How To Buy Gemstones page 2 of 10
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What determines the price of gemstones?
Actually, the answer to this question is fairly simple. Although gemstones are so rare, their price is determined just like that of any other product in the world: by the power of supply and demand. Of course, these forces are not arbitrary, there is some logic behind them, and the trick is to understand more about the relevant factors that determine a gemstone’s desirability. In a moment, we shall get down to the technical details, and in particular to what is known as the “Four C’s”. But first, a general overview.
Obviously, the first factor in determining the value of a gemstone is its popularity. All gemstones are beautiful in their own individual way, but some are traditionally (and this is a very traditional industry) considered more prestigious. The highest tier in the world of gemstones is comprised of the three “precious gemstones”: Sapphire and Ruby (which are both are from the corundum family) and Emerald (which is a kind of beryl). These classic gems represent the three basic colors: blue, red and green. (In fact, sapphires may come in colors other than blue, and these are considered precious as well.)
So, naturally, these three “precious gemstones” tend to be more costly. Nevertheless, this does not mean that stones from the second tier, such as aquamarine, tourmaline, and garnets, which are usually called “semi precious”, are necessarily less expensive. And this leads us to the second main factor in the price of a gemstone: its rarity. When a stone is very rare, its value is very high. Thus, even a four-carat quality blue sapphire from the legendary Kashmir mines is far less expensive than a four-carat demantoid garnet from Ural, simply because the latter is much rarer.
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