We wish we could tell you.

There is no flat price per kilo in shipping. Shipping costs depend on:

1. Location (country)
2. Total commercial value of the order
3. Total weight of the package
4. Size of the package.

As all four factors are variables, it is impossible to provide you with a shipping cost before knowing what your order looks like.

Additionally, prices are constantly changing as the shipping agent is adapting to fuel price changes and other variables.

Finally, shipping goes up when certain holidays (like Christmas for example) are close and goes down aft such events pass. 

However, we can help you with some general information:

Click here to see the video

“All about shipping cost“

Shipping costs per kilo do not have a linear relation with total shipping weight but an inverse exponential one. Meaning: For small packages, you have very high shipping costs per kilo. As the weight of the package increases those costs per kilo first drop very fast. As the total weight of the package increases further, costs per kilo keep dropping but at a much smaller rate.

We have a commercial account with DHL and because we are shipping a lot, the prices we can offer you for shipping are 40 to 50% below the regular prices of DHL and also less than half of what FEDEX or UPS would charge.

Nevertheless, we found that prices for small packages (1 to 10 Kilos) are still very high. We, therefore, negotiated with DHL and we managed to obtain a second discount on top of the already discounted prices in order to help start-up businesses and small clients that do not have the resources for big orders.

Therefore, currently, we can offer you shipping costs that are certainly below the shipping costs other Peruvian providers are able to offer.

So, how could you know how much shipping would be for your order?

We suggest the following:

• Send us your wish list (type of stones, type of products, size of products, and quantity of pieces).
• Having this data, we will elaborate your quote. We will estimate the size of the package and weight of the package. And having all this data we will get you an estimated shipping quote.

Now you can review everything and decide if you want to order.

Please note. We will provide you with an ESTIMATE. Additionally, the estimated shipping quote from DHL will only be valid for three days and might change afterward. Therefore, once we have produced and packed your order and know the real size and weight of the package we will have to make the real shipping quote. Therefore, there might be a small difference between what we estimated and what the real shipping cost will be. We cannot foresee if this will be more or less, but mostly we are talking about very small amounts, because we are quite experienced by now in making our estimates.

If you would like to read in more detail about international shipping costs and how to save money in international shipping we do recommend our blog article “10 ways to tackle expensive international shipping costs“

Sometimes we have clients that become annoyed about the fact that even if we have a very much discounted shipping price, shipping from Peru is still more expensive than from other countries.

Sadly this is entirely out of our control and we are suffering the consequences of such high shipping costs equally like our clients. We are always trying to improve on shipping costs by negotiating better conditions with our service providers, but cannot do more than this.

However we can provide at least an explanation. There are mainly three reasons for the high shipping prices from Peru.

1.) Shipping prices from China (and other countries) are so low because they are highly subsidized by their governments in order to promote export. These subsidies distort the global market and can only be characterized as unfair competition.

2.) We would love to have a Peruvian government that helps its export industry. Sadly the contrary is the case. Instead of acting against 70 % of the national economy being cash-based non-tax paying informal and illegal business, the government charges very high fees to the legal and tax-paying export industry. Therefore Peruvian export costs (customs fees, storage fees, etc.) are amongst the highest fees globally.

3.) Here is what our DHL representative explained to us: “Brazil is a huge economy. In Brazil we (DHL) have 20 planes flying every day full of goods. Peru is a very small economy. In Peru we have only one plane. This plane flies every day but many times its only half full. So the costs of the plane have to be distributed over much less goods and therefore the shipping costs of DHL in Peru are much higher than in Brazil.”

If you would like to read in more detail about international shipping costs and how to save money in international shipping we do recomment our blog article “10 ways to tackle expensive international shipping costs“

Here is what we are doing to help you reducing shipping costs

1. We are always trying to reduce shipping costs by negotiating with our service providers. With DHL we have a commercial account with a 40 to 50 % discount. Additionally we managed to obtain a second discount on top of the already discounted price for packages below 10 kilos weight. And we obtained an additional case-by-case- discount on all packages above 50 kilos. We will keep trying to get you better shipping prices.
2. We are using light weight packaging materials like bubble wrap. We are aware of the fact that plastic trash is a tremendous environmental problem. Sadly however, there are no alternative packaging materials available in peru that would be light weight and have the same cushioning power. The only alternative packaging material would be paper. But paper would increase the weight of the packages and the shipping costs. And its lower cushioning power would probably lead to higher rates of breakage. Both not being acceptable to our clients. Therefore bubble wrap is currently not replaceable. In order to find out how you can help us reducing the environmental impact of bubble wrap packaging please click here.

