QuestionHello Steven
If a faceted loose ruby retails on the web for say $2000 USD, what would be a fair price to pay for the rough stone if purchased at a local gem market in say East Africa or Thailand ?
What would be a fair price to pay for the same piece of rough ruby from a gem dealer in one of those countries ?
If the stone was only available as part of a larger lot of rough rubies; if the stones in the lot were identical, what would be a fair price to pay for the rough stone if they were say 10, 20, or 30 such stones in the lot ?
Hope you can help.
Joseph
AnswerHello,
That is not an easy question to answer. Most rubies in the rough these days need heat treating and such. The thing with ruby and other colored stones as well is the color is very important.
Also the finished clarity. Some stones may take a lot of weight loss to clean them up. Generally I would figure 20 percent of the rough weight, would be the finished weight.
So for me if I was looking at rough in these countries, I would not pay very much unless you know who you are buying from and also know the quality of the stones being offered. If you are flying blind maybe a couple of dollars per carat and maybe less because they will be offering junk.
In the case of the gem dealer and one stone is nice you would need to figure on the weight loss and figure in the cost to cut the stone and know that that piece will be very nice. Maybe that 2000 dollar stone would be worth 1000.00 so you would want to pay maybe 500.00 for the lot for example. That way it does not matter about the other stones value you came out ahead on the one stone.
Wish I could help you more, but with out seeing the stones it is impossible to do.
Regards,
Steven D.Covey
