In trying to prepare a business plan, I’m wondering if anyone has any data related to the “other” gemstones besides Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald, commonly known as “The Big 4”. As an example, I saw it reported that “The global gemstone market is expected to grow at a 6.53% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 53.2 million by 2029 from USD 30.1 million in 2020.” (Gemstone Market Size, Trends, Growth and Forecast 2029) but what I don’t know is what percentage of that 53.2 million is expected to be stones like Garnet, Amethyst, Topaz, Tourmaline, Aquamarine and my business which is Oregon Sunstone (a very small percentage I’m sure).
For instance if my total market is only $1,000,000 what percentage can I expect? 10%? If I’m lucky maybe. Any info someone might have would be helpful or if you can steer me to sources you don’t know about.
I too am interested in the question you pose but I suspect the answer is somewhat nebulous because of several factors. The main one is the public’s lack of knowledge of “other” gemstones and therefore a blind following of fashion. We have seen that with Tanzanite and fancy garnets, and it is also connected with celebrity adornment. There is also a country factor where some cultures favor certain gemstones and this also depends on economic cycles in those countries. In short, demand for gems other than the “big four” is much less predictable and will remain that way until more people are aware that gems other than the “big four” exist. Your business plan therefore needs a complementary information plan.
I think it is sillly to worry about what the macro numbers are for stones besides the “Big 4” and you should instead focus your efforts on identifying ways to sell to your niche market, whatever that is. I see lots of loose tourmaline, peridot, amethyst, blue topaz (yes, even that), zircon, etc., for sale on various pages on FB. I am sure that they are also for sale on Instagram and other platforms…I know some folks who have a good following on Instagram and sell lots of gems there…Gemval.com has some data on prices for various species tracked over the years and the last time I looked, gems in general were appreciating pretty much on a straight line at about 10% per annum. You are looking for one sale at a time, so what does it matter how big the market is as long as you find your personal buyer? Lots of data on asking prices and sales on the Net if you look. Good Luck! -royjohn
Indeed, as I look for what the total “other gemstone” market is that seems to be the missing factor. I know the other players in my market and about how much of the total they garner (it’s an educated guess at best).
To get current market conditions and pricing, you will need a subscription to Gem World. You receive a lot of excellent industry news and pricing from them. Here is the link to their 2023 1st Quarterly Report: https://www.gemguide.com/category/the-trade-in-focus/
Linda Fitzwater, GIA AJP
Owner/Broker
Creation By Suzanne, LLC
Ivan I tend to agree with your answer. There are those big 4 but with times and stines vhanging values people becoming aware of stones they never knew its hard to predict.
I agree with trend watching from what I have seen pink stones! They have been big and wont be going away this year. Thanks barbie… depending on the age of your clients if you get women 20s- 40s I’d say you may want to think about a complementary green like paradot with padparadscha pink stones. But honestly i think colored stones will sell well even if they are not the big 4.
a lot of people are feeling better this year and are going to spoil themselves on something fun. The massive wave of people waking up from narcissistic brainwashing during covid has had 2 years to heal emotionally. i think everything is going to sell well this year but bright colors and unique designs are going to be more popular than the stone type.
A lot of people 20 -70s are trying to express themselves find something uniquely them and bright because they are finally allowing themselves to be joyful.
what a buyer is willing to pay is the only measure of value in the long run. gem prices have been appreciating quite fast. It’s an inflation hedge like gold and silver, but much less liquid. the spread between buy/sell is large and unpredictable. I am faced with the same challenges myself in valuing and ultimately disposing of a horde of unset stones. someone mentioned national and cultural preferences. Jade has been more highly prized by East Asia than diamonds, so have been pearls…DeBeers led a successful but highly intensive and expensive campaign to sell diamonds as wedding and engagement rings in Japan when the western market became saturated. They were able to succeed and increased demand… Jade valuation is entirely opaque for both jadeite and nephrite. I have no idea of that market.
Steven I agree completely with you that semi and precious gemstones are an investment. I think it is a bit volatile sometimes depending on the stone and also not liquid. I think its gotten a bit better since COVID but can be tough. One of my biggest concerns is unless one has a brick and mortar place i am extremely skeptical about scammers. I even wonder if they exist on IGS since the membership cost is not expensive compared to someone getting a stone worth thousands. Rgds.
With regard to scammers, i tend to use the old saying “Trust but verify”. You’re right that they can be anywhere. Generally if someone comes looking for me to sell me something (ie sends me an email about a stack of gems they’ve got and want to sell for pennies on the dollar) I’m far more skeptical than if i sought them out. Doing research online, do they have good reviews on Google or Etsy will go a long way for me. I just sold a gem this morning on Etsy for nearly $2000, but my typical sale there is about $100. I’ve also paid someone in Nigeria for gems that i never saw. Luckily for me it was a fairly small amount of money (less than $500) and i chalked it up to a learning experience.