Here are 5 tips how you can reduce shipping prices:

1. Make bigger orders: The more you order and the heavier your package, the less you pay per kilo.
2. Order at least 5 kilos: In order to help start-up companies and small clients we have managed to obtain a special discount on packages below 10 kilo weight. However, if you make such a small order try to get at least to 5 kg of weight as everything below that still has a very high shipping cost per kilo.
3. Buy more pieces of the same kind: When you buy more pieces of the same kind, we give you discounted prices. Buying 12 pieces of hearts of a certain size from the same type of crystal will be cheaper than buying 3 hearts of the same size from 4 different types of crystals each. This tip does not reduce your shipping costs. But it reduces the cost of your order and therefore reduces your overall costs.
4. Buy smaller pieces: The weight of a stone increases less with its length, but a lot with volume. A heart of 60 mm size has a much higher volume than a heart of 40 mm size and is therefore several times heavier. By buying smaller products you will get more pieces per kilo. The shipping price per kilo will therefore be distributed over more products and this increases your profit per piece and reduces the impact of shipping costs.
5. Buy some crystal jewelry: Jewelry does not add any significant weight to your package and therefore does not add shipping cost. If you have a small order (and therefore a small package with a high cost per kilo) then buying 3 to 5 pieces of jewelry is a great way to counter shipping costs. Selling those few pieces will make you such a high profit that this basically pays your shipping cost and results in all your other products basically comming in for free. 

If you would like to read in more detail about international shipping costs and how to save money in international shipping we do recomment our blog article “10 Ways to tackle expensive international shipping costs“

Shipping costs NEVER include import taxes being charged by customs service in the destination country. Neither we nor DHL can foresee how much a countries customs service will charge.

Even in very well regulated countries like Germany import taxes cannot be foreseen. Our German clients, for example, told us that the import taxes charged do vary on a case by case basis between 5 and 15 percent with no explanation what could cause such huge differences. Our clients do suppose that it actually depends on the criteria of each customs official. 

Therefore we cannot tell you what you might pay. We suggest reviewing the oficial website of your countries customs service in order to find information that might serve you at least for a rough estimate.

However, there are good news for some countries:

USA: Peru and the USA have a signed and implemented Free Trade Agreement. We are shipping with a Free Trade Certificate. Clients from the USA do NOT pay import taxes. 

DHL recently implemented a new internal regulation according to which packages from a weight of 50 kilos on, have to be shipped on wooden pallets.

This regulation aims to protect their employees by avoiding that they have to lift such weights manually.

We are in favor of measures that protect the health of employees. However, obviously such a regulation is a problem in our type of business where even small orders easily reach a weight above 50 kilos.

Having to put those packages on wooden pallets causes additional costs:

• Shipping of 12 to 20 kilos dead weight (no product)
• Cost of the pallet
• Cost of heat-treatment (sterilization) of the pallet

This increases the shipping costs of packages between 50 and 75 kilos (anything above that anyway would have been transported on wooden pallets)

We voiced our concerns about those additional costs which would reduce our competitivmess on the international market. We believe we could come to an acceptable agreement with DHL. We now count with an additional discount on our anyway discounted prices for packages above 50 kilos. This second discount helps reducing significantly the additional cost implied by using wooden pallets.

When using wooden pallets, those have to be heat-treated (sterilized) in order to avoid the transfer of insects, larvae, plant seeds, disease and bacteria from one country to the other.

This treatment is an additional cost for shipping.

We are not charging you:

• for our service to organize your shipping, supervising it and helping you if there are problems with the shipment on the way.
• for regular packaging material (drums, boxes, paper cushioning or bubble wrap)
• for our time when buying wooden pallets, transporting them to the heat-treatment and picking them up again.

We are happy to help you out with all this.

However we must charge you for the following additional costs:

• Cost of the pallet,
• Gasoline and road tolls for bringing the pallet to the heat-treatment plant and picking it up after the treatment was finished.
• The cost of the heat treatment and the certification.

We will add such costs to your bill.

We are in the process to adhere to a number of free trade agreements and becoming a registered exporter with them.

In 2022 we started operating under the Free Trade Agreements of Peru with the USA and with Australia.

USA-based crystal shops are not paying any importation tax when buying from Gemrock Peru.

Australian crystal shops will save duties and enjoy slightly lower GST payments when buying from Gemrock Peru.

In 2023 we are aiming for being recognized exporters under the following Free Trade Agreements of Peru with:

• Canada
• Singapore
• Switzerland
• Iceland
• Norway
• European Union.

1.) For orders smaller than 500.- USD we requiere 100% upfront payment.

2.) For orders between 500.- and 1000.- USD we are flexible. We prefer a 100% upfront payment. But if you wish, we will allow you to pay only 50% upfront and 50% when your package is packed and ready to ship. Please keep in mind, that splitting payments will cause you double bankfees.

3.) For orders above 1000.- USD we require a minimum 50% upfront payment.

After packaging your products we expect the remaining payment plus shipping costs (in case you want us to handle shipping) in order for us to initiate shipping.

