Price Increases in Gemstones Verified First Hand

While in attendance of the Tucson Gem Show (not the retail show, but the wholesale shows), the owner of All That Glitters talked with dealers both in the US and abroad. It was evident in pricing that this is a new market. Russians have been buying over the past year or so, but now gemstones have been selling internally within India whereas gemstones were mostly all exported previously. The biggest change and influence is that China has entered the market, paying whatever is necessary to obtain what they want. All three countries were not considered buyers in this market or even other markets until recently. The Chinese are literally moving the market prices.

Price increases of 50% to over 2000% (that's 20 times) over last year were seen. Though All That Glitters sell gemstones based on prices paid and attempts to price below wholesale, at wholesale or between wholesale and retail, our current prices are outrageously low. We examined similar items 'when' we could find the same size, good color/cutting/clarity, etc. Similar All That Glitters Burmese Ruby was way below what NY companies and one Russian company were asking wholesale. Their prices ranged from 1.3 to 3.5 times (respectively) higher than the All That Glitters price. Since this was wholesale, one can expect to see a 50% to 100% market on material like this in retail stores 'if' one can find similar quality of these rubies. The embargo also affects the price of this material and nothing new has come into the country for years.

The above is just one case. We have also heard that China and other countries are driving up other prices. Corn (and therefore, beef, chicken, pork, cereal) are increasing and the price of cotton has increased to record levels and one will see this in clothing prices. It is expected to increase about 26% or so this year.

With the interest yields of banks/CDs and the option of putting ones funds in the stockmarket, our belief and experience here is that though one may do very well in a few stocks stocks at times, other stocks that are held may be losers, so the end result is that one breaks even after x number of years without even keeping up with inflation,. Fine quality gemstones continues to be a better place to put funds if one buys quality at a good price, and also enjoys what one has purchased.

Welcome to the new reality as other countries become major purchasers of commodities across the world stage.