How to read an Amazon gem listing
Amazon does not authenticate stones or metals; the listing is the seller talking. Some words on it are checkable when the box arrives, some are claims you cannot check without a laboratory, and some are marketing with no meaning at all. Here is which is which.
Checkable at home
- 925 / S925 / sterling: a silver stamp inside the band or on the post. Look for it. A silver test kit is cheap if you care.
- Stainless steel: does not tarnish over weeks; plated brass goes pink at the edges.
- Size in millimetres: callipers. A 6 by 8mm oval either is or is not.
- Carat weight: a jeweller's scale reading in carats (0.2 g each). Total weights on earrings are for the pair.
- Diamond vs moissanite: a combined thermal and electrical tester.
- Certificate included: it is in the box or it is not.
Claims you cannot check without a lab
- D colour, VVS1, Ideal or 3EX cut: on moissanite and melee these are the seller's description of a batch. Only a report from GIA or IGI, with an inscription matching the girdle, grades the stone you hold.
- Natural: on a cheap parcel, unverifiable; on a single stone, ask for a report.
- CVD or HPHT: both are real lab diamond; you cannot tell which at home and it does not matter for wear.
Words that mean nothing
- Grade A+, AAA, AAAAA: seller-invented scales.
- Diamond-level shiny, high purity, luxury: adjectives.
- "Sapphire ring" with no carat, no origin and no "lab-created": a sapphire-coloured stone. Same for "emerald" and "ruby" in a title at signet-ring prices.
- White gold plated: a thin layer over silver or brass that wears through; rhodium plated is the same idea in a harder metal and lasts longer.
What to do on delivery
Photograph everything before you wear it, run the checks above, and use the return window for anything that fails them. That window is the only protection Amazon gives you on a stone.