Earthly Gems Crystals & Minerals Shop Blogearthly gems website admin updates
We recently had an issue with payments via SagePay with an error ‘invalid IP address’ luckily we always offer PayPal as an alternative but if you experienced this problem we do apologise and have created a discount coupon for you, 10% off until the end of the weekend use coupon code gremlin
You may have noticed our address has changed from Peterborough to Market Deeping, a tad safer to cycle from home and greener (in all senses of the word). Sorry we still no longer have a showroom you can visit, but that enables us to provide great quality crystals at great prices.
Sunderland Road, Market Deeping, Peterborough, PE6 8FD
Our shop earthly-gems.co.uk is currently unavailable!
It’s the first time in 16 years of trading online we have had such a major problem.
Our current hosts have suffered technical issues relating to power & networks and the backup & continuity measures they have obviously aren’t enough to prevent downtime.
We can only apologise and ensure you that we’re looking at alternatives.
In the meantime have a look at this large English fluorite formation, I have large hands but it is big and my wrist is still recovering from holding/displaying it in one hand!
We’ve been creating a few videos for youtube so you can see more detail of the products we have rather than just 2-3 photos, what do you think? Are they helpful?
Subscribe to Earthly Gems You Tube channel
‘merchant product team’ and their decision stands, we can’t advertise a sharks tooth fossil because it’s from a ‘shark’ even though it’s a prehistoric relative of a shark extinct some 30+ million years ago.
Apparently it’s extinct but still endangered…
Disappointing from an educational perspective – a fossil being stone created after the original animal(part) has been replaced, the Oxford University of Natural History has an easily understandable description.
This does ask questions, who in Google merchant products team can link a fossil from an extinct animal to a modern day creature?
From an education perspective is that correct?
Does Google consider their customers to be intellectually challenged?
What shall we teach our children about fossils or indeed Google?
But in the end its disappointing that with Google being such a big monolith you can’t reach anyone with some practical sense who could make an informed decision.
I know we fall a little behind on the marketing front and informing you of our news, but we do hope our quality ‘crystals and gem’ products and prices speak for themselves.
However we thought it important especially for fossil fans to know that Google sent us a 7 day warning yesterday for selling fossil sharks teeth(Striatolamia Macrota) in particular this lovely English sharks tooth fossil.
Horrified that we had received such an email especially because it quoted ‘Endangered Species‘
Presuming a little mis-understanding was at fault or perhaps automated scripts I called Google(Ireland) I spoke to a helpful chap explaining that the fossil tooth was probably between 33-66 million years old and was extinct 30+ million years ago, after a slight pause I was asked to hold, then I was told the issue would be passed to the Google products team, so now I’m awaiting a response hoping our account won’t be suspended and that fossil fans of all types whether collectors, interior designers, school children or history fans will still be able to explore natures wonders…
When you’ve been selling online for a few years(since 2000) sometimes
what seemed a good idea then may not be quite so good today…
We used to list our tumblestones
under ‘common’ and ‘harder to find’ and while that could still be the
case our ‘hard to find’ may not apply to customers in the country of
origin etc.
So we’ve now listed them alphabetically and by type so all the agate tumblestones are together under agate eg holly blue agate, tree agate & turitella agate, …all the types and size of amethyst tumblestones are under amethyst, We then have a section for other ‘A’ tumblestones.
Well we’ve had lot’s of azurite sales earlier this year, now fossil, petrified wood seems to be in demand, also crystal balls, we like to keep a good range of spheres in stock and are big crystal ball fans.
Here’s a lovely orbicular jasper ball that everyone here keeps commenting on, it has a lovely range of colour.
Ever popular clear quartz crystal balls, we’ve noticed an increase in the number of glass balls being advertised even with mineral names so beware when shopping for a crystal ball, real clear quartz, amethyst, rose quartz and other minerals are cool to the touch, heavy and may have some inclusions which create lovely rainbow colours(mostly quartz family).
Also on the market are synthesised quartz balls often the weight can vary and tiny bubble like inclusions can be seen.
So be careful sometime the sellers aren’t particularly knowledgeable on their product ranges.
Here’s a beautiful rutilated smokey quartz from Brazil, fine titanium ‘strands’ (also known as angel hair)growing in the quartz create a firework like effect when held to the light.
Rarer still are these small but lovely star ruby spheres, technically called an asterism, the light reflecting from the surface creates a 6 way star effect. Normally these stones are selected for jewellery making and never seen in a sphere.
Changes: We’re going to keep our ‘free shipping over..’ option but have raised the threshold to £25, this will change tomorrow at approx. 10am(22nd May)
We’ve also added another postage option for orders qualifying for free shipping an upgrade to 1st class post for £1.50 ideal if you need it quickly or just can’t wait!
Just select the required shipping service during checkout.
Forgotten or can’t find the right gift?
There’s still time order by 3pm Thursday select Special Delivery and you’ll get it in time for Christmas!
Perhaps some of our recent additions would be a great stocking filler:
…high quality tumblestones
…rare Greenland nuummit
…brown blue tiger eye pebbles
We wish you all a great Christmas!
Here’s the ball in it’s new home, we had to use a pallet truck which luckily was just a matter of rolling the ball from the van onto the forks, then back on the custom stand.