Accepted Payment Options

Bank Wire – recommended for all orders above 800 USD

Pay Me – is recommended for all payments below 800 USD. The 5% payment fee will be cheaper than flat fees from bank wires. You can pay with the following credit cards: Diners, American Express, Visa and MasterCard. In order to pay we will provide you with a payment link.

PayPal – is recommended for orders below 500.- USD. For orders between 500.- and 800.- USD we recommend calculating bank fees for PayPal and Bank Wire and comparing whats cheaper.

We are currently not working with PayPal anymore. In a sudden and unexplained decision, PayPal pretends to keep funds for 21 days before making them accessible. This is unacceptable to us.

Cryptocurrency – We only accept cryptocurrency payments in BTC or ETH for the following purposes:

• Donate to our reforestation project in order to make your crystals carbon-neutral
• Buy a Gemrock Crystal-NFT
• Pay us for calculating your crystal companies´ carbon footprint.

Accepted, but not recommended payment options:

Payment platforms in the internet like “WISE” or others – driving to a bank to make a manual bank-wire payment seems pretty out of date, we understand. Paying with your credit card on an internet platform while comfortably sitting in your office or at home comes in handy, we agree. However, this comfort, often comes with a hidden cost, and you should be aware of that:

These internet platforms, in the end, will make a traditional bank wire payment. However, in order to do so they will most likely use intermediary banks.

While the platform charges you a very small fee for their services, they will most likely not tell you that the intermediary banks will charge quite high fees (60 to 120 USD). Those fees will be charged to our account, meaning the amount of money that arrives will not be complete.

When this happens we will write you and ask for paying the balance because we cannot carry such unforeseen fees. As a result, you will have to make a second payment (most likely with PayPal) and additionally carry the payment fees for this payment too. We know you will not be happy about this. Therefore, please reconsider before using such internet services.

Not accepted payment options.

Western Union – In Peru Western Union does not offer the option for Peruvian companies to receive payments. Only for private people.

What´s better, bank wire or PayPal?

For wire payments the banks are charging flat fees, independent of the amount being wired.

This makes bank wires being more expensive for small amounts to be transferred. Therefore we do recommend using PayPal for all payments below 500.-USD.

We did find that for amounts between 500.- and 800.- USD one must calculate and compare the fees of PayPal with the fees for bank wires, in order to decide on a case by case basis what´s cheaper.

For amounts bigger than 800.-USD bank wires are always cheaper than PayPal. We therefore do recommend bank wire payments for bigger amounts.

Who pays the bank fees?

We are expecting you to carry the bank charges of your local bank. Do not charge those fees to us. This would result in us asking for balance payments which will cost you additional bank charges and will delay the dispatch of your goods.

Be aware of the fact that your local bank may use intermediary banks to transfer the money to Peru, but may not tell you about this in advance. If that happens we will not receive the full amount and will ask you for balance payments. This will not make you happy. Please read in the next chapter below about intermediary banks fees and how to avoid them.

We are not obliging you to make minimum orders. But be aware of the fact that if you make orders below 1000.- USD our profit margin is too low to carry bank fees. Therefore we will charge you the Peruvian flat fee of 22.- USD on top of your bill for all orders smaller than 1000.- USD. Also, if you split your payments and those payments in part are each below 1000.- USD, we will apply this flat fee on top of each of your payments.

For payments bigger than 1000.- USD we will carry the Peruvian bank fees.

In order to make your bank wire payment you need to know the following information:

Company information:

Gemrock Peru SAC

General Manager:  Stefan Austermühle

Address: Jirón Arquímedes 163,  15056 Chorrillos, Lima, Peru 

Tax number: RUC 20 60 18 54 504

Phone: 0051 – 99 410 42 06

Email: gemrockinternational@gmail.com

Web: https://www.gemrockinternational.com/

Bank information:

USD account: 0011-0616-0100011610-01

(You pay in USD – do NOT ask for conversion to Peruvian national currency (Soles). If you do that, the bank wire will not go through. You MUST pay in USD)

Bank Name: BBVA Continental

Bank Address: Av. República de Panamá 3055, Lima 27, San Isidro,  Peru

SWIFT CODE: BCON PEPL

In Peru we DO NOT work with IBAN codes or any other format. We still use the above written SWIFT/BIC Code

Not all local banks have a direct link to banks in Peru. Many work with intermediary banks. Many banks in the USA, for example, use Morgan Chaise Bank as intermediary. 

In this case your local bank wires the money to another bank and this intermediary bank wires the money to the Peruvian bank.

This procedure may result in a problem:

By law, your local bank is obliged to make you aware of the fact that they will use an intermediary bank, which will charge additional bank fees.

In practice however, we have seen many cases where local banks do charge our clients a small fee of the local bank, but do NOT tell them that they will use an intermediary bank. This intermediary bank will then charge a quite huge fee of 60.- to 120.- USD to OUR account and your money will not arrive complete.

