In September of 2004 I was invited to a retired jewelers auction. A friend of mine was doing the advertising work for the auction company. He knew that since the age of 12 I had a huge interest in gem stones as a matter of fact I used to spend all of my paper route money at the local Lapidary as a child. Just ask my mom, she says I still do the same thing today, minus the paper route!

On September 29, 2004 I was like a cat on a hot tin roof that day from the moment I awoke. I could not wait until the one o'clock starting gun went off! I took the 15 minute drive from my home to an very high end area called Grosse Pointe. The Auction was taking place at the residence of the former jeweler. When I arrived and saw the information, the former jeweler's name rang an immediate bell with me, I knew that I had driven by it many times in years past but had never stopped because I was well aware that there would not be one item within those four walls that I could afford.

After Registering and providing the auction company with sales tax Id numbers and such I was handed a tri-fold glossy folder that contained several sheets of Parchment paper and upon each of those sheets were the little treasures that awaited at least 300 guests. The inventory varied from jeweler benchs and work stations to fixtures, lapiday supplies and ton's of gem's. As I fumbled through the paperwork I had finally reached a gem stone hounds dream, a detailed list of over 1500 gems and gem lots to be auctioned off nearing 3 PM. As I wandered around the large and very detailed grounds I couldn't help but to think back to all of the drool that needed to be whiped off the gem cases at that old lapidary supply store when I would leave, somehow I knew that this would be much the same.

3 PM came and now the fun began, there were stones that one could only dream about, from precious to semi-precious and some as large as my head, ok, maybe not that big but they may as well have been. Internally Flawless Diamonds,  Burma Rubies in the 12-20 carat range, Columbian Emeralds that you could read the news paper through and many other stones to numerous to even mention. There was one lot of goods that I just knew I had to have and just knew that I would be outbid on, the Russian Lab Created Alexandrite. 5000 stones in all sizes and shapes, cut here in the jewelers store by the jeweler himself over a period of 20 years. You see the jeweler was of Russian decent, he came to the states as a young boy in 1943, as he stood before us he was now a frail man in his seventies but his mind was sharp and his charm was even sharper yet. He spoke with great fondness when the large lot of stones came up for bid, telling the story of how he traveled back to Russia in 1975 for a visit with remaining family members, his first trip back since he had left some thirty years before. He had a boyhood friend who he visited as well during that trip, the friend who worked in a lab where this fine material was grown. He told all in attendance that he had paid his friend thousands for the rough after seeing a small peice of the color change converstion peice sitting on a table, enough to support him for a long while. He also told the potential buyers that even with all the education his friend had (several degree's), his wage working for the Russian government owned lab was just equal to $18.00 US per week. The rough was grown for purposes other than gem stones, communications for the military was the intended use. The jeweler was very well established by 1975 and he knew that the rough he purchased would be more than enough to keep him very busy for years to come. He told the crowd of buyers that he lost interest in the business he had built from ground up after his wife passed away some years before the date of the auction, he closed his business and sold his building. The contents of that building had been stored in his 5 car garage / loft that would have put most people's homes to shame.

He continued to cut the rough into works of art, noting that his specialized training was limited to producing diamond cut rounds, ovals, hearts, ascher and emerald cut shapes, he became confused when new shapes emerged on the market and admitted that it took years to perfect newer trendy cuts such as trillions, cushions and others. As he spoke a hush grew over the attendee's, everyone there seemed to hang on his every word. I could only think that the apparent interest in his story would drive the price over the top for me and I wouldn't leave with a thing, I was wrong. There was only a small amount of interest in such a large lot from a few buyers who did drive the price up by about 30% over a high starting bid but still well within my reach. The smaller lots went quickly and at prices that made my cash look like pennies. I held onto those stones and started my ebay gem business with them in 2005 selling single stones. They have been a popular item every since and have recently evolved into finished sterling pieces as well.

I have seen many types of this material throughout the years but none as breath-taking as what was in this large lot of goods. I still laugh at thoughts of my returning home with 5000 cut stones, when I showed my nearly adult son, he asked "what are you going to do with all of those stones? I remember responding "I'm not sure yet" I remember days later hearing my son who had just turned 18 on the day of the auction running from the front of the house repeatedly to the hallway. When I asked "Alan? What are you doing? He responded "trying to trick these stones", I left my desk and walked to my living room where I found my son with a hand full of the stones near the front window, he was amazed at the color change properties just as I was. I remember remarking to him to forget it Alan, I think that the stones are smarter. To this day we laugh about it but they are still our very favorite stones. We sell a small amount of this to local vendors here in the area but most locals are looking for the cheaper forms of lab created products and only want to spend a dollar or two at the most for color change stones. The market is flooded with the less expensive color change lab created goods and for some that may work, we handle those to but deal those items to local buyers and dealers only, the good stuff is the only stuff that makes it to lynnieb2174.