January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:46 pm 
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I ended up going to Barcelona for a week instead as the cost for browsing was a bit too high. The lack of gems was more than made up by the great wine and seafood :)

Still, I would love to hear from those who went and how this year compared to years past.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:38 pm 
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So here a little report on the Baselshow, sorry for the delay.

Image

Diamonds: less exibithors this year, even among big companies (even sightholder), market was low, I heard a big melee deal (around 1 million $) was closed with a 3 (three..) $ per ct gain. Many big stones and fancy color on display, few people in booths doing business. I’ve seen many rough (mainly well shaped) sold untouched for mounting and many (nice) included slices.

Colored stones: plenty of corundum as usual, I’ve made some check on common Mong-Hsu heated 1-2 ct rubies and found nice stones starting at 185 $ per ct and up (price has lowered in last months). More than last year disclosure seems the watchword. In every showcase heated and unheated were well-arranged and labeled. Saw very nice Tanzanian rubies, average prices (1-2 ct) for unheated 1500 per ct and up. (for an exceptional 2.04 ct someone asked me 10k $ per ct..). I made a check even for Unheated Mogok (2-3 ct) and found prices still high (3500 and up, average 12-20k$, a very serious seller offered me an exceptional cushion of almost 4 ct at 45k $ per ct….). About this many sellers told me that the price of that goods are still high. Many customers prefer to decrease the stone weight but still asking for that kinda of unheated goods. The main sellers problem, they said is to restock/replace those goods once sold.
There was really a PLENTY of exceptional blue sapphire. Never saw so many and BIG in Basel. I checked for some Ceylon unheated above 12 ct, the price request was in most cases between 5k and 10k per ct.
Many outstanding spinels, paraiba tourmalines, garnets and some other fancy stuffs (special mention for Paul Wild Booth, really worth the visit), prices unapproachables….however I was less interested at those stones and had few time to ask so didn’t checked for average goods prices, sorry.
In this edition i saw far less seller of low end quality goods (far less glass filled compared to Vicenza fair) but, you know, Baselshow is an EXPENSIVE fair, a 40 sq. mt booth can go for 400k $ and with this low business expectation many sellers of this kind of stuffs decided to pass.
i saw very nice Colombian emeralds (oiled only, no resin) in many booths (1-2 ct) asking 600$ and up per ct.

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Jewellery:In the HK pavilion I found very very few people, business has dramatically slowed for cheap goods.
I can estimate a 30-40% business off. A little bit better the branded and high-end.

Jewellery Trend: White gold + diamonds is slowing, yellow, but mainly all the red/pink tones are in high rise coupled with colored stones. I saw even new materials/techniques like outstanding pieces of CASTED titanium.

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Vintage-antique Jewellery:
Special mention for Faerber, hall of elements, 3.0. One of the finest showcases of antique jewellery I ever saw. Side by side outstanding pieces by, Mauboussin, Van cleef & Arpels, Cartier, (among other pieces an incredible mystery clock in his original box), Boucheron, sometimes uniques like a gorgeous necklace plique-a-jour enamelled by Fouquet, Bulgari, Verdura, and so on. I stood there admired at least 30 minutes….

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Tools – Machinery:The ONLY pavilion full of people, I was impressed.
Many compact prototype machines (resin-laser) at almost “affordable” prices, (20k $),
Very nice the new matrix 3d 6. cad modelling software, although a little bit off of my capabilities (7500 $). Sooner or later that will be the standard in prototyping and we (old goldsmiths) will be displayed as a curiosity in a museum…

About gemlab: Actually in Basel there were 4 of the big lab present.
Gubelin and SSEF have an express service for certification within 24 hours.
IGI Antwerp and HRD have only booths.
I went to the SSEF and talk with DR Krzemnicki who kindly promised to send me a little fair report after the fair’s end.

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Here is what I had received from him a couple of days after the fair is ended.

Dear Mr Scarani,

This is my short comment on the Basel Show 2009:

As every year, the Basel Fair 2009 has been a very busy week at the booth and in the laboratory of the SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute. As we are offering our gemstone testing services for the trade, many exhibitors use our fast track service to certify their most valuable goods during the Fair. Our turn-around was much better than expected, taking into account the current economic situation. Although we cannot compare this year with the booming situation in 2008, we are more than satisfied with the Basel Fair 2009. Apart from many exceptional coloured stones, which we received for certification, the SSEF tested many pearls this year, including some very outstanding natural pearl necklaces. This underlines the fact, that natural pearls are recently finding again much more interest in the market.
Our clients confirmed that in times when buyers are very conservative with investments, a reputed certificate may make the difference whether they can sell their jewellery or not.

It was a great pleasure to meet you during the Fair, if you can send me the photo we made be e-mail, would be nice...

I hope to have more time in future to participate more actively in your gemmological forum and I am very open for any information you require related to our gemmological research and knowledge.

with my best regards

Dr. Michael S. Krzemnicki

Deputy Director
& Director of Education
SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute


Then I went to the IGI Antwerp booth to talk with good friend Roland Lorié, CEO of IGI, asked to him the same report and here’s what I got.

