Buying Opal
Opal Buying and Pricing Guide Tips
1. Under nearly all circumstances if a certain opal appeals to you that is the one you should buy. Often our intuition is the best judge!
2. When purchasing opal some key words to look for are : A. Triplet a very thin slice of opal enhanced by blackening the underside of the opal to make the colours stronger and a quartz or plastic dome placed on top of the opal to magnify the colour and pattern. The advantage is they are cheap and fit readily into standard size jewelry. B. Doublet a thicker slice of opal with a blackened underside. The advantage over a triplet is the surface is real opal and affords a greater depth of colour. C. Solid as the name suggests a real and solid opal with no add ons. Therefore A has less value than B which has much less value than C when size colour and pattern are the same.
3. Laboratory produced or treated matrix opal have far less value than triplets, doublets and solids.
4. Solid opals come in many variations, if size pattern colour and shape are the same the most valuable opal will be.. 1Black opal the rarest and most highly prized of all. The best black opal comes from Lightning Ridge, Australia. Black opal has very rich and striking colours that are formed on a dark or black potch base. This dark base intensifies the colour. Black opal has been sold for as much as $14,000 per carat wholesale or field price. Outstanding quality for $10,000 per carat field price. Black opal with all the colours and good quality starts at around $2,000 per carat on the field. The opal may go through many sets of hands before arriving in the retail shop and so the retail price is much higher. Top quality black opal is very rare and in relation to many other gemstones is probably under priced. The investment potential for even medium grades of black opal is very very interesting. This is a resource that is fast disappearing ! 2 Boulder opal especially the darker variety. Boulder opal gets its name from the fact that an ironstone backing is part of its natural formation, the colours can also be quite brilliant and dazzling and gem quality also brings a high price almost matching the black opal prices. It would appear that there is a larger production and it is found over a much wider area (mainly Western Queensland ) than black opal and so the price of average grade material is somewhat lower. 3 Crystal opal or fire opal. This variety of opal can also be extra ordinarily beautiful and gem material can sell for $1000 per carat wholesale or field price. This opal is translucent and even transparent when held up to the light. Lightning Ridge, Andamooka and Coober Pedy are all produces of gem materials. Thinner pieces of crystal opal make the best doublets and triplets. 4 White opal. Gets its name from the white potch the colour forms on or in. Coober Pedy has produced very large quantities of white opal. This opal is much cheaper than the above mentioned varieties. This is partly due to some of this material being quite porous and brittle. However some white opal is still very attractive indeed and some of it is quite stable. 5 Water opal. I have left the Mexican water opal last, partly because it generally doesn't have the fire of the other opal families and partly because I haven't seen all that much of it. I have never been to the areas where it is produced, nor did I wish to leave this important category out. *Please note there are many opal fields in the world but because 90% of the World's production comes from Australia I have concentrated on them. Brazil, U.S.A., Honduras and Indonesia also produce opals.
5. Brightness of colour, play of colour ( what the colour does when you move the stone ) general appeal including patterns or pictures and colour combinations are all determining factors when valuing an opal. When these factors are the same then red will be the most valuable, followed by pink orange gold yellow green and the blue and then purple. Part of the reason for this value scale is that purple is the most common and red the rarest. Just to put things in perspective though, an opal showing very bright or electric blue can be valued as highly as an average red opal all other things being equal!
6. Use your intuition
VALUING AN OPAL Opal Colour The beauty of an opal is in its colour. There are three important considerations: the background colour of the opal (black, boulder, white), the variety of colours visible (a stone with a full spectrum of colours is more valuable than an opal with one colour; red colours are rarer than others) and movement of colour (as the opal is rotated, colour movement is very eye-catching and valued). Opal Clarity A clear face on an opal allows its rich colours to show through. An opal with inclusions (flaws) or opaque patches will not be as valuable as a clear stone because these flows detract from the opal's colour. An opal's colour is highly valued when it is brilliant and has bold, rich tones, when it has depth into the stone and when it is consistent from different angles. Opal Carat Weight Top quality opals command a price per carat comparable to diamonds. Opal Cut Cutting and polishing opals is an art; a good cutter can greatly increase the value of an opal. A cabochon (rounded surface) allows more surface area on an opal. Many Queensland boulder opals are cut free form.
And if you are having any difficulties in pricing opal then please do not hesitate to contact us at Graham Black Opal, as we would be more than happy to answer any question regarding the subject of pricing Opal