Please be aware of the fact, that the decision to use an intermediary bank, is the decision of your local bank. We have no influence on that. Therefore those fees are on your side. We cannot foresee, if such fees will be charged and we cannot and will not carry such fees. 

Therefore, if this happens, we will write you and ask for balance payments, most likely with PayPal. Then you will also have to carry the additional PayPal fees.

We know, that this will not make you feel happy.

Therefore, in order to avoid such inconvenience we would like to advise you to always ask your local bank specifically if they will use intermediary banks and how much will be the fee. Do not trust that your bank will tell you by their own initiative.

If your bank tells you that they will use intermediary banks, you have two options:

1. Choose another bank for your transactions that has direct connections to Peru and does not use intermediary banks
2. Tell your local bank that you will carry intermediary bank fees and that those fees should be charged to your bank account, not the recievers bank account.

We are currently not working with PayPal. In a sudden and unexplained move, the company pretends to keep our funds for 21 days before making them accessible. We can not accept this. We are talking to the company in order to find out why (after moving major amounts for five years without a single consumer complaint) Paypal is making this move.

Until PayPal changes this unilateral policy change we are not working with the platform.

What´s better, PayPal or bank wires?

PayPal is charging a fee that is a percentage. Therefore PayPal is cheaper than bank wires for all small amounts below 500.- USD and we recommend using PayPal for such payments.

We did find that for amounts between 500.- and 800.- USD it is convenient to compare the fees for PayPal and for bank wires in order to decide which payment option is the cheaper one.

For all amounts bigger than 800.- USD bank wires are cheaper than PayPal. And the bigger the amount gets the more expensive is PayPal. We therefore do recommend to use bank wires for all payments above 800.-USD.

Who pays the fees?

We do not ask you for a minimum order amount, which is why you can make with us very small orders. However, please be aware of the fact, that by accepting such small orders, our profit margin is so small that we cannot carry PayPal fees. Therefore we will add PayPal fees on top of your bill.

When it comes to big amounts, meaning payments above 1000.- USD, we are happy to carry the Peruvian bank fees for wire payments. However if you would send us 1000.- USD with PayPal, the fees they would charge us would be four times the amount a bank wire would cost us. You will understand that we are not able to carry such a high fee, just because you like PayPal. Therefore, if you choose to use PayPal instead of bank wires for amounts bigger than 1000,- USD, then we will charge those PayPal fees on top of your bill too, sorry. 

How much are PayPal fees?

PayPal advertises on their website that they would charge 5% fees. However, reality shows that they charge in fact 6 %. Additionally Paypal works in Peru on an exclusive contract with one Peruvian bank. In order to use PayPal one has to use this bank. And this bank charges another 2% on top of the PayPal fee in order to make the money available to us. Therefore, in fact, the paypal charges are 8%.

How much time takes a PayPal money transfer?

A bank wire to Peru can be immediately or would take at the most 3 work days, depending on the instructions of the money sender. PayPal transactions do appear immediately on our PayPal account, but are not accessible to us. It then takes another 5 work days till this money is transferred to our Peruvian bank account and becomes available to us.

A final inconvenience when using PayPal

In some countries PayPal requires the money sender to confirm that he has received the product within 48 hours after making the payment in order to proceed with the transfer of the money to us. However, even if we had the products in stock and could send them out immediately, international shipping would not take less than 3 to 5 days. PayPal therefore is asking for the impossible.

Given the fact that we would not ship before the money is on our bank account, this forces you to confirm that you have received the product the moment you make the payment, even if that is not correct. Only this way the money will proceed from PayPal to our bank account and only this way we will actually ship.

Nobody likes to pay taxes, fees, comissions etc. etc., we agree.

Nevertheless, governments have become pretty smart in detecting all those nice little tricks that we used in this industry for many years to save some money. So before you come up with one of those questions and suggestions please be aware of the fact, that:

1. We cannot lower the price of our goods on the export document in order to save you import taxes. The Peruvian export bill is the official document which goes to the Peruvian tax office. The tax office then compares whats comming into our bank account with whats written on the export bill. If there is any difference this automatically results in more than 1000.- USD fines for us. So sadly: NO we cannot do this
2. We cannot receive a payment to our private bank account and then send goods to you with an export bill that shows a lower price. This would result in the same problem like above. So sadly: NO, we cannot do this either.

Crystals are products that tend to break easily.

Sadly, in Peru we have no access to alternative packaging materials that have the same protective success than bubble wrap. All these great new alternative packaging materials made from recycled paper, mushrooms, seaweed etc. etc. are not available in Peru. If we wanted to import such materials, this would greatly increase shipping costs, which is something the regular consumer simply would not be willing to accept.

So here in Peru it comes down to newspaper or bubble wrap. But newspaper just does not have the same cushioning power as bubble wrap and using it would greatly increase breakage during transport as well as it would increase the weight of the package and therefore again shipping cost.

