Hello to all. This is my first post. I was a member here many, many years ago. I have losing lost my credentials from then. About 10 years ago I had to liquidate my collection when my family faced a significant financial hit out of the blue. That was a VERY painful moment but a solid learning experience in urgent liquidation.
I recently started collecting again, but now with my 10 year old daughter. We collect cut stones of almost every type. The goal is to be economical but still demand quality, generally stones at a minimum of 1-2 carats. Always quality over quantity. One day hopefully before I croak I can assemble an example of every type. Yes, I know it’s an arduous task. I’m not a novice by any means but I’m very far from an expert.
We just attended our first show on the Florida Space Coast this past weekend and are looking forward to another show in March which is just down the road. We grabbed a very decent Pakistani Peridot, a solid Kunzite, and a straight up FIRE 1 carat Chrysoberyl. I am not too shy to say I am stoked to be back in the hobby.
With all this said, I ask you experts, who is the current gem market favoring, buyers or sellers? Because at this last show it sure seemed like a sellers’ market and this is 100% backwards from what I’m used to. Dealers were shockingly firm and a few reported that they saw high number at Tucson. Did I read the room wrong? Please heave your feedback. I’m a big boy and I can take it!
Joined: Fri Nov 01, 2013 9:16 am Posts: 239 Location: Germany
yeah the market is getting straighter. But it was all the last years too. At the moment the other things like covid, the war in Ukraine and some other things push (in my opinion) the market too.
But quality was always expensive and difficult to get for reasonable money.
For your task: If you stick to normal commercial gems, the 1-2 ct task seems doable. But premium Stones like unheated ruby, sapphire in top color, paraiba and some other stuff, will be very challenging to get for a decent budget. And then, as you write you want a stone of every type, we come to the rare gemstones
To get good quality stones in this size e.g. musgravite, phosphophyllite, Hauyne.. just to name a few, you are searching unicorns
But to be honest it is fun So much fun in your hobby and journey here...
I would agree that it's more a seller's market. As Stephen said, prices are up and selection is down so the vendors with any selection will be able to command the price a little more but it's more balanced leaning towards the seller if anything based on the prices I'm getting from my stone suppliers (I didn't make it to the show this year so I can't comment on things there)
There are a lot of factors in the wings that can play with this though so there's no way to predict if/when the next buyer market will be if you're looking to add more to your collection. Between the ongoing COVID, war, a possible recession, etc. things will be all over the place for a while I suspect.
Good luck in finding all the gemstones you want/need and again, welcome back.
My experience is that the tipping points between sellers market and buyers market is the same subtle thing it always is.
The very rare, and very high quality, stones always have at least decent demand. Prices tend toward the upside almost always, unless there is a particular seller with special financial needs. I don't see any strong bias in either direction currently.
The mid level stones seem to always have decent demand. Prices tend to follow the broader makrkets. Bargains are usually the result of a special circumstance with the seller, a short term supply glut, or a popularity trend. Again, this market seems to be in the range of normal currently, but slightly bias to the sellers side at the higher end of this category
The lower end is always in oversupply. This is where prices are most unstable. It is also where the bulk of inventory in almost dealers safe exists. Deals can lamost always be had in these categories.
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:58 pm Posts: 1424 Location: San Marcos, CA
In my read of this recent release, the market is neither in favor of the seller or buyer. Greed, inventory, and most likely the buyer base still hasn't recovered from all the recent years of turmoil. The bigger question is will it ever at least in the tradeshow arenas. https://agta.org/ruby-sapphire-pricing-challenges-continue-at-the-bangkok-jewelry-fair/
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