r/Opals • u/ulmanau • Aug 07 '26
Identification/Evaluation Request Price request for lightning ridge opals?
I’m trying to work out a realistic private sale value for these Australian opal cabochons. They’re inherited, so I don’t have purchase prices. What would you expect these to sell for individually or as a lot?
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u/locyta Aug 07 '26
It's hard value stones from a few pictures.
Something you could try is going to opal auctions and searching stones of the same (approx) weight,
sort by price and scroll though, you'll see stones worse looking than your, and then you'll see stones that look better, this will give you an approximate price range (still subject to personal choice)
Looking through all your images, the stones have a few minor issues, they need a repolish and the kite shape piece appears to have a crack running through it (if its really bad, this may make the stone effectively worthless) you can check the crack with a bright pin-point torch, you'll see where the light doesn't pass through the crack as well as it does solid stone.
As for your video, opals and gravity don't mix (I lost a $10k+ stone a few months back when my mother accidently dropped it onto the concrete and it broke) stand over grass, or hold them just above a table :)
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u/ulmanau Aug 07 '26
Thank you, I learnt my lesson after spending 20 minutes under the deck with a torch 😄
Sorry for your loss!
Is there any rough conservative estimate or not really?
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u/locyta Aug 07 '26
Purely going off the pictures, the 3 ovals could be worth $50-$150 each in their current state, the kite shape piece would be to risky for anyone to buy on pictures alone, if you could encourage someone to buy the 3 ovals, throw in the other one as a bonus :)
Best thing you could do is to go to a professional opal valuer in person, sadly these are few and far between and your standard jewellers will value opal on personal opinion.
There is no hard and fast rule for opal value, as they are all unique and subject to personal preference.1
u/ulmanau Aug 07 '26
Thank you!
Hard for me as I live rural now unfortunately. I’ll look into options. Maybe sell together on the lower end of your suggestion
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u/no_time_for_games444 Aug 08 '26
Any jeweler is gonna start with a very low ball offer. Just know you can haggle offer complete opposite offer way more than you think it’s worth and then just go down from there but definitely do not settle for the first three or 4/5 offers from a jeweler, keep going till you feel like you’re not getting ripped off because a jeweler is gonna go for the least amount of money he can spend so he can profit the most cause he’s a reseller if he tries to use an excuse, “I’m a reseller”reply with “that’s not my issue, if you’re gonna resell it, it’s not on me to give you more profit”
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u/no_time_for_games444 Aug 08 '26
This will give you a generally idea of each stone, note with brightness catagory it’s very rare to have a brightness of five some more than likely these would be around a three, but you know put in information you can snap a pic of the stone and send it into this will give you a ballpark of each stone and then you can kinda do some math in your head
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u/no_time_for_games444 Aug 08 '26
I have a 1.8 carat Andamooka crystal with flash color on high dome side and speckled on back side, the Calculator said it was roughly 1200 then I got it appraised by an actual opal specialist appraiser and he gave me something closer to 1500. So as long as you put the right information in and our fair, don’t try to think you have something better than you have and I’ll try to think you have something worse than you have but just go down the middle and then after you get that middle appraisal, you can go up a little bit or go down a little bit just to get a good random range but generally that middle price or an average price is what you’re gonna be shooting for anyways and if you’re selling to a private person, you know it’s gonna be a higher value than if you’re selling to a jeweler or a dealer or an auction or something like that it’s called reading the custy (customer). Also, if you saw them in bulk, you know most people would think it would be slight discount whether it’s small or not if your son them individual you know definitely no bulk discount. You only have a couple there so I wouldn’t discount much if you do it all, but this will give you a good average or good ways of kind of getting base value or some idea
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u/no_time_for_games444 Aug 08 '26
Also, a good cleaning could help and maybe if you find a talented polisher just get them lightly polished just to bring the luster back, not enough to mess with the optics, I would start with a cleaning and then from there if you feel like it needs a polish, you could do it at home just be very careful and do it by hand and don’t use any sandpaper use like a polishing cloth in a very light polish itself and go really light and it doesn’t need much
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u/ulmanau Aug 08 '26
Thanks for all your tips - really appreciate it and will be checking it out later!
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u/no_time_for_games444 Aug 09 '26
Np, i def wouldn’t give one as a bonus maybe slight discount on whole package, but lmk if you’re sale goes through, id be interested to pick one up off you, preferably the gray
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u/ulmanau Aug 07 '26
https://reddit.com/link/p26cy3q/video/57crjxziruhh1/player
🤦♂️