I agree. There are so many its almost impossible to list them all. Especially more expensive ones like Alexandrite, Demantoid etc. Yes, they are on Instagram because when I have been on the IGS site there has been i think a photo showing a stone pic and when you click it brings you to an Instagram site.
For example as far as celebrities, i have this great large Aqua I’ve had since the 90s and love it. It looks almost exactly like the one Princess Diana had that Meghan wore waving her hand in the convertible going to her honeymoon. I think Diana also had another that was in the middle of a three strand choker of pearls. Both looked fabulous.
I don’t have FB but the few times I’ve seen using others in the FB Marketplace there were very few listings and honestly the cists were very cheap and stones looked small and not so great.
My feeling is that precious and semiprecious stones, like precious metals have kept up with but not exceeded inflation… that’s certainly true of precious metals. Monetizing a stash of gems and precious metals loses you money in constant dollars ajusted for inflation… by retail and sell at wholesale… precious metals are liquid but only in the form of investment grade bullion or coins. Refiners charge up to 20% to refine and add a surcharge on each ounce of investment grade bullion… for silver it’s $4.00 per one ounze silver bar…total charges add up to 40%… same as selling online or selling on consignment. I have 20lbs or more of raw sterling crude ingots bought as sterling scrap at $2.50 per ounce…, and also a couple of ounces of 18k green gold that I alloyed from coins… a couple were cast into igots for rolling into sheet and wire for making jewelry… the rest has to be either sold at today’s spot price less fees… I’d like to keep some of it as investment grade bullion which is liquid, but I would be better off selling them for cash, with the cash reinvested in a high yield saving account that keeps up with inflation… So far as the gems are concerned, I bought them ages ago. All except a few that were bought at brick and morter stores have much value. Most of them were semiprecious. Those bought online were cheap but better quality than what’s being offered today… getting them monetized is a problem… so goes for antique jewelry… appraisers here have no idea of antique value… all they say is research it online then put it online for sale…That gets me no where… What I have is New Pawn Navajo jewelry. .To get them appraised will require a trip to Santa Fe and Albuquerque…
I also agree that brink and mortar stores are far less risky than online sale. I saw some stuff on Etsy which was too cheap to be real… the sellers had no idea whether it was natural or synthetic…also no money back return guarentee… Etsy sellers often don’t know what they are selling… that website is chaos.
Carrying costs for brick and mortar stores requires a retail markup of 100 to 200%… I don’t fault them for it… jewelry doesn’t fly off the shelves… but they won’t by loose stones…if they manufacture jewelry, they already have their own inventory. I don’t have any desire to buy a 20K stone with a certificate… I’m trying to value what I have for eventual sale… not a top priority at the moment.
As far as finding your market, you have to look for it. There are groups on FB which are private groups which you have to join. There sophisticated buyers and sellers converge and meet. They will know as much or more gemology as you do and will differentiate a heated vs an unheated sapphire, will know what spinels are and even the trendy Mahenge garnets, etc. So on those sites, you are selling to people who know the various species and know fakes vs natural and know treatments, too. They are, as far as I have been able to figure it, jewelers who are looking for independent sellers or collectors. Prices are around the jeweler wholesale level. People get to know the cutters and dealers who sell there and trust is established. If you want to look for that market, just get familiar with FB and use the search function to find some groups, join a few and visit them frequently to see what’s on offer. If you want to sell retail, that is probably better done on Instagram or TikTok, or something like that and I don’t have time yet to be “romancing the stone” all over the place so gem-obsessed people under 40 can get their daily content, nor do I want to buy a lot of gold and diamonds to sell finished jewelry. There’s a good market there for those who have good sources for metal and accent stones and the prices would probably be 1.5x to 2.5x what you would get for your stones in the wholesale market, but that’s just a guess from me. If you market well enough, and the design is sophisticated enough, you might make more. I hope this helps.
If you’re familiar with on line marketing and what happened when Jewelry Television started, you know that they sold (and sell?) a lot of schlock, but they also made a lot of buyers aware of stones besides the big three. I knew things were changing when I went into my bank ten years ago and the teller knew what a tsavorite garnet was. So at present there is a much increased awareness of the world of colored stones and you can find a market among the people who appreciate them. It’s Thorsten Veblen’s conspicuous consumption!
-royjohn
We’ve chatted before. I’m quite aware of the TV schlock because one can see it even when they show the stones and the statements they make about them (my jaw drops). For example, theyll rave about Tanzy and it’s light purple or some other ugly looking non standard stone. Also, a lot TV have them in sterling so the cost looks appealing cheap to people forgetting about the stine quality.