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Dear Alberto
IGI participates to the basel show in order to familiarise the jewellers and consumers with diamonds and colored stones. And this through certification of gems and education. in the last 10 years demand for certification has increased tremendously and in a period of crisis like now, where every purchase is thought over very carefully we saw during the Basel show, more interest in our products than ever before. The consumer wants to be assured of what he/she is buying and the jeweller understands that today more than ever he has to gain the trust of the consumer. Education through our gemological school and certification are today key elements in order to make a good sale and being sure that the customer will not be disappointed and will come back.
so even that not to many sales where done in Basel, the show was good for IGI.

best regards
roland


GIA has a little corner booth in a strategical position in the pavilion 2, only few books (the synt, treated and fancy G&G trilogy) and G&G subscriptions there.

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HRD became more realistic and moved from his historical booth to a little hidden corner, no gadgets this year..
Sorry but taking photos inside the fair was FORBIDDEN, I took few by my mobile phone
Looking at official numbers released this year there were 1952 exibhitors (2087 last edition), visitors were 93000 (107000 last edition)

Image

The Alps, heading back to Rome
ciao
alberto

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Last edited by Alberto on Thu Apr 09, 2009 3:53 am, edited 6 times in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:48 pm 
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Thanks for that. Always good to read reports like these.

let's hope that Basel 2010 will see more buyers due to a lift in 'consumer confidence' and that your report will then include a picture of Mr Scarani standing next to a long haired blond fella ;) It would be good to roam those stands with you...


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 3:02 am 
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Tim wrote:
let's hope that Basel 2010 will see more buyers due to a lift in 'consumer confidence'

I think we ALL hope so..

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and that your report will then include a picture of Mr Scarani standing next to a long haired blond fella ;) It would be good to roam those stands with you...

definitely good :D however i'll be there for sure (as usual), would you? :wink:
ciao
alberto

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 1:54 pm 
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Very nice report Alberto, thanks for taking the time to share with us... :)

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 2:21 pm 
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Thanks, Alberto. Very good report and I love the photos!


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:00 pm 
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For those of us who feel like booking early: http://www.baselworld.ch/go/id/ss/lang/eng/

Tis all planned like clockwork :shock:

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:52 am 
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just a sidenote on average expenses there...
prices expressed in US $ at the today rate exchange

flight: Easyjet low cost Rome-Basel-Rome flight for 2 persons, booked online 4 months earlier: 230
parking: 17.40 per day
1 day fair ticket: 52.19
lunch at fair self service: (poor quality IMHO): 26.09 and up
IF you want to have a lunch outside the fair prepare yourself to a bill often over 60 per person
Expresso: 3.91 :shock: :evil: (in Italy 1.17)
wardrobe: 1.74 per day. highly suggested, outside there was 2-4 °c, inside, mainly due strong illumination, more than 22°c
rent a car: Avis for the best price, the base car (group A) for 3 days booked online 4 months earlier: 182. GPS is highly reccomended, if you don't have one yours (i prefer to use mine) it's available for a little fee.
hotels: since Basel is on 3 country border it will be good to book in Germany or France (30 min far from the fair). Switzerland prices are EXPENSIVE. i usually stay in Germany and payed 143 for a double bed/day. If you prefer to book in Basel expect to pay double or more the price.
Important!
if you want to get those cheap quotes about flight and car rental you have to book&pay online the more in advance you can. i usually start to check easyjet website around the end of november so i can book as soon as the flight is scheduled. once the flight is booked i immediatly book (and pay) for the car aswell.

Hope this could be useful, Baselworld, even in bad economy times really WORTH the visit (for sure the best fair in Europe, i prefer it even to Hong Kong, dunno Vegas or Tucson, still never been there) , mainly if you're interested in POLISHED stones of every kind, every size and quality, WATCH, jewellery and tools/machinery.
ciao
alberto

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:35 pm 
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Nice report Alberto, Thanks

It all seems very high end. Do they have stalls with cheaper stones too?

Maybe next year I'll make the effort too...sure would be nice to meet up with you. (Watch that Tim guy, he's a corrupting influence whenever beer is nearby)

Be well Alberto

Frank


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yeah... did you notice he didn't mention beer prices in that last list...

I wonder if there is any around... :?


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:45 pm 
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Tim wrote:
yeah... did you notice he didn't mention beer prices in that last list...

I wonder if there is any around... :?


Here in the states ( i dont know about elsewhere) we call such a situation a BYOB one. Bring Your OWN Beer. :)

J-

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Frank wrote:
It all seems very high end. Do they have stalls with cheaper stones too?

actually you can find everything there. cheaper stones sellers are usually concentrated in the Hall of Universe pavillion.
Quote:
Maybe next year I'll make the effort too...sure would be nice to meet up with you.

yeah, it would be really GREAT! :D
Tim wrote:
yeah... did you notice he didn't mention beer prices in that last list...

I wonder if there is any around...

yes of course (Basel is on the switzerland/germany border :wink: ), however so much thing to do in a 3 day tour in the fair (remember, there are 2000 booth to visit there), not so much time for beer, although, with a couple of gemmo friend things could be slightly different....no? 8)

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:26 am 
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Hello everyone, I apologize for the absence but I had problems with my computer.
I found very interesting the article of my friend Alberto about Basel, and so I hope to go myself next year.
See you soon,
Gennaro


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