Aussie Sapphire

When we first started out selling on the internet, we did quite a bit of selling on Ebay while we built up some brand recognition for Aussie Sapphire.  While it is a minefield buying gems on Ebay, we soon found that in terms of rough sapphire, buyers were starved for quality and we were very proud of our feedback.

However, since the last major website upgrade and continuous tweaking to improve the site, we find that Ebay just doesnt fit with our current strategy.  Our website is performing very well – far beyond our initial expectations and is ranking well on searches. 

Most importantly, we strongly disagree with how the company is being run these days with almost all recent changes severely affecting sellers, annoying buyers and doing nothing to fix the very real problems that Ebay is experiencing.  The continuing ACCC/PayPal only debacle being just one example of absolutely idiotic corporate management by Ebay.

Therefore, we have just closed our Ebay Store and will be running only occasional “Buy It Now” listings as promotions for our website.  If you are a regular customer, you wont need to worry about these as in almost every case, you’ll get a better deal buying direct from us.  It costs us money to list and sell on Ebay and we would much rather pass these savings on to our customers so make sure you browse our website for full inventory and better prices.

•   Current Ebay listings for Aussie Sapphire
•   The Aussie Sapphire website for everything gems/lapidary
•   Aussie Sapphire e-catalogue (abbreviated product price list)

The e-catalogue is a brand new feature – we havent even added a link to this yet on the website (coming soon).  This allows you to load a separate page listing all the products/prices in a printable format – you can use the drop down box to select a category if you want to go straight to a specific category.  There is a choice of viewing products with or without a photo and short description.  This will be the basis of our upcoming catalogue but feel free to use the electronic version in the meantime as this will always be up to date.

Most of our regular customers will know that we have reduced our Ebay selling significantly since the last increase in fees – quite simply, we can offer you better prices direct from our website if we dont have to pay Ebay their cut as well.

However, we do still run the occasional special as a way of gaining new customers who may not have discovered our website yet.  Unfortunately, the latest move by Ebay has caused more turmoil on the site.

For those who havent caught up with the controversy, Ebay will be forcing everyone to use PayPal as the only payment option – no longer will buyers be able to send cheques, money orders or use direct deposit.  On a practical level, this is taking choice away from buyers to use a payment method that is most convenient or feels most comfortable for them.   While Ebay claims this is done purely to protect buyers, the fact that Ebay owns PayPal clearly indicates that it is simply a scheme to increase their own income at the expense of choice for buyers.  Clearly an abuse of their market power to reduce competition and force up prices.

The facts:  Ebay charges for every listing, they charge a commision on every sale, they receive a further commission from every PayPal payment, they receive interest from funds held in PayPal accounts (account owners receive no interest), they charge for withdrawals for withdrawals from PayPal accounts under $150.   Foreign currency conversions are extremely expensive and their credit card commission is quite a bit higher than standard merchant facilities with Australian banks.  If you pay through PayPal from your bank account (rather than your credit card), this is an e-cheque and can take up to 7 days to clear before the seller can despatch goods! 

Seller protection (against fraudulant chargebacks) is unavailable for sales outside of Ebay and highly restricted within.  Buyer protection is not superior to that offered by banks through your credit card and you are charged when making a claim so dont be fooled into thinking PayPal is safer than all alternatives.  Weigh up your situation and decide what suits best for you.

Aussie Sapphire is happy to receive PayPal payments – although it is the most expensive way for us to receive payments, we are happy to provide this service to those who find it convenient.  However, we have many customers who prefer to use offline payment methods and we strongly believe that our job is to make it easy for them too.  Unfortunately, these people will no longer be able to use Ebay – we suggest you come to our website where prices are cheaper and we’ll do everything we can to make your shopping experience a pleasant one.

Although Ebay regards this as a fait accompli, we do still have a chance to give an opinion on this.  They have applied to the ACCC for approval of the policy – we have just a week or so to submit an opinion on how this will affect sellers and buyers.  See here for more information on how to make a submission.

Aussie Sapphire will be making a submission that we believe there is no valid reason for Ebay to be allowed to reduce choice for buyers while offering nothing to sellers and buyers in return.  If you believe in freedom of choice, please make a submission also. 

Still reviewing whether we keep selling on Ebay past June – we’ll see how the dust settles I suppose but feeling really upset that we cannot offer buyers the same kind of service that we can from our own website. 

Cheers for now
Andrew and Leah Lane (Aussie Sapphire)

It has been quite a while since we ran any Ebay auctions for sapphire rough but we thought we might put a few on just for fun.  This is a great opportunity for all cutters and collectors out there to secure some nice Reddestone sapphire at great prices. 

Check out our current auctions here.

This lot includes a few nice blues and some good parti (yellows) sapphires – photos for just two of them are included here to whet your appetite:

It is obvious from talk around the traps that the supply of good gemstone rough is generally becoming more difficult in most markets.  There are a few reasons for this but the end result for cutters everywhere is prices are going up.  As always, you have to pay well for good rough – expecting to get the best rough for super cheap prices will most likely leave you disappointed. 

However, as a promotion, we do run these 99 cent auctions from time to time, so you might as well try your luck.  You just may get a bargain price.  Still some good rough on our main website and more to list so make sure you check these out also.

Have still got some good tourmaline rough in stock so check out these listings or contact us if you are looking for something not yet online.

cheers for now from Andrew and Leah (Aussie Sapphire)