I was going to create an IG site even though I’m primarily looking for below wholesale or wholesale at the very most. However, even then I’m still leary of the scammers and theives nowadays. I just have to drastically reduce what i have for health reasons.
I guess from what you said I’ll have to try to create a FB page and try what you stated since all I’ve ever seen on FB Marketplace is schlock stones.
Thank you again you always seem to be a wealth of knowledge as well as a nice guy.
Steve i can understand alot of your comment esoecially the last paragraph. My stick is high quality and from the mines many moons ago like you thats why o am personally trying to sell. BUT I dont think people realize one should buy a gemstone loke people should by diamonds (many don’t
w diamonds either). They should look at a variety of loose stones or a stone unset and then have the jewelry made. This way you see all the stone as it’s meant to be. IMO that’s the proper way to buy a stone especially of higher pricing.
everyone has been quite helpful. My thanks to all. My jewelry making days are over. I still can have some made but at a cost. Jewelry is not liquid either. I avoided diamonds back in the earlier days because of synthetics… they hadn’t figured out yet how to distinguish synthetic from natural reliably back then. The Chinese were churning out fraudulent synthetics.
Blue stones going for cheap were irradiated topaz… they are still going for cheap… bought aquarmarine and tanzanite for blue. I bought malaya garnets for red. Rhodolite was expensive then but Malayas are expensive now. Green was tourmaline. Other colors were quartz stones and moonstones for eyes… the price of good moonstone has gone up. quartz stones haven’t. I’m only beginning to price the market. New age buyers are back… new age comes in generational cycles… in the 1970’s 1990’s and again… most of them don’t know anything except for pretty. Ads are on TV but also in print… Stauer advertises in Scientifc American, other mags that appeal to a wealthier audience… $299 value for $99… non synthetic but all junk…everyone is looking for mass marketing good stuff for cheap… it doesn’t exist… but the churning does make for pricing chaos. Very few people have the money to buy expensive natural stones set in fine jewelry, as compared to the mass market. Selling is not my highest priority now. I have more important things to do… selling is just part of liquidating all of my junk so we can move south…
I agree Steve I just want to liquidate and keep what i like and get out. I find the market weird. Personally, I dont know why anyone wants a synthetic anything because if I wear something I want to know the stone and metal are real.
I never dealt in diamonds but thought i read the synthetics were affrcting their market.
But as you said everyone wants stuff cheap. Kinda like that phrase … then it’s too hood to be true.
agreed. synthetic diamonds are getting cheaper quickly. they used to be 2/3 of natural, but industrial scale mass production for abrasives has driven the cost down. 90% of both artificial and natural diamonds go to industry. Abrasive diamonds start at $3.50/ct., go up to $35. I have a diamond coated whetstone that I bought for $12… it sharpens knives far more quickly and sharper than aluminum oxide (corundum) whetstones that I had been previously using… Industrial demand is insatiable. Gem quality diamonds cost more but no where near natural. People who don’t have the money to by natural will buy them just to have a diamond, lab or not… the black diamond craze is subsiding but was another fad in cheap “real” diamond buying. I’ve still seen a few at retail but but no where near as many as 4 or 5 years ago… I think they are ugly and should be crushed into abrasives… they are opaque and have surface cracks. Black clear diamonds sound like an oxymoron but there are a few that are like smoky topaz, clear, but expensive. Haven’t seen anything like that in jewelry stores. I bought my colored stones during the early 1990’s… only a few were sourced from Africa. The vast majority came from Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand. These sources have been exhausted. Gems are coming from southwest Asia and Africa now… lots of colored stones are mixed sourced. That only makes it harder for buyers to determine quality stones, the provenance of which remains unknown. The GIA researchers are on to determining provenance. I sat in three lectures by GIA PhD’s who presented their talks at the annual Geochemical Society conference 2 years ago in Honolulu. They were able to use XRF, Raman spectroscopy and laser ablation mass spect to determine trace element profiles and determine provenance, sometimes down to the individual mine level. But none of these expensive high tech analytics are available to the general public. The cost of mass spect and operating it is about the same of buying an MRI scan and operating it… I was told by a professional geologist that running a single rock sample thru a commercial lab would cost 2-3K per piece of rock. Writing a research paper would require running at least a dozen, for adequate sampling.
I am digressing but it’s relevant to the colored stone market now… unless you are a professional expert buyer, it’s difficult to know what and where from any colored stones are when sold in a mixed lot.
For the general public, it’s best they pony up the bucks and buy at a brick and mortar store. If they want to go cheap, they can buy cubic zirconia in any color… just having something big and sparkly as an attention getter is sufficient to go cheap.
I need to spend less time complaining and getting to work with starting to value my collection.
