Wednesday, September 26, 2007

U.S. Dollar Down - Expect Fine Quality Colored Gemstones to Increase

In a recent tread among gemstone dealers and facetors, one dealer had bad news for Americans. The dollar is down, making it more costly to purchase gemstones and gemstone rough. In fact, the gemstone business will not be the only sector to see changes.

The exchange rate for the Canadian Dollar is now equivalent to the U.S. Dollar. This is the first time that this has happened in 31 years. One of the sad things about this is that the U.S. Dollar will not recover against the Canadian Dollar or other currencies for some time. It will not happen in a week, or a few months or perhaps not even in a few years. It could be decades. Perhaps it will not happen at all.

The Euro continues to be strong. Those outside of the U.S. no longer seek American currency. Foreign buys now have increased buying power and can not only outbid American gemstone dealers, but have buying power in everything from fine art, American real estate and just about everything else. The cost for many items will increase across the borad for Americans.

One of the pluses though for the falling U.S. Dollar, is that those products made in the U.S. will become more attractive to international buyers. All That Glitters expects that there will be more sales of rough and faceted gemstones to those living abroad taking in non-U.S. currencies. With the falling dollar, anything in the U.S. could become attractive because it is now less expensive. The demand for gemstones within American inventories will increase. With the increase in demand in our inventories, this will put increased pressure on those American who seek to make gemstone purchases.
Any new inventory purchased by American gemstone dealers, will be purchased at much higher levels. Essentially all of the rough for gemstones comes from outside of the U.S. - with few exceptions.

To add to this currency problem, fine quality gemstones are always increasing in value yearly. Reports of recently purchased Sapphire indicate prices are increasing. All That Glitters has been telling customers to purchase fine quality Sapphire as the prices had only increased modestly over the past two decades. Now Sapphire is on the move. We still HIGHLY recommend that our customers view our Sapphire (and Ruby) Photos Page. There are some wonderful gemstones listed and the prices are below what one expects to pay in fine stores. Now, with the increase in Sapphire prices, future purchases will see the increase in cost.
< Sapphire Photos > < Ruby Photos >
Note that although we have mentioned the current price increase of Sapphires, the currency issue is across ALL gemstones, so now could be a good time to consider purchasing, as price increases are on their way as seen in the dealers comments below....



Below are the comments from a faceted gemetons dealer/facetor found in a recent thread on-line:

"Just by way of information.
.. I just finished up on a trip buying rough... The dollar is very weak and basically taking a beating on the world exchange. The sellers wanted shillings in many cases instead of the US dollar (Africa), which is a major change and not normal.

What this means is that because the dollar is really weak right now, and the exchange rates the cost of rough will and is going to spike probably this Feb in Tucson. This will include man-made material also by the way.

I do not know for sure, but I can tell you there was about a 30% higher difference for me lately... So be aware of it and plan ahead if you can..."




Addendum - Within less than one week of the above page being written, local implications of a weak dollar could be seen. While preparing the website changes for the month of October, the owner of All That Glitters went to the local Pizza Hut for take-out. Being recognized because of the local tv and newspaper coverage of his trip to Thaliand in 2006, discussions of business ensued. He was told that 12 of the local Pizza Huts were purchased recently by a corporation in Quebec Canada. Previously, with a higher U.S. dollar against the Canadian dollar, purchases such as this were less frequently seen. Now, this will be the norm and we will be seeing far more property, companies, products and gemstones being sold to those with stronger currencies.