My bad experience purchasing and why I am selling some of my jade items

When I first began purchasing Chinese art, specifically jade sculptures, I knew little to nothing. I had purchased some jadeite from a pretty honest art dealer. He told me about how lots of jade is not natural but sold as natural. I learned all the ways jade is faked and he even showed me some highly sophisticated fake jade that he was duped into buying, despite being a licensed gemologist! He offered to send the items I purchased to GIA to have them tested and said if they came out as not 100% natural he would absolutely refund my money immediately. Everything came out great and I was on a buying high.

San Francisco Chinatown antique row, the den of deception

A few weeks later I was in San Francisco and I walked into this art gallery right at the entrance of Chinatown, that incidentally was not run by Chinese. Actually I don't think any of those shops in that area are run by Chinese despite selling a lot of Chinese art.

The "owner"

Anyways, the owner approached us and was slimy as hell. But he was so slimy that he was entertaining so I just went along with it. He took me to what he called the "Asian room", despite 100% of all the things in there being Chinese. I saw a 4 foot tall Afghanistan jade sculpture and it was nothing short of magnificent. It was a beautiful even pale green color, almost white. Translucent. Greasy luster. Magnificently carved. Now, ignorant as I was, I for some reason thought that at the time that only jadeite came in this white color (ridiculous I know). I asked him if it was jadeite. He paused for a second, seemed to think, and said with a heavy accent, "Yes...jadeite". "Wow!", I thought. Such a large and beautiful piece of jadeite. That's unheard of!

I asked him the price. He of course did the classic art gallery/antique store lie by showing me the price tag which was a bajillion dollars, and then quoting me a price that was a small fraction of that. He explained he was converting the second and third floors to condos or apartments or something and he needed the space. He then pointed to the corner where the floors were partially removed, some construction tools could be seen. Of course this was a flat out lie.

Later I even found out through some sources that the store had been using that same line for 10 years. In fact, the person who said he was the owner, and who everyone treated as the owner, was just the sales guy. And the guy they told me was the owner's assistant was actually the owner! I ended up picking out 4 large Afghanistan jade statues from him.

Inside I was still skeptical, but I pushed that way down into the Denial Zone and told myself he just wasn't familiar with these Chinese things and was just an idiot for selling it for so cheap. I did ask him several times, "You sure it is jadeite? It's Burmese Jade. It's from Burma. It has to be from Burma. It's a very specific mineral"; he replied, "Yes, yes! I tell you it's jadeite".   He was just telling me what I wanted to hear.  I don't even think he knew what jadeite was exactly, except that it sounded remotely like "jade".  thinking back, if I asked him if the sculpture was made of bananas he probably would have said, "yes".

So after some more price haggling I agreed to purchase on the condition that if they turned out to not be jadeite he would gladly refund me. Again I asked him several times to confirm he understood the arrangement. He looked me in the eye, gave me all sorts or assurances, and we shook hands.

Ok so I am a huge idiot. Never again will I not get something in writing. I was just naive and could not imagine someone being THAT dishonest. So of course I found out later they weren't jadeite and of course when I asked for a refund as promised a week later he told me the money was already gone; gone to the non-existent construction. He offered to give me some "pieces" to compensate. Well at least he didn't tell me to go screw myself, but I was still angry as hell.

Luckily, when he was writing out the sales receipt I made him write out "jadeite" in the description for everything.  This was my lifeline.  I threatened to sue. He said he had already spent the money so even if I sued there was nothing to collect. My friend with some experience told me these types of guys are so tricky they will pull all sorts of strings with different shell corporations and accounts so that even if I win the judgement I cannot collect any money. He recommended it was better to settle somehow. This is when I should have consulted a lawyer instead of relying on advice from a non-professional, but it was very difficult to get a lawyer to talk to me. I called several and all wanted nothing to do with it.

Because of this we ended up settling on receiving some more items from them and a partial refund ONLY because I had some evidence for something they were doing that could get them in trouble (which obviously I won't elaborate on).

All things considered, I came out with a pretty good deal when comparing what I paid and what I received.  The Afghanistan jade is not jadeite, but nevertheless they are still exquisite pieces of art.

The items I received in compensation are also great, but they just aren't my style and that is why I am trying to sell them.