What you can do to help us

We try our best to pack your products in such a way, that no damage may occur. In order to do so we are using a lot of cushioning materials like bubble wrap and reused paper.

However, once the package leaves our production plant and is in the hand of the shipping company we have no control over the way the package is treated by the shipping company, by the Peruvian customs officers or by the customs officers in your country.

We cannot be held responsible for any product damage when you open the package and we will not refund money for damaged products.

Therefore: insurance is highly recommended

Please read all about insurance, its cost and coverage at the end of our chapter on “shipping“.

The other way you can add additional protection to your materials is ordering Deluxe packaging, please read below.

Once, not too long ago, we had the unpleasant experience of dealing with a client that was complaining constantly about shipping prices, to a level where she wanted to save on shipping weight by discarding our proposal to used wooden reinforcement for her package of high value crystals. Also she rejected our suggestion to buy shipping insurance. As destiny wanted, some of her crystal products did arrive damaged as we had foreseen. Now she was angry and complaining about our supposed “bad packaging“. We only could say “sorry, but we warned you that packaging is the wrong way to safe shipping costs“.

Based on this experience we are offering our clients now the option to hire “Deluxe packaging”.

By using the word “deluxe” we are not referring to  an especially beautiful packaging. We are referring to an extra safe packaging, where we will employ additional effort to make our good packaging even stronger. We do this by using double corrugated card board boxes made from recycled paper or by adding internal compartments or wooden reinforcements to your package. This means we also will employ additional labor time to pack your materials, Therefore Delux packaging will come with a small extra fee.

We will suggest such packaging especially when you are buying high value crystals or crystal products that have a higher tendency to break than others. 

Packaging your products this way will add weight and therefore shipping costs to your order. Therefore we will offer such super safe packaging as an option. It is up to you.

Additionally we have learned our lesson and will put even more emphasis on recommending shipping insurance to all our clients.

We always include 100% insurance against loss or damage in our shipping quote to you. 

Cost of Insurance

The cost of this insurance is a flat rate of 13.5 USD + tax for all shipments with a value of up to 1350.- USD.

For shipments with higher value, DHL charges 1% of the product value + tax.

Coverage

If your products are not insured and get lost or damaged DHL only covers 25 USD per kilo and a maximum total of 100 USD.

If your package is insured DHL covers 100% of damaged goods or 100% of the lost package.

The insurance DOES NOT cover any damage that was caused by customs officials in Peru or in your country. We did have once a case where a Peruvian tax official opened a package and apparently tried to find out if there were drugs within our polished pink opal hearts. In order to do so, he apparently used a hammer and chisel to open the hearts. Of course, the tested pieces became a total loss. Luckily we never ever again had a package being analyzed by the same very intelligent customs officer. And luckily DHL covered the damage even if the package was not insured and even if they would not need to cover such damage. But one should not rely on that. Better insure your package. 

1. Upon the arrival of your package immediately review it for suspicious damage on the outside of the package. If you note any signs of damage on the outside of the package, please immediately ask the delivery person to hold the package in his/her hands with the damages being visible and take a picture of the package and the person. This way you can document the state of the package upon arrival. Do this before signing off the reception of the package.
2. If you can note any suspicious damage on the outside of the package then do make a lot of pictures documenting your unboxing process. Make pictures of the inside of the package and of each product before and after unpacking it. 
3. Make close-up pictures of the damage to crystals and crystal products.
4. Inform us about the damage. We will send you a damage report form. Please fill it out and adhere the pictures.
5. We will then file the insurance case for you (for free) and will keep you updated on the result.

There is a long list of stones with a uniform coloring or color pattern where color grading does not occur. Therefore these stones give no reason for disagreement. Such stones are:

• Angelite (only variation are white patches and brown oxidation lines that penetrate the material and are natural unforeseable variations, clients are used too)
• Apatite
• Atacamite
• Caramel Calcite
• Peruvian Rosophia
• Red Aragonite
• Coati Aragonite
• Black Tourmaline in milky quartz
• Black Tourmaline in clear quartz
• Black Jade (occasionally there are a few stones that will result in a polished product with a color being more grey than black. This is a natural variation within the range of the possible)
• Epidote (rock)
• Semper Fi
• Hematite
• Layered Serpentine
• Serpentinite (A material with lots of different green shades from very light to very dark. It may be that some of those shades of green are not your personal taste. However, this stone is like that and different shades of green can not be used for color grading. Nobody in the crystal industry would do that. So when buying serpentinite you will get what comes out)
• Peruvian Black Iris Opal
• Red River Sunset
• Epidote and Axinite
• Epidote in orthoclase
• Rhodonite with black epidote
• Rhodonite with green epidote
• Cherry blossom stone (Cinnabrite) (it may have more or less pink patches or even some grey shades. This however is not used for quality grading)
• Green Jade (as well as serpentinite, green jade comes with many different shades of green. This is not used for color grading.)
• Huanucite
• Aragonite
• Chocolate Calcite
• Leopardite

For none of the crystals or stone types listed above, we make a color grading.

