Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

G'day my name is James Cumes I am a opal miner from Coober Pedy and I happen too have the Sea Of Opal which is the worlds largest black opal at 12,025 carats, about 80 troy oz, 2.4 kilo........found on Joes Run Grawin Field Lightning Ridge....hope you all like? And if any one is curious I may very well sell it??? Other than that opal mining in Coober Pedy is still the same lots of hard work lots of heartache and every so often we have a win......Take Care James

Thats a big one alright. Should sell with people (not that I know them) wanting the huge ones for their personal collection or rough if they have the money for it. Good Luck.

Welcome to the forum James, and thanks for posting that gorgeous eye candy for us. We actually have a thread on your opal already, so I'm delighted to find out it's you who owns that black beauty. Way to go!! You mined it yourself, right?

Here's the other thread. viewtopic.php?t=530

Again, warmest welcome to the forum.

G'day I don't own the SEA OF OPAL but I am selling it on behalf the owner who would like too stay unknown....I just thought as I read about this opal on one of your threads and everyone seemed interested and no one knew anything I thought I would let everyone know what ever they would like too know about it?? Any questions welcome???? Any way I'm off too the field and head underground for the day and hopefully put some opals in the bag....

It's kind of odd to sell an opal like this as an unknown seller on a public forum... Sales like these usually go through an established auction house like Sotheby's.

I don't want to risk my killer opals to a fickle auction crowd. My experience is you'll get over 1/2 of wholesale whatever you offer unless you catch a frenzy or it is really special with provenance. I won't name names, but every time I tried to auction off Virgin Valley, it got bracketed by a bunch of stuff I sold to another dealer. In the shows we had a "special" mine that would not lose a sale if they could help it, even selling at a loss just to make sure they got as much money for diesel the next year and held down the entire sector until the mine dried up. Now they are auctioning themselves and always have a selection available with all the international sellers with the same business model. I don't have enough black opal to play who has the deepest holes or pockets for taking losses. I have my prices, but not a need to advertise them to set a pricing structure for the rest of the world to under cut me. Time will come. The opal is not going anywhere under all my claims.

Hope you had a successful hunt for opals today, and quite frankly, I don't care that you don't own the opal; it's good enough that you've seen it and handled it, and can tell us more about it. I don't know what to ask, so anything you'd care to share with us would be great.

John, my point is that this is an opal of exceptional value. High value items like this aren't sold on a public board by some random guy with access to a pubically available photo and no verification...

well to ksspot i'm not some random guy and personally i think you are upset that some people do better than you in the gem trade. I thought i was doing the right thing by posting this as someone else had already asked about the opal and was asking about it. So to kjsspot even if wanted this stone i would not sell too you...

The stone was mined at Joe's Run Grawin Field Lightning Ridge. It is listed in the book of world records as the largest black opal on the planet. It's name is "THE SEA OF OPAL" it is 12,025cts, which is about 80 troy oz, or 2.405 kilo. One hell of a stone and I am the luckiest bloke on the planet cause the owner has given me sole selling rights.. He is a very good friend who has been in the opal industry for 50 years or so, and is one hell of a good bloke. And yes I got a bit of material the other day some nice blue crystal opal and same yesterday all up about 100oz so far.....