly weren't. I addressed the seller and got my money back INCLUDING shipment.
Sellers are afraid to get negative feedback, as most buyers on Ebay do check the positive feedback percentage. If someone has less than 90% pos. feedback, I don't bother, or if I really want the crystal, check what the negative feedback is about.

As far as I'm concerned Ebay is one of the safest places to buy as you have Ebay guarantee whenever there's a prob and PayPal.
And like you said, it's rather cheap, although prices have gone up quite a bit last 5-6 years. But it's not like you're risking thousands of dollars!

Do steer clear from Istonesus. They're total w@nk**s when there's a problem. The only ones I ever encountered to be unpleasant and difficult or not reacting to emails anymore. (in such a case you can take it up with Ebay so you get your money back)
No loss really, as they don't sell high vibration crystals anyways.

A lot of sellers dealing with fakes, synthetics, and other shady products and deals will use very tricky wording in some instances. Most people don't spend the time reading 2-3 paragraphs in the description about the product before bidding on it and some of the sellers use that to their advantage. And so even if you receive a fake or something other than what they claimed it to be their wording in the description can sometimes remove their liability from them unfortunately. With that said sometimes eBay protection isn't completely full-proof so there is still usually some risk albeit quite small involved especially when buying out of China. I personally try not to rely too much on eBay protection because it's a hassle and can get pretty nasty when dealing with some of the sellers. Not to mention most of the sellers out of China have several accounts so sometimes they will just snub you and move onto their next account without a care. In my opinion education is by far the best protection as it not only minimizes your risk when buying on eBay it also protects you in other markets and stores that might not offer the same protection or policies. Not to mention if you're going to spend your money on a stone it's always a good idea and interesting journey to learn about the stone and its history.