WHERE IT ALL BEGAN - 1992

Wayne's dream was to connect the Opal industries across the globe with Opal enthusiasts and collectors. His vision was to create a website where Opal miners and wholesalers could sell directly online.

Opal Auctions was then founded in September 2004.

A few days after founding Opal Auctions Wayne sold his first Opal on Opal Auctions through his online store Opal Plus.

Steve Thomas applied for a job at Opal Auctions in 2005 through a Gumtree ad. Shortly after, Wayne decided to fly to Tucson to promote Opal Auctions at the Tucson Gem Show and Steve was left in charge.

Wayne felt like he was ahead of his time as no one at the Tucson Gem Show was interested in buying or selling Opals online, which made this trip extremely dissappointing. On top of that, Wayne's best Opal was stolen resulting in a $10,000 loss.  

Today Steve is in charge of IT, maintaining servers, compliance, security and website development.

After three years of hard work developing Opal Auctions, Wayne and Estela founded Gem Rock Auctions.
The Dream Team created this niche website for gemstones to be sold all over the world. 

It was paramount to Wayne and Estela that Gem Rock Auctions was known as a trusted website where customers could purchase their gemstones with confidence and peace of mind. 

In 2007, Wayne and Estela created the Verified Sellers Program.
This innovative project came at a time where many other websites were selling fake gemstones online and customers were losing faith in the online buying experience. During this period unregulated sellers and sales were proliferating across the internet.

The rigorous application process of the Verified Sellers Program enabled Wayne and Estela to eliminate untrustworthy potential sellers and ensure that only the most reputable ones were approved to become Verified Sellers and to sell exclusively natural gemstones.

The introduction of this program gave customers confidence and peace of mind when purchasing from Opal Auctions and Gem Rock Auctions. 

In response to other websites continuing to sell fake gemstones, Wayne and Estela introduced the Gemstone Sheriff Program in 2008.

The program allowed customers to request an audit on any item, which was conducted by an independent gemologist. The gemologist assessed the accuracy of the item description and pictures on behalf of the customer.

The drive behind this initiative was to ensure that all gemstones listed on Gem Rock Auctions were genuine, natural and accurately described, giving customers the confidence needed to buy gemstones online. 

In the same year Item Watch was introduced. This feature enabled customers to keep track of items they were interested in buying and to compare multiple items. It also improved their online auction experience, allowing them to keep a close eye on the auctions they were actively bidding on. 

The inspiration for creating the Coins Auctioned website came from Wayne's love of collecting coins, silver and gold bullion. Back in 1988, Wayne was living in Perth and purchased his very first Perth Mint Coin which ignited his passion and quickly became a hobby. 

In 2009 Wayne founded Coins Auctioned which gave experts the opportunity to showcase their rare coins and unique collections to a global audience.

Today, Coins Auctioned is a premier online marketplace for numismatics, offering a diverse range of pieces from around the world including coins, paper money and bullion in gold and silver.  

After the establishment of Opal Auctions, Gem Rock Auctions and Coins Auctioned, Jewelry Auctioned joined the lineup in 2010.

Wayne and Estela suddenly realized they were the proud owners of an impressive network of marketplaces that catered for specialized industries, offering thrilling auction experiences for each of the niche websites. 

That year not only Jewelry Auctioned was founded, but new software was introduced. Gone were the days of slow, expensive internet and unreliable servers. From this point on all websites operated exclusively on high quality Australian software.    

In 2011 Gem Rock Auctions introduced the Certified Gemstones feature.

When a gemstone is certified by an independent lab, the certificate states its gemological and physical details. By allowing customers the ability to view these certificates online, it empowered them to purchase natural gemstones with even more certainty and confidence. 

It did not stop there, Wayne went one step further:

The most reputable gemological labs from around the world were handpicked and added to the Approved Lab List. From this point on, only certificates issued by these labs were permitted to be used on Gem Rock Auctions. 

To continuously improve the online buying experience for customers, Wayne introduced another feature that year: Verified Sellers were given the ability to incorporate videos into their listings.    
 

Wayne's dream had now turned into a network of industry leading online marketplaces. Sales were increasing and more and more people were becoming aware of the niche websites that connected sellers and customers around the world.

The ongoing expansion of the business demanded Wayne and Estela's full-time attention and they could no longer do it alone. Silvia then joined the team and was responsible for logistics and social media.

This year also marked an incredible milestone: $10 Million in sales across all websites.

In 2013, Ross and Terese Sedawie joined the team. The power couple took charge of business development, SEO, advertising and content creation. Wayne now had a team to help him drive the business forward.

This was the beginning of 5 years of innovation and growth including feature roll-outs, optimization and continuous improvements of the network of marketplaces that Wayne and Estela had created.  

Another remarkable milestone was reached: 350,000 items sold across all websites.    
 

It's fair to say that 2019 was an interesting year for everyone. The impact of COVID-19 was felt around the world and Wayne and Estela's business faced the dawn of a new era of online shopping.

As people were required to stay home, they found more time to shop online. Additionally, some individuals were compelled to explore the internet for the first time due to necessity. In light of this sudden shift in online purchasing, Wayne's team encountered several challenges but rapidly adapted to the change in consumer behavior and improved digital capacities across the board. 

In the midst of COVID-19, the Black Friday Sale took the business to new heights where an unprecedented increase in traffic made it the most profitable sale to date.  

In 2020, Wayne realized how devastating the effects of COVID-19 had been on Australian people and the businesses they ran.

With a great team now in place, Wayne reconnected with his innovative spirit and created Treasures Auctions: an online marketplace exclusively for Australian businesses. 

At this point the business was thriving and became a household name in the online auctions scene. 

Two impressive milestones were reached this year.
Wayne not only celebrated selling 1 Million items across the websites, he also won a award: Gold Coast Excellence Awards - Family Business. 

With the team continuously focusing on improving the online buying experience, glass-filled Rubies were banned from Gem Rock Auctions. 

Our dedication to always improve the online buying experience was recognized this year. Wayne won a Bronze Stevie® Award in the Retail Category at The 19th Annual International Business Awards®.

2022 was filled with continued growth, improvements and great outcomes. 
 

After 17 years of dedication and hard work building a formidable presence in the online auctions scene, a significant milestone was reached: $100 Million in sales across all websites.

The ongoing expansion of the business in 2023 allowed the team to continue developing the websites and introduce new features.

With consistent return and pricing policies in place, the Sheriff Program ensuring authenticity, Certified Gemstones available to customers and the Verified Sellers Program ensuring expertise, these tools continued to play a vital role in shaping the quality of the customers' online buying experience.

This year another remarkable achievement was reached: 1 Million gemstones were sold on Gem Rock Auctions.This milestone was evidence of years of ever-growing trust between Verified Sellers and customers.   

As of the 20th of March, 2024, we have sold 2 Million items across our websites.

A true success story:

From humble beginnings where hard work, innovation and perseverance were the key ingredients in building a remarkable legacy. 

Looking back to where it all began and to where it is today:

It's fair to say that it's been an exceptional journey marked by challenges, significant achievements and continuous growth. The numbers speak for themselves.