Alexandrite is one of the most rare and expensive gemstones that has grabbed the attention of the gemstone community since the beginning.  Its amazing color changing quality has attracted many gem lovers. However as much as the demand keeps soaring everyday, the supply of alexandrite is somewhat not sufficient to meet the demand because most of the initial alexandrite producing deposits have either exhausted or stopped mining for various reasons.  

If you?re looking to buy alexandrite online then you should be very careful as there are many scams where sellers are trying to cheat buyers into paying more than what is necessary by disclosing misleading information about the gemstone. However buying gemstones online has many advantages at the same time.  As alexandrite is one of the most uncommon gemstones, the collection you get at retail shops tend to be very small and this gives you only a very narrow selection to choose from. If you look for alexandrite online, you can evaluate and choose from a wide range of collection.

eBay is one of the greatest ways to check out natural or synthetic alexandrite. It?s an online auction where you can evaluate and place bids for practically anything, including alexandrite gemstones. You can find alexandrite in the form of loose stones as well as mounted ones. However you should be careful to choose the right seller who will disclose true and relevant information about the stone genuinely. This is why getting hold of a reliable and genuine buyer is of immense importance.  

When buying alexandrite at eBay you can gain some background information on the stone, its history and other important facts such as the color change, etc. These will come in very handy, especially if you don?t know much background information on the alexandrite. Both natural and synthetic alexandrite is available in eBay. 

Synthetic alexandrite is basically lab made alexandrite and you will find this introduced using many words such as man made, lab alex, lab grown, etc. Synthetic alexandrite is not inferior in quality than the natural alexandrite, they will carry the same chemical composition and even the same color change most of the time but you should note that natural alexandrite will always be high in value as they?re very rare. When you?re looking for alexandrite on eBay, the seller should disclose if the stone is natural or synthetic. Please bear in mind that a natural stone measuring well over .50 carat and having good clarity will cost thousands of dollars and you can use this information as guide to the reliability of the stone.  

Make sure you carefully check all the information about the stone that?s given by the seller. Your main concerns should focus on points such as percentage color change (this is the extent to which color is changed in the stone endorsed by the American Gem Lab). If the color change is more intense then the price tends to be high. And also look for information on clarity. 

Alexandrite is a Type II gemstone classified by the GIA and this means that it can have minor inclusions such as silky threads, fissures, etc. Some of the variations of a Type II gemstone clarity are; VVS (very very slightly included), VS (very slightly included), SI (slightly included) and I 1-3 (this means the inclusions could have effects on appearance, transparency and durability ranging from moderate to severe). This information should be revealed for the stone you?re looking at disclosing what exactly is its clarity level.  

Further the most important information to look for other than the ones on the stone is the reliability of the seller. At eBay you can check this out by clicking on the feedback tab. This feature calculates the positive feedback as a percentage of total feedback excluding repeat feedback from the same member in the same week. If it?s close to 100% then it should indicate that the seller has a reliable track record. Apart from this information, make sure you do a separate background research probably on google, etc to find more information.  You should ideally be looking for information such as how long the seller has been trading online, what their shipping policy is, do they offer considerable return period, does the website have testimonials from previous customers, are their products Certified by a reputable institute such as the GIA, etc.   If these questions are satisfactorily answered, then you should have no fear in purchasing alexandrite online from this buyer.