As a commercial client you are buying wholesale from us. We ask you to accept that in each of the batches you will buy from any of those stones there might be and will be minor variations in colors. There might be and will be patches of other colors or materials. This will not give reason for refunds or piece picking. We will not allow that or agree to that.

Some of our clients are not yet aware of the following fact:

There are some crystal types that are actually much more rare than gold or diamonds, even if our society does not appreciate or value it this way.

Actually, Gold is not rare at all. It can be found anywhere in the world and once its melted into a gold bar you cannot tell where it´s coming from.

In stones and crystal specimen this is not a fact. Many mineral mixtures, stone types or crystal specimen occur in very small reserves in only one spot in the world, where they did form under very specific conditions. Specialists like us, who deal in such rare types of crystals, can identify a specific mine or mineral vein a polished product or a crystal specimen comes from just by looking at it.

In such cases one must be aware of the fact, that certain color patterns will change over time even within the same mineral vein according to the depth the mining operation reaches. Also veins may suddenly cut off and never appear again.

All this explanation leads us to the following facts:

There are some crystal types where shapes and color patterns may change over time and never be the same again.

• There are some crystal types where existing reserves are very small and suddenly that particular shape or color pattern does not exist anymore.
• When something like this happens, the price for the remaining crystals with the same color pattern or shape will rise very fast and very steep and you might be shocked about the price increase for such a crystal from one order to your next order. When that happens there is nothing we or you can do about it, other than decide if the product still is worth the price.

In general terms, the common history of such materials is the following:

1. In the first stage a new color pattern or shape appears on the market and is sold very cheap in order to introduce it into the market and make it become known
2. In a second stage demand for such a shape or color pattern may pick up and price may rise a little, but still stays cheap.
3. When demand is high and the stone starts getting rare in the mine, prices will start rising ever faster and steeper.
4. Finally, there will be only a few remains of crystals or rough material, which are now offered for such a high price that in polished products such a rough stone would only be used for cutting jewelry (cabochons) and in crystals it´s the fine mineral dealer, who would sell such crystals to a very wealthy collectors niche.

Stones and mineral types in Peru with such a foreseeable future of becomig rare or disappearing are:

• Most of the crystal specimens
• Chrysocolla (in all its variations of color patterns)
• Pink Opal
• Manganocalcite
• Peruvian Rosophia
• Apatite
• Atacamite
• Epidote and axinite
• Epidote in orthoclase
• Chocolate calcite

Therefore, we are providing you with the following advice for buying those crystals:

• DO NOT EXPECT to be able to buy a certain color pattern or shape of one of those stones again in the future. If you like a certain pattern, then do buy as much as possible of it and stock up as long as its available. Because it will disappear ant then your stock can be sold at a much higher price point.
• DO NOT EXPECT to be able to by such crystals or polished products again for the same price. Price will necessarily rise over time and it will rise a lot. So again, buy a lot of this material as long as the price is low and stock up.

Let us give you a simple example:

There are certain color patterns in Chrysocolla that we could buy six years ago for 10.-USD the kilo rough material. The remaining historic material (no new material of this color pattern is being mined anymore) is now sold for up to 400.- USD per kilo rough. If you would have stocked up this material six years ago, the value of your stones would have risen by now in many thousands of percent.

Chrysocolla is actually always a mixture of several minerals, like chrysocolla itself (cyan to electric blue), malachite (green), azurite (dark blue), tenorite (metallic black), cuprite (reddish brown) and limonite (yellowish). It is also often mixed with white milky quartz or silver-colored metal concentrations. Sometimes there is a lot of lime in it or it´s mixed with brown mother rock. 

Color patterns and combinations change from vein to vein, even on the same mountain flank. They change even within the same vein according to the depth the mine reaches.

Any color pattern will eventually (and often very fast) become completely exploited and unavailable.

So, never do expect to get the same color pattern for a second time or for the same price again.

The only things you can do, are:

Buy as much as possible from a certain color pattern you like as long as it´s still available and affordable. Stock up, because you know now it will disappear and increase in value.

Adapt to a constantly changing offer of color patterns on the market.

Don´t complain about a certain color pattern being unavailable, because there is nothing we could do about it.

Pink Opal is one of those stones, where personal taste makes the price and where prices go criss-cross because of different color taste. Some of our clients do insist on the existence of some kind of industry grading standard that does not exist in a written document but is a commonly agreed opinion, according to them. We allow ourselves to have a different opinion.

First of all Peruvian Pink Opal is very rare and can only be found in a small coastal desert area between the cities Pisco and Ica.

