Gemstone? Looking for Buyer

Submission 5,123

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About

"Gemstone? Looking for Buyer" is a viral Facebook ad by user Michael Deemax in which he searched for a buyer for a large red-colored gemstone, with the photos picturing him holding the jewel between two fingers while sitting in a car. Posted in May 2021, the post went viral in July of that year as users joked about the gemstone looking like a Chaos Emerald from Sonic the Hedgehog, later inspiring redraws and references as an exploitable meme format.

Origin

On May 28th, 2021, Facebook user Michael Deemax^[1] posted a personal ad offering to sell a large precious stone in the "INTERNATIONAL NATURAL GEMS MARKET ONLINE ( GEMS AND JEWELLERY )" group (original post no longer available; screenshot shown below).^[2]

According to Deemax, he sold the stone since posting the ad.^[3]

On July 6th, 2021, an unknown Tumblr^[4] user posted the image, captioning it "Today’s crypto currency is: Chaos Emerald (real)," a reference to the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. The post received over 4,200 likes and reblogs in two years.

Spread

The image was widely circulated online through reposts on Facebook and Instagram in the following year.^[4]^[5]

On January 25th, 2022, iFunny^[6] user Dr_robotnik_ posted the earliest found meme based on the image, an I'll Take Your Entire Stock meme, which gained four smiles in one year (shown below, left). Prior to February 17th, 2022, an unknown user posted an edit referencing the The Elder Scrolls
video game series, which was widely shared online in the following weeks (shown below, right).^[7]^[8]

In late 2022 and in 2023, the screenshot of the original post went viral on Twitter several times, inspiring redraws and references. For example, on March 3rd, 2023, Instagram^[9] user soyjaking posted a Gem and Coal edit of the image that earned over 1,900 likes in four months (shown below).