Buying emeralds from Mr Emerald?

My wife and I visited Cartagena last February while on a cruise but we were not able to make it to Lee Emeralds store to look at his emerald jewelry. By all accounts I hear that he is an honest businessman and sells quality merchandise.

Now I would like to purchase an emerald ring for my wife for Christmas and would consider buying from Mr. Emerald. However I have a concern about paying for it and receiving what I bought.

My questions is: has anyone on CC ever had any experience purchasing an emerald from Mr. Emerald though emails? If so did the transaction go smoothly?

Thanks

I am a jewelry-a-holic and shop for jewelry often in the Caribbean. Be very careful with Emeralds. They are beautiful but they can be very cloudy to very clear with the price varying greatly. The cloudy, in my opinion, are not worth buying. Know what you want (compare locally for gem rating and price) & make sure there is a guarantee and appraisal with any purchase. After being stung in a couple early purchases, we have found one privately owned jeweler we love (St. Martin) and know we are getting amazing deals that they guarantee 100%. For example - got my daughter a tanzanite & diamond bracelet. In the 1st week 2 small diamonds fell out. I sent it to their cousin in NY, they replaced the diamonds, changed every setting on the bracelet to be more secure and returned it - no charge.

Just be careful & know what you want & what you expect the price to be - then have fun!!

I know he does sell emeralds via email or essentially online. I heard some comments by people elsewhere that his prices are not all that great, and I generally buy only from my own jeweler whom I trust implicitly. That being said, Mr. Emeralds does have some very nice pieces of jewelry. He had some deal going with Oceania, while we were there, and if we bought from him, they would guarantee the quality and weight on anything we bought, but they did not guarantee that you could not get the same thing cheaper! Luckily for me, DW didn't really want anything!!!

I know this is a late reply for Christmas. If you didn't get this for a Christmas gift, I have his card somewhere in the stuff I brought home. Let me know if you need his email address. bbwex at verizon dot net

We booked one of his tours in Cartagena this January. The contact beforehand was excellent. He meets you by the side if the dock to escort you to his van. He disclosed to me beforehand that he owns the emerald store. We made a brief stop there to pay our van fee and were not high pressured at all. Al we were leaving, the HAL group came in. That should say it all.

His tour was great. He lived in America years ago and stayed there. No worries.