Buying a sapphire without being scammed the honest insider rules

Licensed dealer and cutter from the gem city so the insider rules honestly including my own trades darker corners The specific scams to recognise the tuktuk driver or hotel friend who steers you to a shop is earning commission you pay built into an inflated price decline the introduction find your own shop synthetic lab grown stones (real sapphire chemically but worth a fraction) sold as natural is the big one glass filled or heated stones undisclosed doublets (a thin slice of real stone on a glass base) and the certificate that looks official from a lab nobody can verify How a careful amateur buys safely One buy from a licensed dealer the National Gem and Jewellery Authority licenses dealers ask to see the licence the established Colombo dealers and the reputable Ratnapura shops trade on reputation Two for any significant purchase insist on a report from the National Gem and Jewellery Authority laboratory the state lab you can have a stone independently tested there in Colombo a genuine dealer welcomes this a scammer invents reasons to avoid it Three understand what you are buying ask is it natural is it heated (heating is common accepted and disclosed) is it synthetic get the answers in writing on the receipt Four the price sanity a natural unheated fine Ceylon blue sapphire is expensive for a reason if the price seems too good the stone is heated synthetic or not what is claimed The careful amateur plan decline all the helpful introductions choose a licensed dealer yourself buy a stone you like at a price you can afford to be wrong about and for anything serious walk it to the state lab before final payment or buy a stone that already carries a state lab report The honest truth most tourist gem disappointment is not violent fraud it is paying natural prices for heated or synthetic stones the lab report is the entire protection