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Our guarantee

   If you see something you wish further information on, have some questions in general, or have any suggestions, please write us at this email link. I really like to hear from visitors and customers. Your questions or suggestions can help us grow. Besides, it really gets slow around here at times. So, even if you just want to send me charity mail, I can accept that. Thanks for the visit.

  Please be patient with us. We are currently building on these pages, so some links might not work right, or not be complete at the time of viewing. We decided against putting pages here that scream, shout, blink, play music or bombard the eyes with tasteless page layouts and color schemes. Hopefully, my page designs are pleasing, and don't chase anyone off. We prefer to let our goods and services speak for themselves.

                                                                                                              Gary & Liz Bowen

gbowen@gatewaygems.com

   We are a privately owned lapidary business and seller of imported gems, gemstone carvings, gold, Objects de Art, and gemstones I cut myself. As manufacturers and wholesalers we bypass the middle market and offer our goods straight to the buyer.

  About myself

   I am a professional gemcutter and lapidary. I have been custom cutting gemstones since 1986, and have spent the last 15 years examining gemstone rough material to determine how to cut the best gem possible. I use only the best equpment and materials in my trade. That experience has taught me to be an expert in evaluating rough gemstones, and cutting fine finished gems. If you want to know more about my cutting services, please go to my gemcutting services page.

    I present that professionalism here, as all gems are evaluated by myself for suitability before being offered for auction or sale. Any found with obvious nicks, dings, or scratches will not be offered here. Inclusions or flaws will be noted as such. My professionalism also allows me to negotiate the best deal I can get on my purchases from the overseas exporters in order to pass on these below retail prices to the customer. All item descriptions are accurate to the best of my professional judgment.

  The difference

   Direct import sales is what separates Gateway Gems from the many retail mall stores, jewelers, and specialty shops one may encounter in daily life, or on the Web. Many times the above goods pass through some intermediate handling that in the end results in prices much higher than offered here. Some of our customers include jewelers and jewelry designers. We encourage all visitors here to comparative shop. We don't claim to beat everyone's prices; just that it's going to be hard to find better.

   Our gold is purchased directly from the manufacturers or importers. Both Italian and American manufactured gold chains, earrings and charms can be found here. Some finished pieces can occasionally can be found here as well (I make these up myself). All are 14K unless listed otherwise. We sell by the gram weight. Most stores will not tell you this weight. This is because you can then calculate the actual price per gram and compare (which is the last thing they want you to do). Again, we offer them direct at wholesale markup. Prices are set at the gold market quote at the time it was purchased.

   All our gemstones are closely examined for authenticity before being offered for sale. Any synthetic stones offered will clearly be stated as such. All karatages of gold offered for sale are examined for proper trade marking and karat stamping, according to the FTC guidelines.

   All sold items will be shipped insured with a signed receipt made out to the purchaser, unless otherwise requested. If there are any problems, please contact me. Returns are OK if not satisfied. As our customer you are important. Please read our return policy for more info on this.

   We hope that anything bought here will not be returned, but sometimes these things happen. No problem. We are sorry, but the purchaser is responsible for return mailing charges. However, if a return is made, and you wish to purchase something else later, remind me and I'll try my best to give a bit of a discount to offset your previous cost. I'm sure that would be fair to each of us. I really want you to be happy and feel you were dealt with fairly at Gateway. Your trust counts.

   Gateway Gems has added a shopping cart for your convenience. It is easy to use and very versitile. It can handle any type of order. Just use the 'add' button for any item to place your selection into the cart. It will keep track of your shopping while you are anywhere on our site. You can even delete items one at a time,or clear the entire cart.

   If you want to use your credit card, just enter the card information in the 'check out' form and it's done. All card transactions are very secure, as the transaction never leaves our site to go to some other processing center somewhere else on the WEB. Which could conceiveably be intercepted.

   If you are a member and want to use PayPal, just enter the word 'paypal' where the card number would go. We will process your order and send you a PayPal invoice within their secure area. If you aren't a member, and want to join, use our link on the main index page to go there and join.

   Checks or money orders? Easy enough. Just place the desired method of payment into the card number area. I will get your order together and contact you by email to confirm the order, and arrange for final processing.

   Thanks for coming by and visiting. We hope you like our cart system. GWB

   You may also use your cards in our online ejewelry® catalog of over 22,000 gem & jewelry items. Please see our on-line catalog information area for further details about our affiliation with the internet's largest on-line jewelry catalog.

   Any questions? Please contact me here.

purchase@gatewaygems.com

    Any email notices of sales or promotions will only be sent to those customers that request it. "Thank you" email notes or snail cards is the only liberty Gateway gems takes in this area. Naturally, we reserve the right to occasionally drop the "howdy" note once in a while (without promos).

    Credit card numbers or bank checking account numbers are the property of the customer and the banks. Gateway Gems does not retain this information in its records. Any printed reference is blacked out. Any private email or secure order form reference to these numbers is deleted from computer records. This is done once all transactions are cleared and final. The only exception is by request from the customer to keep them for reference. These will be kept in a safe area.

The lighter side of paranoia

    Gateway Gems also promises that any private information such as favorite colors, GPA, SAT scores, shoe sizes or plushy toy preference is safe with us. We also will not attempt to "guess your weight".

   All joking aside. We are serious about your privacy. Gary W. Bowen

   Gateway Gems Ejewelry on-line catalog on the Internet, offers you over 40,000 gift items to select from. These include jewelry, precious gems, watches and crystal figurines.

