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buying jade

faraday (213 posts) • 0

Im interested in buying jade, small pieces, but potentially also some larger or investment grade. I'm only interested in premium quality but i don't know how or where. Can anybody give me some pointers about where to buy, how to check quality, and how to calculate price/value? Or any genuine expert willing to sell me a few hours tuition?

StevenZhao (1 post) • 0

The good jade come from Myanmar(缅甸) or RuiLi(瑞丽).Interestingly, the price of jade is not accurate reference.
you can buy some jade at JingXing Street(景星街).

OceanOcean (1193 posts) • 0

There is a jade testing centre in or around the Bird and Flower Market (sorry, can't be more exact than that) where, for a small fee, they will test jade and assess its quality.

OceanOcean (1193 posts) • 0

My wife got some jade assessed there a year or two ago. I think the centre was called "Yunnan Provincial Academy of Jewelry Quality and Technical Supervision". Good hunting.

lemon lover (1006 posts) • 0

Jade comes from mines in northern Mynamar and is the main source of income for both the government of Myanmar and various northern rebel groups to finance their fighting.
Mining has a very bad impact on the environment in northern Myanmar and has lead to flooding and mudslides.
Labour at the mines is often in the form of bonded labour and many workers are heroin addicts who are paid in heroin coming from a common syringe. Many are made addicts. HIV/Aids is widespread in the area because of this.

Jade is a mineral that exist in many forms. Price depends on hardness and clarity and the size of the piece. For none specialist there is no way to determine the real value of jade. There is only one use for jade and that is in the use of jewellery and ornaments. This means that jade does not have any clear defined value like pure gold, silver and platinum. Basically it is what the buyers pay for it. It is therefore impossible to estimate or even guess what the price of jade will be at any given time in the future. Because of the differences in the material prices of one type might go up while prices of another quality go down.
The price of jade is largely determent by the Chinese market (Hardly anybody else buys jade) this means that a disruption of the Chinese economy will have a direct effect on the price of jade. Experts think that jade is heavily overvalued at the moment.

So if you don't mind about armed conflicts being fought (Partly financed by you), environmental damage, bonded labour, forced heroin addiction, HIV/Aids and like to speculate in a commodity with a very unclear future than put your money into jade.

lemon lover (1006 posts) • 0

PS.

About learning to access jade you should do the following:

Go to an expensive jade shop. Let them hand you two jade bracelets, one of 500 RMB and one of 10,000 RMB. Remove the price labels from them and give them back to the seller. You will see that they themselves will not be able to tell which one was 500 kuai and which 10,000.

faraday (213 posts) • 0

Lemon lover: the moral aspects can be applied to EVERYTHING. Even just having the money and not doing anything with it has its moral pitfalls. And i'm not interested in continuing that line of discussion.

Thanks all for the tips, i take them on board and will investigate. However, its my own fault for not being clear, but i am interested in learning to assess myself, i.e. how to use a torch, a magnifier, a scales. Can anybody teach me this?

AlexKMG (2387 posts) • 0

"a few hours tuition?" To be able to determine what jade is worth?

Think more along the lines of a few years. Not even a pawn shop will lend you money on jade as they can't determine if your 10,000 yuan bracelet is worth even a tenth of that to anyone else.

You could always go to Kashgar and take a stroll down the riverbed with some jade expert there. They can tell a piece of good jade from the three trillion river bedrocks which look all like jade to me and you.

faraday (213 posts) • 0

Alex, cheers,
Is that a point-blank "no" from the pawn shops? That does surprise me a little, but not enough to make me lose interest.
In any case, i do hear what you're saying, but I still want to learn what I can - what are the most common flaws, what gives a piece value (or detracts from value) etc. I have seen people arrive to jade shops with a magnifier, a scales, and a flashlight, and I want to know what they're doing (or what they THINK they're doing).

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