Ruby (Sapphire)
Date - Pricing as of April 2008

Color: Red, some times with a secondary color of pink, orange, purple.

Note: Most Ruby is treated and there is a lot of fraud, so stones must be certified and tested, at least over a certain price.

Note2: This is a strictly a commercial market and price will vary significantly depending on location and size.

Note3: There is a very limited supply of Sapphire rough available to be faceted out side of the commercial cutting houses. In other words there is no rough of commercial color (quality blue, pink, yellow, purple...) available rough. Native cut stones can be bought and re-cut, in which case pricing is pretty easy because you will know what you paid for the native cut. Other than re-cutting native cuts almost all the Sapphire available to be faceted is going to be what I would call unusual or noncommercial colors.

Pricing noncommercial Sapphire colors is strictly based on size and how pretty the stone is, for lack of a better description. In other words the more unusual the color, cut, and finished stone the more per carat.

Medium (45% tone to 65%) - Medium.
Comments - This material is ideal depending on the color, it can darken, so care in design and orientation is important. I cut this material in the smaller to large size ranges and typically use unique designs
Pricing - This is strictly a collector stone and pricing is what ever the market will bring.

Dark (85% tone to 100%) - This material is around, usually very dark. I seldom cut any thing this dark, but would note there is a pretty large market for what I would call low quality and dark Rubies commercially.
Comments - Depending on the mine location this material can be heated to lighten it, but some material will not lighten.

Special - As we all know as cutters some times a stone just comes out "special" for what ever reason. On these kinds of stones I basically price how ever I feel like. Because this stone comes under the "special" category I often do not care if I sell the stone or not. So I usually price it high enough that if I do sell it, I get a very good price. Enough to make me say "Oh well..." and sell it. So be aware that some times I just price a stone high because I do not care if I sell it. Ironically these stones usually sell the fastest...

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E-mail to inquire or order: jeff@faceters.com