Gemstone Investing 101： Your Essential Guide to Getting Started

Welcome to this episode of GemWest. The term consists of gems and investment. We cover the question how to invest in gems. Gems are the oldest form of investment. All aristocratic families had gems as a backbone of their portfolio strategy, we could say. The most well-known gems for an investment are rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds. We cover the field of the so-called non- or untreated stones. Most of the rubies and sapphires in the world nowadays are heat treated. Heat treatment is a very well-known and very old treatment, and the idea is to take a sapphire or ruby with an imperfect color and to heat it to a high temperature, and if successful the color improves, sometimes also the clarity improves. We are specialized in non- or untreated stones. This market is roughly 3% of the total market of gemstones. I mentioned it already. What's important about gemstones? It's important to buy well-known gems, it's important to buy untreated gems and it's important to buy certified gems. The certification by an independent gemological laboratory is very important. If we talk about investment, most of our stones go into vaults, they are not used as jewelry, but it's possible to wear them as jewelry. Which types of gemstones are there? On the one hand side we have the corundum group, that means rubies and sapphires. For the last 500 years we decided as a manhood that we call a red corundum ruby. Sapphires, well known, there are the blue sapphires, but sapphires can have each and every color from white to black. So for sapphires I have to call them by the color name. The second group, the beryllium group, that's especially the emerald, the beautiful green emerald, also very well known for centuries. The third group is diamonds. You all know them, white diamonds are well known, but there are also fancy diamonds. That means diamonds which are colored by nature, they can be yellow, they can be orange, bluish, greenish, pink, up to red, which that's very, very rare. Then there are some groups which are not so well known, like spinel, also possible to have them in all colors, like tanzanite, like zawolite, that's a green garnet, mandarin garnet, that's an orange one, alexandrite and tourmalines of course, and a lot of different other gemstones. As we talk about investment, a gem is nothing speculative, it's for the long run. It's a backbone for your portfolio and the increase in value, we have figures for roughly 33-34 years, the average increase in value is between 5-8% per year. How to tell if they are real or if they are fake? You as an end customer cannot distinguish between fake and real stones, they all look nice. So that's why you should always ask for a certificate by an independent gemological lab. How to assess the value of a gemstone? Well, number one, the weight. It's measured in carat, one carat is 0.2 grams, so very lightweight. Investment starts by one carat, below one carat it's for jewelry, but it's not an investment stone. Number two, of course, the color. If you want to buy ruby and if you want to invest in a ruby, ruby is red, so the red color should be bright, sparkling, not blackish, not grayish, it shall be red. Number three, the clarity, that's obvious. The clearer a stone, the more expensive a stone, up to eye clean, which means there are no inclusions anymore. Number four, the cut. How good is the cut done? It goes from excellent, to very good, to good, to fair, to poor. The higher the quality of the cut, the more expensive the stone is. Number five, the treatment, of course. Non-treated stone, no heat treatment, no other treatments, we'll come back to that later, no other treatments, the higher the quality, the higher the price of the stone. Sometimes the origin. If you talk about ruby from Burma, it's more expensive than ruby from Mozambique. Why? Because ruby from Burma is very well known and it's much more rare, especially in bigger sizes, than it is from Mozambique. And the last point, the existence of a certificate. The highest quality certificates for colored gemstones are Swiss certificates. The Swiss laboratories have shown the highest knowledge for treatments and for gemstones in general over some decades. So, how do you start investing in gemstones? I assume you have got some other forms of investment. Then, 10 to 20% of your liquidity, well, that's the sum for an investment in gemstones. Let's say you have $10,000 or you have $100,000, we do not put all the money on one stone, we diversify also your gemstone portfolio. If you start investing, always ask for the certificate of the stone or for more valuable stones for several certificates. I would say, go to a trustworthy dealer of gemstones who is in business for several years, who has a wide range of stones in stock and who can offer you the stones you are looking for. If you want to have a first look, just visit our online shop. We have more than 2,000 stones in stock there, from collector's items for let's say 500 US up to 100,000, a very wide variety. And regarding rubies and sapphires, they are always untreated and fully natural. That was the first episode regarding Gemvest, the investment in gemstones. Subscribe to the channel, hit the bell, and I'm looking forward to see you again.