Gemsicuted

Written by Julian Robov


Twenty Four


It should have been a good day several years ago, when one Pius valued Louis Marty’s stock of rubies at five times its cost, assuring Marty that he could sell and get the money at the earliest. But, he was wrong.

Ten years passed, and Marty never saw Pius again. That experience, and the sheer love for rubies fired his passion to know all about rubies and the dubious characters. He arrived in Bangkok, all the way from the mountains of Switzerland, to make a living working in the gemstone industry, and if he met Pius again, he knew what to do. He loved gemstones only for one reason. Easy money and traveling.

That’s what he was told, before he quit his steady job as a banker. Twenty years of hard savings became the seed capital, to test the waters of the gem trade. He traveled to South America and Africa, several times to study the prospect of starting with the locals. But it wasn’t that easy. There were no schools teaching prospective aspirants how to make heaps of money buying and selling gemstones.

After considerable thought, he decided Bangkok was the place to start. The city was inexpensive and friendly to foreigners. He loved rubies above all other gemstones, because a lot of money was made if the deal came out right. He saw big rubies going under the hammer at the Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses in Geneva for unbelievable prices. Somebody was making big money somewhere. The learning curve came again when he bought rubies at incredibly inflated prices when was taken on a ‘ride’ by a clever tout on Silom Road. That’s where he heard for the first time the name of a town called Chantaburi. The touts kept mentioning it at their shop in one of the back streets off Silom Road.

One event led to another. He went to Switzerland, to see if he could sell the rubies, which he thought he had bought for a bargain. The reply was shocking. They turned out to be man-made glass. He couldn’t differentiate between a good quality red glass and a natural ruby. That rude awakening, and the sensible advice by the jeweler in Geneva, took him to a gem school to learn the basics of how to differentiate real from fake. He was bemused to meet people like him in the school who had lost fifty times more than he had lost. He counted his blessings. As he listened to their tales of how crooked and daring the men and women were, he realized for the first time that making fast money was a joke. If it were that easy then everyone would have been on the bandwagon.

The experience at the school taught him one lesson. Crooks and bimbos were
everywhere. They were international and skilled. Also, good product knowledge was essential. He learned one more thing. COLOR AND PRICE!

The price of rubies fluctuated like hell by its color. Some crazy markets even paid high premiums if rubies originated from certain localities. Now armed with that knowledge and confidence, he decided to return to the same den of crooks and bimbos to buy rubies, and if lucky to meet Pius one day in flesh. He knew for sure Pius had to be where there were rubies, and that was in Southeast Asia. The advice given by a fellow student, rung his ears.

Gemstones never cheated, it’s the people who cheated all the time. There was another twist. This time a fellow student, Christine Pascal, joined him. She too believed working with gems made people creative and independent. She wanted to become a jewelry designer instead of a trader. To achieve that goal, she required good knowledge of gemstones. Rubies became her specialty, because after seeing people pay unbelievable prices for ruby jewelry, she decided jewelry designing as her destined career. Good durability and high hardness made ruby an ideal choice for both, men and women.

In his late thirties, blonde, tall, and comic in character, Pascal had a reason to like Marty. His blue eyes had an attractive texture. They resembled blue moonstones. She loved his humor, and believed if he had the right ruby selling them in Switzerland wouldn’t be that difficult. In fact, she had attended some of his seminars on banking and finance issues. He knew how to finesse a client by his humor and plastic face. Cruising in her mid thirties, Pascal too had an amazing career switch. The banking career made her into a boring bimbo. She wanted to do something different and productive. Gemstones became a possible alternative, and she chose to specialize in rubies, because big investment stones brought in big money.

The chemical match between Marty and Pascal merged them into a different level of relationship. She needed an anchor in her life, and believed Marty to be the right man. After several visits to the auction houses of Christie’s and Sotheby’s it became pretty obvious that any money to be made would be on untreated rubies from Burma. Big ones! The risk was worth the try. The specialized laboratories in Switzerland were internationally recognized, when it came to obtaining origin reports for rubies. They returned together to Bangkok for the treasure hunt looking for big but good ones. The trip to Chantaburi on a Friday morning was the best option so that they could stay the whole Friday and Saturday in the market. Communication was a problem. They were referred to Peninsula Lapidary, a longtime ruby dealer with offices in both Bangkok and Chantaburi. They were given a copy of the rules and regulations regarding the buying procedures and gem testing facilities. Marty and Pascal rented a table. The customs among gem dealers in Chantaburi were quite fascinating. Dealers preferred to employ middlemen instead of trading directly with each other. They gave their goods to many brokers during the day, after receiving inquiries from other dealers or from foreign buyers. The broker then opened the parcel, sometimes a single piece or otherwise. The buyer either refused to bid if found unsuitable or at times allowed selecting part of it, and rejected the rest. Once the buyer decided to bid, they placed either the single piece or the parcel under a paper wrap quoting their price signed, and then sealed by a cello-tape to avoid tampering. The ritual was done in front of the broker who then took it to the owner for consent.

On a bad day, the brokers were forced to run countless times before the deal went off. While on a good day, in a matter of seconds or at the most before late evening a deal was struck drawing his commission from either side, unless specified. The company provided one of their assistant’s, Kamal, to help interpret asking, bidding, and transactions prices. Marty instructed Kamal to write on a piece of paper the type of rubies they were looking for. It was good quality rubies above 10carat. Several runners (go-between) thronged to their table opening stone packets of rubies of various qualities, or at times single stones.

Marty had a cutout of a 31 plus carat Burmese ruby from a Christie’s catalogue to compare the ones arriving on his table. Though unprofessional, he had no other choice. Having a natural ruby of that size as a master stone was difficult to find. If available, he was determined to obtain one. He knew from insider information that big ones brought in huge profits if the specialized laboratories in Switzerland determined the origin of the rubies. Lighting was a problem too, but somehow he calibrated the different color shades of the rubies under a type of fluorescent and incandescent light set up on the table. To his dismay, several synthetic flux rubies kept arriving indiscriminately. They weren’t that lucky this time. The brokers just didn’t have the ones that Marty and Pascal was looking for. But they knew from experience that patience was of the utmost importance, when it came to obtaining big ones. Purposely the real owners of the rubies at times refused to release good quality rubies of big sizes. Creating artificial scarcity was a common ploy among the top dealers of Chantaburi. Like the biblical saying, they just wanted to avoid casting pearls before swine. Once convinced of a serious buyer, the clients were invited to their quiet office for that special look. Marty and Pascal waited.