Jewelry Authenticators

[shgul1967]

I had my diamond ring on sale with provided by GSI certificate. All information for the ring was taken straight from the corticate.

Authenticators sent me evaluation which I found rude and unprofessional. They did not provide any information just saying that "your item is authentic, but they also discovered a discrepancy between your listing and the item that was inspected". In the end they wrote "If you have similar listings, we recommend you update the item details to ensure this doesn’t happen again."  But I am not a specialist. I used info from certificate which was given by Kay Jewelry. They basically called me a liar. 

I called to them to find out more info since they did not bother to say what exactly was wrong. Apparently, there are a few authenticators including GSI.  The letter was sent by Gemological Institute of America (GIA).  The authenticators found the listing stated diamond color K and was found to be UD color. I was told that it was minor difference. Though it looks like turned off the buyer impacting me as a seller and eBay as a company. 

Do you know if these two companies are rivals? 

And why Kay Jewelry is using wrong evaluation on their certificate selling their rings for $4,400 which was barely sold for a bit over $600?

I did not get any help from the customer as to send more detailed information to the buyer to explain that the difference was minor. I also requested rewording of "intentional discrepancy" in the listing. No word back.

[klhmdg]

Authententicators are human. 

There is no saying who is wrong and who is right.

Was it the person at the company eBay uses or Kay Jewlers authenticator??

Was Kay making it better than it really was?

Was the company eBay used over picky?  Who knows...

Did you send the Kay Jewlery paperwork with the ring?

Do you plan on selling more expensive jewelry?

Did the buyer accept the item or did it get returned to you?

I would not take it personally.

[dbfolks166mt]

     There have been a number of issues with the eBay authentication services and the quality of those services. One of the first things I would suggest you do once you have the ring back is to return to Kay's and have a discussion with them.

     While the ring that went through the authentication process offers you some seller protections you should be aware that sellers have little protection from scammers and friendly fraud. As a new seller selling some high value, high target items and not offering returns makes you more of a target although any seller can be scammed at about anytime. The gold ring that you sold for example would potentially have been a easy target for a scammer.

     I am not sure of the weight of the gold ring but the current spot price for gold is about $50 a gram. Do a cost analysis factoring in the eBay fees, Federal and State income taxes and your other expenses and you may discover you could  have had a better return either selling it locally or selling it for scrap gold. 

     Review some of the posts on this forum where sellers have been scammed: empty envelope scam, empty return package, altered return shipping label, bogus payment notifications............. Always remember the #1 rule as a seller and that is t NEVER list anything you are not prepared to take the financial loss on. 

[jklfindings]

A difference in color from K to U is actually massive.  The authenticator was being nice about it.  GSI is considered an inconsistent grading company amongst the diamond industry.  Why do companies like Kay use them?  They are cheap, and the average person doesn't have experience in the industry to know better.  Usually the rule on thumb with these off shoot companies is to drop the clarity by 1 grade, and the color by 2 to get to GIA standards (which is actually the authentication departments margin of error provided to sellers).  That being said, from your pictures, the diamond was massively mis-graded color wise.  You can do a search for diamond color chart and see the intensity difference between a K is pretty big.  There is no rivalry in the diamond authentication world really.  But there are levels of standards.  GIA is considered to be in the A tier of grading, and GSI would be C or B tier at best.

[luckythewinner]

GSI is a for-profit grading lab that caters to jewelry chains and their grading is generally considered to be inconsistent and uses looser standards.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

I just have some questions on the eBay authenticator services.

Will this sale go through or is the item being sent back to you and buyer refunded?

What about sneakers? I have read some sellers state the shoes they bought at a retailer and sold on eBay are found not authentic. Do those shoes get shipped back to the seller or are they destroyed to get them off the market? 

I have read some posts in the past on sports cards. Things like the card was lost, determined fake. The posts were basically questioning if these sports card authenticators were stealing or swapping out cards. 

I have just been nervous to sale such items using the authenticators.

[dirk12955]

Lucky.    There's your answer for the OP.   GSI grades a Diamond "K"  and Kay prices it at $4400.00

GIA or a more conservative grader calls it "U"  and it's worth $600.00

[luckythewinner]

The authenticators found the listing stated diamond color K and was found to be UD color. I was told that it was minor difference.

Who told you it was a "minor difference"?

According to a quick Google I did, it appears that UD indicates "clarity enhancement" which means the diamond was artificially treated to enhance the clarity (laser treatment, filling fractures, etc).  And according to the quick Google I did, GIA refuses to grade UD dimonds. 

[jklfindings]

What the original poster probably meant was U-V, which could sound like UD over the phone.  Color classifications that high are assigned a 2 letter range starting at O.  So O-P, Q-R, S-T, U-V, W-X, and Y-Z.

[12345jamesstamps]

A little off the subject but glad ring was sold although not what you prefer.

A recent study found a big surplus of diamonds available in the world...we are talking huge...under cutting prices of diamonds 20+%.

The manmade type of diamonds has made this situation for real diamonds resulting where the gold or platinum is worth more than diamonds in the ring sometimes.

The Gemological Institute of America...which I am guessing this is the one in Carlsbad CA. you are talking about.

I google the address and it looks like the back store of a 'Target'...LOL

And I haven't even done 'Yelp' on them.

[buyselljack2016]

Not sure, but don't think that is what was meant.  I read the $600 to mean what it was sold for, not what it was graded at.

[shgul1967]

I asked detailed clarification on the "discrepancy". The answer in email was "Specifically for your listing, the authenticators found the listing stated diamond color K, but was found to be UD color."

[shgul1967]

I was told by customer service that it was "minor difference". 

I also was told by customer service that both of the authenticators - GIA and GSI are being used by ebay. 

Your info from google is not correct. As you can see GIA does grade UD diamonds. At least for evaluation. 

[shgul1967]

Thanks, I would know it for now. I am not experienced in having diamond rings. Found out that cannot trust to big name jewelry stores anymore. Learnt a lot about grading. 

But this does not take responsibility from Kay Jewelry for hiring low quality specialist to grade their diamonds. It ends up confusing everyone. I truly trusted to the certificate and was called a liar for putting the info from it to the listing.

[shgul1967]

Thanks, I learnt a lot now. 

Luckily the buyer accepted the ring. I would definitely talk to Kay Jewelry if I would have the ring back. 

Kay Jewelry is hiring low quality specialist to grade their diamonds. It ends up confusing everyone. I truly trusted to the certificate and was called a liar for putting the info from it to the listing.

The gold ring was sold for the price higher than what I was getting to try to sell it locally. I always look at the buyer rating to make sure they have long standing high rating. I know it might not work sometimes. But this time I was lucky, and the sale went through pretty well. 

Thanks again.