Gemstones Shop Near Me: How to Tell Which One to Trust

Not every shop on the map sells what you are after. Pick the right door first.

The lines blur, and the sign on the door proves nothing. Whatever the shop calls itself, ask the same questions.

Four things, written on the invoice or the report. Not just said at the counter.

1. What the stone is. Natural, synthetic or imitation. A synthetic is grown by people, with essentially the same chemistry and structure as the natural stone. An imitation only looks like it, and glass is the oldest one. Both are fine to buy, as long as they are sold under their own name.
2. Every treatment. Almost all rubies are heated, and most emeralds are filled with oil or resin. That is normal. A shop that won't say, or doesn't know, is not. A treatment can change the value and the way you care for the stone.
3. An independent lab report on any stone that matters to you. Independent means the lab is not the shop. If the lab offers an online lookup, check the number yourself. Here is what a gemstone certificate proves, and what it doesn't.
4. The return terms. How many days, in what condition, refund or credit. Written down.

My rule on the third one: whoever checks a stone should never be the one selling it.

This is what a shop near you gives you that a screen can't. Use it.

• Two lights. Look at it by a window, then under the shop lamps. Color shifts with the light: blues and greens tend to look their best under fluorescent light, reds under warm bulbs.
• Loose if you can. A setting hides part of the stone and can change how its color looks.
• A 10x loupe. Turn the stone and look from every angle: chips, scratches, what sits inside. A loupe won't identify the stone on its own.
• The paper against the stone. The weight and measurements on the report should be those of the stone in front of you.

• The only paper is the shop's own. A certificate printed by the seller is not an independent report.
• Nothing goes in writing. What the stone is and how it was treated stay spoken, never printed.
• "Real", "genuine" or "natural" on a lab-grown stone. Those words don't belong on a synthetic. "Synthetic" or "lab-grown" does.
• A price far below every other seller. Ask why. Glass has turned up in parcels for sale, mixed in with the natural stones it imitates.
• A mine name, and no way of knowing it. Ask how they know. What I have learned: "straight from the mine" is marketing almost every time.
• Pressure. "Last one", "today only". A good stone survives a night of thinking.

And the one that isn't: a high price. A shop has the right to its margin. The scam is not knowing what you are buying.

My first stones came from the gem shops of Galle Fort, in Sri Lanka. I bought them like a tourist. Being close to the mines changes the scenery, not the rules.

Gem towns are trading centers. Bangkok cuts, treats and sells stones from well beyond Thailand, and Colombo is a meeting point for the trade too. So a stone bought there is not automatically from that country, or untreated. Ask the same four questions, and keep the invoice that says what you were told.

Near you, you hold the stone and see it in real light. Online, you get choice and time to compare, but no stone in your hand, and a seller you have never met. How do you trust someone you have never seen, whose story you don't know?

Online, ask for the same four answers, plus two more: a video of the stone turning under steady light, and a return window long enough to show the stone to a jeweler you trust. For sapphire, here is how to buy a sapphire online.

For the record, Joalys is not a shop you can walk into. We sell loose stones online, and every stone goes to an independent laboratory once it is yours, with the report sent alongside it. Browse the collection, or tell us the stone you are looking for.