On Thursday, a Sri Lankan gem dealer friend that I knew from last year was in town. Naturally, I went to meet him. This time, he came with another friend who I understand to be the cutter of some of the gems that my dealer friend gets from his mine (yes, he is a co-owner of a mine).

He was only in Singapore for 3 days so I didn't have much time to get hold of many other interested buyers. Nevertheless, I did introduce people to him.

Though there is the obvious path of being a middleman or broker for this friend, I figured that I prefer to simply help other people get reasonable prices for gems and help this friend make more sales by introducing potential buyers to him. The more sales he makes, the more likely he will be to come to Singapore, and the better my prices will be when I buy from him.

I may miss out on the profits by being a broker, but, as a gem buyer, I don't quite trust brokers myself, and would much prefer not to play a role that I am myself suspicious of.

As a gem hunter, my job will be made much easier if they bring in regular supplies of stones while I build my own clientele. I will then be able to give my clients better value for their money.

All in all, I will have happy clients and friends who get good value, a happy seller who gets good business, and a happily colourful vault of gems for myself at good prices.

This round, I bought an exceptionally beautiful royal blue sapphire (I'll take proper pictures soon), a pair of pear-shaped blue sapphires for a client, a really small ruby, and 3 garnets.

While you wait for the picture of my lovely blue sapphire, here's a picture of a lot of small blue sapphires that I contemplated buying: