Buying Ruby Gems

Buying Ruby Gems is not an easy task

It needs a lot of knowledge not to be "pulled over the table. If you want to buy the red gemstones in a higher price region and not being an expert better hire one who assists you and you can trust.

Actually, the best ruby market in the world is here > try it.

The ruby market is most active on weekends and plenty of money is changing hands continuously. Chanthaburi and Bangkok are the largest markets for Burmese Rubies. Although most of the red stones come from Myanmar it is much more convenient to do ruby shopping here because the infrastructure works and the government won't interfere. Also, the turnover is much bigger than in Burma which means better deals can be found here in Thailand.

Buying ruby hire an expert

But the first essential tool among other is a 30x plus magnification lens to serve for identification. Rarely an ideal ruby stone will be encountered because the natural gems have inclusions there is no way around if they don't have impurities they are probably synthetic or created so the buyer at the table in Chanthaburi and/or Bangkok will inspect the red beauty very carefully. When assessing inclusions the first parameter is always the size which means the smaller the better next will be the number means the fewer the better;

• Where are the ruby impurities located? Means away from the center of the stone. 

• Type of inclusion which means a crack is worse than a pinpoint inclusion.

• The color means no inclusion should be so contrasting as to detract from the stone's overall hue.

• The Cut which relates to a gem's proportions and the quality of its cutting which means a good symmetry and brilliance which is the percentage of bright reflective areas. Basically, a ruby like any other faceted stone is a mirror and its color is assessed by reflected light which is created by proper proportion and a good cutting to optimize reflections and avoid 'windows' means holes where the light is not returned and instead falls through. To achieve the best reflection a stone requires depth and the ideal proportion is a depth of 60 percent. plus or minus 10 percent. of the diameter. So you are best advised to avoid flat stones; they may look bigger than a well-cut stone of equal weight but they will not reflect light.

• Finally there is the weight in carat. When it comes to carat, well that is dictated by your budget: naturally a 3 carat ruby is better than a 1 carat ruby of the same quality. The simple rule is to buy the best you can afford e.g. US$ 100.000 per carat already have been paid for a 2.5 carat Burmese ruby at an auction in Geneva and in normal days a good 1carat Burmese ruby will sell for anywhere between US0 500,- and US$ 3.000-4.000. The only thing which is quantifiable in ruby prices is the price rise ratio in relation to weight increase. Because large rubies are extremely rare per carat costs go up disproportionately to carat weight. 

• Here the so-called "Tavernier's Rule" applies; it states that if a 1-carat stone is worth 1.000 units per carat, a 2-carat stone of equal quality will cost 2.000 units per carat, a 3-carat stone 4.000 units per carat. and so on.

This is what the buyer below is thinking about the stones and the pricing naturally.

This ruby buyer from Pakistan rented a table at Chanthaburi Gem Street in Thailand south of Pattaya. There is an endless stream of buyers and sellers who try to secure a deal. The interesting is most tables include a neutral Thai person who acts as mediator when problems arise. 

Here are dresses and accessories matching the red ruby.

Since a while now they try to pull up a ruby and jade market in Mae Sot in Thailand which is currently (2017) dominated by Myanmar people of Indian origin. The place is easily connected via several buses from Bangkok every day. When there is no direct bus to Mae Sot available just take any to Tak (that's on the road to Chiang Mai and from there every hour a van to Mae Sot is available. The vans run between 6 am and 7 pm.

Want to buy ruby easy from home with no risk and travel around and wasting your time have a look here.

Buying other gemstones

It won't matter if this are loose gemstones or jewelry with the pretty things in it, the value is always with the stone since the gold amount is relatively little. 

Probably the best chances for investment is with high-quality jade since the frenzy from China obviously never ends. Many people there who just want to buy the green stone, but not only that color all other are in high demand too.

Myanmar or Burmese Gems are well known for their variety and quality. Some are bought just for jewelry and other have strong mystical properties such as jade with Chinese people. Many Indian people interpret plenty of superstitious values into ruby and sapphire jewelry for giving spiritual enlightenment. Chinese people interpret similar properties into jade. 

Jade ring for sale

Buying ruby ear-clips at the Bogyoke Market

Natural rubies

What people like are natural rubies and those are definitely available here. There are several sources from where you can buy gemstones; one is visiting a local gems market or online dealers. Buying gems with a certificate is a good start for a fair price but it still needs some bargaining. When in the higher price region take an expert with you or insist on having it checked in a lab of your choice. You should always be aware that with this pretty little-colored stones there is lots of cheating going on, e.g. heat treatment with ruby gemstones.

Loose ruby gemstones and spinel

Myanmar fashion jewelry

Because of the abundance of precious stones, people became very creative to work with them. There are also beautiful pearls with gold, silver, a white and pink color which come from the "farm" in the Myeik Archipelago. Only a few decades ago the Salone or Sea Gypsies pearl diver of South Myanmar did this job. Actually, the human grown spheres are looking really great as you can see in the picture below.

South Sea Pearls

Jade and Bamboo Street Shop

This is also part of ethnic jewelry which is a very trendy subject, although the pretty things are a bit bulky they are very popular in particular for women who have some natural weight on the body. 

Jewelry and gemstones pictures

Here are a couple if pretty jewelry and gemstones pictures with most of the local material available, some are really nice and show how creative people are. 

Jadeite items are mainly made in Mandalay but only for the local market. The real business is to export the rough material to China and there it is processed.

Great Sapphire and Ruby Jewelry

Jade Bangles of different colors

Buying a beautiful imperial jade necklace

Jade diamond jewelry set

Buying an Imperial Jade Necklace

There is another family of a green mineral either as rough stones or jade jewelry, it's amazing what artistic blessed people create out of this material although it is extremely hard, actually it is called Chinese diamonds. In the country the jadeite version is mined it comes not only in green there are plenty of other colors.

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Buying rubies in a historic perspective

Burma (Myanmar) in ASEAN the country is the main producer of all kind of precious and “semi-precious stones”. 

Plus gold silver pearls amber and more lots of jewelry items and gemstones are on display at dozens of shops and many are really valuable with a creative design that includes rubies and sapphires plus jade and other.

In Yangon (Rangoon) is one of the last old style oriental bazaar of the east, something like that Marco Polo must have seen. Gems and other materials are brought from the north of the country to Yangon where creative people craft them into great pieces of jewelry many jade and silver items are produced in Mandalay. It's really amazing what ideas the people put into jewelry creations, there are also plenty of typical ethnic jewelry items using other local materials.

Myanmar has a long tradition as a source for high-quality precious stones from Myanmar, already since the 15th Century trader from Arab countries, India, China and Europe come to buy gemstones, Chinese and Indians came via overland border and other visitors over the Ocean.

Rubies and spinels

They were considered the same until the 19. century. Clearly visible in the English crown where a spinel was included as a ruby. With emeralds, sapphires, and other precious stones there was no confusion.

Here is a translation from Dutch travelers report of the 16th Century about Burmese Gemstones.

Rubies are of many sorts, but the best are those that are called carbuncles, which are rubies that weigh above 25 carats, which are rather rare to be found. 

The best rubies with exceptional colors are from India called tockes, which are like Carbuncles; there are others called ballax, which are of a lower price than the first, and they are red. Another red variety is called espinellas, today spinel, that are of color like fire, and are less esteemed than the other two sorts because they have not the same properties as the premier red stones.

Blue and yellow sapphires are available as cabochon they are also sold in white like diamonds and others of a cornflower color or much like white cherries when they are ripe. Others found half white, half red, and a thousand such other sorts.

Of emeralds which the Indians call pache, and the Arabians Samarrut, there are none throughout all India, yet it is reported some have been found there, but few and not often, they are brought in from Cairo in Egypt and are likewise called Oriental.

Many are also brought out of the Spanish Indies and carried into the lands via Pegu, where they are much worn and esteemed by Venetian traders (who have traveled there with emeralds and bartered them for rubies and jewelry) they become very rich. Some used jade as a replacement for emeralds.

All the said stones are likewise used in medicines and Apothecaries drugs.

They are found in great numbers in Persia, and brought into India from (beyond) Ormus, by hundred pounds at once, earth and together, which in India are little esteemed, for that the Indians and Portugal’s do not wear many of them, and make small account of them.

The Jasper is much found in the land of Cambodia, but not much regarded: they make dishes and cups thereof; it is of color green like an emerald. Chrysolite and amatistes are many in the Island of Ceylon, Cambodia, and Ballagatte, (and) the stone called alakecca, (which) is also called Bloodstone, because it quickly staunches blood, other stones called milk stones, which are good brought to their perfection and ripeness, and being perfect they are of color red, like the carbuncle and tockes aforesaid but wanting somewhat of their perfection.

Those that are half rubies, and half Safire's, which the Indians call nilcandi, grow always in one rock, whereby they are often times found, half one, half other. The rubies by the Arabians and Persians are called lacut by the Indians manica. The sapphire is not of as great estimation as the ruby and yet is one of the most precious stones next to diamond, and the rubies they do grow and are found in rocks like diamonds.

How to Value Rubies

Ruby and diamond jewelry how to handle them? When you have a ruby to value (or esteem) that is squared table wise, (as it should be), and that such a ruby is to accompany a diamond of the same weight in carat it is (both) fine and good. The ruby is not sold by weight, because it has no certain thickness, for that many of them are made thin for pleasure to the sight, and the better to lay the ground or leaves under them, and it may very well be thin, but not very much, for them it should be a let (and hindrance) unto it; if a ruby be whole or perfect (both) in color, cleanness, thickness, squareness, and form, it is worth a hundred buckets;

But there are very few that are perfect in all points since have always some faults or spots that are covered or hidden; but right perfect there are very few and not many men have any great knowledge therein; therefore I will say, to make our account, that a ruby which in common is accounted perfect and good, is worth seventy buckets. As it is easy to imagine buying gemstones is not as easy if you don't want to be pulled over the table.