What does it mean when you go to buy gemstone beads or other items online and in small writing is says "reconstructed"? What is a reconstructed gemstone? Has it had plastic surgery? The first time I came accross this term, I has just started my little business and I was looking to buy larimar beads on ebay. I didn't have a lot of starting money and larimar goes for a very high price. There were some lovely ones indeed, but at the time I couldn't afford them. Then I found all these pretty candy blue strands of larimar beads that were $2.99 and seemed too good to be true! When my strand arrived, I quickly understood that it wasn't larimar, at least not the way I understand larimar. Reconstructed is a term they use when they have taken ground up dust of a gemstone (really, the stuff that is left over when they are shaping/polishing beads and cabochons) and add it to some sort of polymer base along with color and anything else they can add to make it look like the original gemstone. There is no regulation saying that it needs to be certain percentage of the gemstone dust either....the way I understand it technically they could take a pinch of the stuff, throw it in a 100 gallon vat of polymer and still call it reconstructed stone. The industry has gotten quite good at replicating mother nature. I have the joy of shopping at the Tucson gem show every year, which is the largestest gem and mineral show in the world. You will see vendor after vendor with walls of beads dangling...every stone imaginable! Sparkling faceted amethyst for $20 a strand, pink tourmaline for $80 a strand, and then you see the whole wall of $1 a strand beads. These are fake, or reconstructed if you will. It takes some time to learn the difference and hands on is the best way. I have had the benefit of touching, tapping and comparing millions of beads and stones at years of these gem shows and that is how I learned. So how does someone who can't do all that tell the difference between a reconstructed stone and a real one? 1.) Read the details if you are buying it online. Ebay is good about enforcing this for larimar, but it won't be listed for any of the other stones. Many of the people selling the other stones don't even understand that they are reconstructed. 2.) If buying online, buy from someone who does know. The only way to tell this is to ask them. You will be able to tell from their answer, if they know their stuff or not. I have to surf the net to look at whats out there in the crystal and gemstone world and let me tell you that you have many beautiful fabulous options to by from people who respect, cherish and know stones well. There are beautiful peices being sold at affordable prices from people you can trust, but you have to look. A favorite way of finding cool crystal jewelry vendors is to google "metaphysical properties of"...insert your favorite stone or crystal. 3.) Be realistic. If you are buying a "genuine fire opal" pendant on ebay for 1 cent, its either fake opal, something reconstructed or a terrible dull grade that no one wants. The Marjority of manufactured jewelry that people buy very cheaply and resell on ebay for less than $20 has reconstructed or entirely synthetic stones. Yes, this is my opinion, I haven't done a formal study of ALL the merchandise out there, but it is based on the inventory I saw going through one ebay vendors shop when I was working at his brick and mortor store and also the thousand of listings I have seen. Its a safe assumption for me at least and since I love my stones, better safe than sorry. 4.) Look at the shape of the object? Does it look as though it has been polished out of stone of does it have some bizarre complicated shape and appear as though it has come out of a mold. A great example of this is the "gemstone" merkabas that are so hot on ebay right now. The merkaba is this complicated 3D star shape with multiple points protruding out. It is not impossible to carve out of a stone block but certainly labor intensive and complicated even for machinery in a factory. These are selling for 99 cents sometimes. I would bet they are reconstructed, popped right out of a mold, 99% polymer for your 99 cents and hopefully a pinch of the real gemstone dust if you're lucky! I hope this was helpful to you. Even with all of the beautiful stones that I am around, I still have to really examine beads sometimes to know that they are the real thing. It is amazing how much fakery there is out there! Consumer awareness will only improve what sellers are offering to us!