Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

Hello everybody.
I just discovered my new hobby and this forum.
Bought a small lot of rough opals from lightning ridge and started cutting and polishing.

I will just attach few pictures and would be grateful if someone could give a rough guess on what the value might be per carat or any suggestions what I could create from it.
All pictures taken dry in normal sunlight with smartphone.

Hi AEV, and welcome to the forum. We're always delighted to help newbies whenever we can, although I'm not the one to answer the values question. But I will say the colors in that first one are spectacular even though the pitting detracts from it. I'm not too partial to white opals, but that last one is a very appealing formation, and it looks like you have a pretty good polish on it, so kudos.

Are you going to try cutting Ethiopian opals, too, or stick with the Australian? And while I'm asking, what part of the world are you in?

Again, welcome to the forum. After one more post you'll have full run of the forum.

Thank you.
I'm considering Ethiopian too but heard the Australian are more valued in general thats why I started with them.

I moved to canada from germany 8 years ago.
So everything has to be shipped to me.
Bought the parcel through ebay.

Oh good, we have quite a few members in Canada.

Australian opal commands higher prices, so many cutters start with the lesser priced Welos even though they're a totally different kind of opal with their hydrophane nature. With a lot of Australian material you have to worry about cutting thru the thin color bar, but with Welos not so much, plus Welos can be faceted like the one in my avatar. I'm sure you would enjoy cutting them, too, so if you come across a good deal on rough you might consider giving them a try if only to see the difference.

Welcome to the forum!

Hiya AEV. The problem with E opal is the ash pits that usually go in behind color so bright you cant tell whats in there first. And with opal that has clay, sand or pits, you never know when the next one will start trying to grind out the surface one. On the less than smooth oval cabs you are better off carving or leaving them big "picture" or "fun" stones and wire wrap or custom set them for less. I usually go on Opal Auctions to look for retail prices and EBAY for whole sale prices and selling yourself hope for half of that, but dont be giving it away for much less than EBAY and on both sites ignore the prices on the top 20% highest priced ones as they are selling to collectors or fish. Have fun.

There are hundreds, probably thousands of opal miners that spent their life savings and did not find the color that you have in your hands. Nothing like your fitst Opal's congrats.