Market Value of The Non Diamond Gemstone

Theres a good article about “Understanding the liquidation market value of the non-diamond gemstones”  here, written by David Atlas, a president of D. Atlas & Co.,Inc., partner in Diamond & Gem Laboratories of America and consultant to Imagem, Inc. who also as Expert witness, consumer consultant, lecturer and appraiser.

The conclusion I get from this article is …

The colored gemstone market is not as orderly or organized as the market for diamonds. It is mostly a free market, driven by competition, supply and demand, but it often is highly unbalanced since supplies are not secure or regular, tariffs may be enacted which restrict commerce, and demand may not be consistent.

Three basic groups of colored stones

• The premier group of ruby, sapphire and chyrsoberyl alexandrite where the top grades are highly prized and sought after. They are truly in short supply and their values are consistently high.

• The next group below this premier threesome is a larger group, comprised of many commonly prized gemstones at the retail level. This group includes emerald, tanzanite, aquamarine, imperial topaz, jadeite, peridot, certain garnet varieties, certain pearl types, black opal, Paraiba and chrome tourmaline and probably a few more which I have not listed. Again, their very upper quality range does have some value in liquidation, but it is limited by very spotty demand, no organized marketing, and a limited by having no universally accepted laboratory grading system to properly assign accepted quality grades to the material.

• The rest of the gem materials. The ones promoted frequently by the On-Air sellers. They usually have little to no value to begin with, no external market support or off-air demand, and little basis for their value. They may be very pretty and worthy of purchase for decoration, but they generally can’t be resold to dealers, collectors or jewelers for any price. A sophisticated buyer of gems and colored stone jewelry understands the limited value of these items in the secondary market and appreciates their value is in the giving and wearing of this jewelry with no expectation of recouping their cost or profiting on the jewelry’s resale.

finally, there is a liquidation market for the finest and rarest of colored gems and below that level, for the most part, little market value market for the balance and vast majority of gem materials. We can’t change this, but must live with the market as it exists.

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