American and Australian pink opals get their color from the presence of manganese. Pink Opal from Peru, however, gets its color from inclusions of the silicate mineral palyorskite as well as some organic compounds, called “quinones”, often found in plants and that enter the stone during formation.

Pink Opal veins are very small and range in thickness between half a cm to maximum 5 cm. Sometimes there are bubbles that may reach 30 cm of thickness but that’s extremely rare.

In general terms, we can say that the thin opal veins show a more uniform coloration and a deeper rose or pink color. The thicker the vein becomes, the more other colors are mixed in and the more color layers the material does show. Now coloration may range in shades from pastel pink to bubblegum pink. Also other colors are frequently displayed in color zones or stripes. The colors you will typically see appear are white, black, peach, and sometimes yellow. Similarly, some pink opals can take on a lavender hue.

Representatives of the industry standard theory argue that mixed colors are the lowest grade material and that the quality grade of the material does increase with saturation and intensity of the pink color, as well as with the level to which the color becomes uniform.

Even if that sounds like being a logic approach, sadly it is not true. In fact, the most intense dark rose colored uniform color IS NOT the most valuable one too many people (we do disagree with that too). It’s in fact much cheaper than the so called “Piel de Angel” (Angels skin) color which is a much softer rose color, similar to a strongly colored rose quartz. This material can cost up to 2000.-USD per kilo rough material in some cases (again prices may vary tremendously for that tone, depending on who is your source for the material and what you are willing to pay.

The same is true for the criteria of variation in colors. There is a kind of Pink Opal that comes as a thicker vein and shows a lot of small layers of all kind of color shades. To many people this materials looks much more attractive than a uniform colored pink opal and it´s in high demand. Sadly this material has become now very rare, so the price for this material is rising, even if according to the industry standard gusy that should not be possible.

Finally, the really white and pale Pink Opal as well as the lavender colored one, often show the irregular appearance of dendritic brown or black inclusions. According to our industry standard guys this material would not be worth a lot. However it is a material in high demand for making beautiful cabochons.

In summary: Pink Opal is not really color gradable. Its price really depends on what you like personally, what you are looking for, what´s available at a given time and what you are willing to pay for it.

The only things you can do, are:

• DO NOT EXPECT to be able to buy a certain color pattern again in the future. If you like a certain pattern, then do buy as much as possible of it and stock up as long as it´s available. Because it will disappear ant then your stock can be sold at a much higher price point.
• DO NOT EXPECT to be able to by a certain pink Opal color pattern again for the same price. Price will necessarily rise over time and it will rise a lot. So again, buy a lot of this material as long as the price is low and stock up.
• Adapt to a constantly changing offer of color patterns on the market.
• Don´t complain about a certain color pattern being unavailable, because there is nothing we could do about it.

Peruvian Quantum Cuatro is a very different story than Chrysocolla or Pink Opal. It actually comes from a single huge quartz body in a single mountain. It is not a vein with a relatively uniform coloration pattern. Instead this huge quartz body is a completely cracked material that requires special knowledge when cutting it, so it does not fall apart completely. Those fine microscopic cracks have been infiltrated by chrysocolla, malachite, limonite and brown oxide layers with give the quartz body it’s incredible and very unique color pattern.

Of course we understand that everybody looks for the most colorful parts of the material. However the reality in the mine looks very different. 90 percent of the rocks coming out of the mine are not very colored but instead it´s clear or milky quartz with a soft hue of color. Only about ten percent of the material is really colorful, at least it appears like that at first sight.

Of course we are trying to preselect only the colorful material when buying rough in the mine. However as this is NOT a vein with a distinct color pattern but a huge irregularly colored body of quartz, even if we select a rock according to the colors he shows on the outside, the reality of this rock will come to light once we cut it open. There is no way for us to know for sure how a stone looks inside. And even in the most colorful looking rocks there are whitish parts with pale colors inside.

Another problem is that the strength of the color comes from the thickness of the stone which is filled with those microscopic layers of color. This means, that when you cut a seemingly colorful stone into smaller objects, the supposed strong coloration will fade. So making a really colorful worry stone or tumbled stone or palm stone out of the very colorful rough material is basically a game of luck.

Given all this problems we are grading our material as follows:

• Low grade: the rather pale and clear quartz rocks and polished products
• Mixed grades (or mine run): we cut the stones at random – in your lot will be a fair number of rather whitish or pale colored material and some really colorful pieces.
• High grade or Premium: For producing this material we will choose only the most colorful looking rocks. Nevertheless, we need you to understand and to accept that even when cutting the most colorful 10 percent of the material, not all of products resulting may not look super colorful, especially not when you are ordering small or thin products like worry stones, palm stones or tumbled stones. It is impossible that your entire lot of products looks like the one or two pieces shown as example on our website. You will always get a range of color intensity. We need to put emphasis on this, so it becomes clear to our clients that receiving a range of coloration patterns is not a case of fraudulent promotion on our website. And we will not refund money just because you think all your pieces in a premium grade have to be dark green and blue. However, very pale colored objects are an exemption within a premium grade, but they are possible.

