Mines come and mines go. Supplies are high while mines are producing, and as mines production decline so do supplies. In the article above, Graham recommends stocking up while you can b/c quality will not always be there.
What do people think - where is there currently an abundant supply of rough that may be keeping prices low?
Post subject: Re: Jeff Graham:How do I buy rough that I can cut and make m
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 7:31 pm
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Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 9:42 pm Posts: 1033
That is the $64,000 question, right? I have heard that dealers have bought up large quantities of Ethiopian opal and Tanzanite, sufficient to keep the prices of those from going sky high any time soon.
I don't know if it is true -- but I suspect it may be, especially for the opal.
clearly for some rare gems, new discoveries can drive prices down sharply - grandidierite for example and jeremejevite (though the latter is till expensive.).
Trends can have a big effect on prices -- turquoise seems to go in and out of fashion as do other gems. Sugelite was originally "low cost charoite" - now the prices have reversed and good quality sugelite is hard to get.
Post subject: Re: Jeff Graham:How do I buy rough that I can cut and make m
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 7:53 pm
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Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 2:18 am Posts: 1542
Yes, buy when there is large production and prices reflect good supply. Keep the rough in the safe for when production is lite, and prices are high.
Late last year and earlier this year Congo Tourmaline was available in big quantities, large sizes high quality. Not nearly as much available now, and the prices I saw in Tucson was at least double what I paid last year.
This year there was no over supply of anything significant in high quality. As always a ton of lower quality in almost anything. I was looking for top end Aqua and saw only a few parcels at very high prices, so I didn't buy. It will come.
I did see a good amount of African dark purple cuprian tourmaline, reasonably clean and good sizes. Big range of prices from $1,000/gram to cab grade for a few dollars/gram. I bought some nice big clean pieces for less than I have seen them in years. In the safe, and forgotten about for now.
Somehow when you need to buy a certain kind of rough, and go looking for it, prices are always high......
This year there was no over supply of anything significant in high quality.
Agreed. I found plenty of neat things but no crazy deals on facet rough. I actually think I might not have bought any facet rough at all. There are always great deals on cab rough though, given how wide your options are on that front.
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