   While browsing the catalog, you can discover hard to find, unique pieces of jewelry. All items are guaranteed to be in stock, ship the same day the order is placed and come with a 15-day, money back guarantee, no questions asked.

   You can register as a Gateway Gems customer at the Ejewelry website when linking from here, and receive discounts that we have specifically designated from the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Prices (MSRP).

  Whether shopping at our home site or on-line catalog, Gateway Gems strives to provide the best in quality, service and satisfaction. Give it a try. I think you will be pleased with the discounts we offer here and in our catalog.

Please note that the Ejewelry pages are always being modified and upgraded. If you notice a problem obtaining prices, please notify us or Ejewelry thru their "contact us" link there.

  For more information, contact me. I will try to help as best I can.

   Gateway Gems is confident that we have the best pricing on our goods. I have begun this list of auction and retail links so anyone that wishes may go and search and compare. I'm not worried. If there is a better deal than ours, great. But I'm sure that won't be easy to do. The listings here are small, but we're working to make it more comprehensive.

Auctions

   The auctions are actually websites devoted to keeping a list of all the auctions they can. Through them, you can find just about any auction you want. Each has a search engine to help find what you are looking for easier. Please come back if you cannot find a better deal through them.

Bidstream
Auctionwatch
Internet Auction List

Rockhounding & Lapidary Arts

   Rockhounds Information Page    A really nice place to find rockhounds, other information on mineral collecting, lapidary and fossils. Worth taking a look at.

Gemology

   The gemology section is devoted to that science and the lapidary arts. I hope it is helpful in guiding those curious about those subjects to information that helps them make informed and wise purchase decisions. Have fun.

   John Miller, GG  Is a graduate gemologist certified with the GIA (gemological Institute of America). His pages are part of a competitor's pages, but I don't care. He's very knowledgeable and that's what counts.

Why they are superior.

   If you have ever compared American cut gems vs. those cut overseas the difference is obvious. Foreign cut stones are cut by people that work in a cutting house and make about $1.50/day cutting in quantity. And they are usually cut for increased size and carat weight rather than style and light performance. They are also cut by hand, or by a technique called jam pegging (a method involving a board with pre-drilled holes to set the dopped stone at particular angles to the laps). So, the facet angles are usually wrong, not aligned well, and the polish is not great. The result is many times a deep bellied stone with a shallow crown that gives moderate light performance at best. In short, a colored rock. And on darker material this is even more disastrous.

   I do not want to take anything away from these house cutters. Many have spent their entire life doing this. A few can turn out some pretty darn good looking gems, and are considered masters of their trade. But still not as good as our own can.

   American cut gems are made by faceters that take up the art of lapidary for the love of beautiful gems, and to create fine works of geometrical art. Some are better than others, but most will cut superior to the foreign cutting houses. Special care is taken to create a balanced gemstone that uses properly proportioned crowns and pavilions, along with facet angles intended to optimize light return (brilliance). They do this by using the finest equipment available. Initial investments of $5,000 is common.

   The faceting machines are precision made to provide very exact facet angles and alignment. A minimally equipped machine will run about $2,000 plus. It takes years of patience and study (not to mention the cursing and swearing) in learning how to use them properly. I won't get into that, as there are many steps in cutting and polishing a fine gem, and that information alone would require a book (minus the expletives). And that's only the faceting part of being a lapidary.

   That is what makes the difference. The dedication, patience, attention to detail, and the finest equipment make the American gemcutter's finished gems the finest in the world.

   Just so you will know; several countries around the world have banned their own cutters from owning or importing American made faceting machines. Why? The mine owners, cutting houses and governments fear it would disrupt the status quo of cheap gemcutting. Interesting, eh? I got that from a gemcutting friend in Brazil.

Why aren't our gems seen around that much if they're so great? 

   Sadly, several reasons. First is the expense. Most of the fine rough to cut is not located here. It is in the hands of those overseas miners and their cutting houses. What does become available to the American cutter is many times removed from the mines, and is not only of lesser quality, but higher priced. Even worse, those mines that are in the United States take the same attitude. It's cheaper to send it overseas for cutting. Occasionally, though, some decent material can be located if looked for hard enough.

   Second is the time/reward factor. A really fine two carat gem will take as long as 3 hours to cut properly. This is because the process from start to finish is being carried out by one person. Over there it is an assembly line process with one person handling each step. Much quicker even if poorly done. It's cheap production. We're outgunned.

   Last, and most important is the combination of the first two factors with marketing. The typical yield for a piece of gem rough is 25%. That means a loss of 75% of the original material. In order to just break even the cutter has to sell it for 4 times what it was paid for. Since the cost of the rough was higher than some finished goods from overseas, well.... And what of the time involved by the cutter? What is that worth? Nothing, according to those who consider money over quality. That includes most of America's jewelers. Yet, there are those out there that realize what's involved and are willing to pay the extra to get the extra. And many thanks to them.

   That's why a vast majority of the 40,000 or so amateur artist gemcutters in the States prefer to stay that way and do their cutting on cheaper synthetics. It's one way to make a few dollars for their work so they can buy some more rough and cut more gems.

   In conclusion, if you are looking for something special and artistic in a gem, the American faceter is the one to go to. They not only do standard cuts. Many times they will do fancy designs that cannot be found anywhere else, and on request as well. They will appreciate the business, but they will appreciate your interest much more. And you will end up owning a work of art.

Gary W. Bowen
9/9/2000