We are flexible people, so if you see on pictures that we will send before packaging a few pieces in your premium grade that you don’t like, we are happy to exchange them. However, if your picking choice discards too many pieces we will ask you for a 30 percent higher price even on the already expensive premium grade.

Many of our clients are unaware of the quality grading system of Pyrite crystal specimen.

Pyrite quality and price are NOT determined by the size of the stone (or cluster), but by the size of the crystals on it and by the level of damage on the small single crystals that are making up this cluster.

The grading according to crystal size is as follows:

• Quinoa pyrite – Pyrite with many druses and covered in smallest crystals. Quinoa pyrite shows 1 mm big crystals.
• Chispa pyrite – Chispa has a majority of crystals in the 1-3 mm size range.
• Highlighted spark (Chispa resaltada) – Pyrite with many druses and covered in small crystals of an average size of 3 to 6 mm (comparatively the size of a rice grain).
• Regular Cocada – Pyrite with many druses and showing a high number of crystals of an average size of 6mm to 1 cm. Not all the crystals on the rock have to have this size. Many times bigger crystals are surrounded by crystals the size of spark or highlighted spark.
• First class Cocada – Pyrite with many druses and covered in crystals of an average size of 8mm to 1.5 cm
• Cubes – Crystal size 2 a 5 cm. This size class and higher is commonly sold as crystal collectors piece.
• Massive Pyrite – “Massive pyrite” in fact is the interior of big broken Pyrite cubes. The cubic pyrite crystals are grown masses that have no druses inside. They are sold from minimum sizes of 3 cm diameter that compare to a small Peruvian lemon. Massive Pyrite is comparatively rare and therefore sold at higher prices than pyrite with druses and small crystals.

An additional grading based on level of damage divides the bulk material from the collectors´ material.

The first two of the above listed quality classes (quinoa and chispa) are only classified as bulk material and are the two quality levels that are most commonly used for the cutting of polish pyrite products.

For all the following quality levels (Chispa resaltada (Highlightes spark) to Cubes) there is a bulk quality and a collectors´ quality.

The bulk quality in each level is characterized by showing only one or two faces (sides) of the cluster with good crystals while the others sides might be break off surfaces or be highly damaged. If the entire cluster shows crystals on all sides than many of the crystals in the bulk material are damaged.

In a collectors class nearly the entire cluster is covered on most of its sides in beautiful undamaged crystals.

Prices for the material are much higher for collectors’ class than for bulk material. Collectors´ class is sold by us in small presorted flats and clients have to visually choose their flats in video conferences. Prices are individually fixed for each flat.

Bulk material is sold by the kilo at a much lower price and packaged without the client reviewing the material.

If we are not immediately answering your emails, your WhatsApp or Telegram message, your Instagram, Facebook or TikTok message or your phone call, please have in mind the following possibilities:

• We just may be overwhelmed with answering messages on all those channels and will answer you as soon as possible.
• We are pretty much used to work 24/7 because we have clients in so many time-zones all around the world. However, we still need to sleep a few hours per day. So it might be, we are just unconscious for a short while and will get back immediately after overcoming the morning-zombie-head with a cup of strong coffee.
• A few weeks ago we made a decision to rest on weekends – at least at some of them. So it might be, that we are in one of these no-contact-weekends and will answer you as soon as Monday strikes again. Please keep in mind that your Friday can be our Saturday or your Monday may be our Sunday (Time-zones!)
• We might be travelling in the Peruvian coastal desert or in the Andes to visit mines and buy rough rock or crystals. If that happens we might be out of internet access for even a few days. Please have some patience. While travelling we will review our email and other channels whenever we have internet access and will at least send a sign of life.

If you should not get an answer from us for more than a week, something went wrong. Your message may have ended up in some spam box or something else happened. In this case, please do insist and try again. At best, try again via different channels. As soon as we get your message we will get back to you.

If you submit your email address to the newsletter, you will be notified immediately when new types of stones or new products are added to our site. You will be informed about the gem shows we are participating in and you will be notified of special offers.

This means you get the jump on the casual visitor. Only those on the email list get the opportunity to see the products first and that may be the difference between getting the product or crystal specimen lot you want or losing out to another customer.

We are continuously producing new products.

We find it impossible to keep this website updated immediately and all the time. So there are always some products in stock that you cannot find yet on the website.

If you are looking for something special that you cannot find on this website, please contact us. We are happy to help you if you tell us what you are looking for. We may have it in stock.

If there is a type of product we are not yet producing we are happy to try to deveolp and produce it especially for you as custom made product. Just provide us with a sketch or a picture and we are happy to talk about it.

If there is a type of crystal we are not offering currently, please let us know that your are interested in it. We are happy to keep our eyes open looking for it.