Autumn in New England
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2012
- Messages
- 4,818
I mentioned in my last thread that recent pricing for (Vietnamese) lavender spinel caused a bit of sticker shock for me. Now that I've pulled the plug on pursuing that stone, I've started planning to set my red spinel. While casually browsing designs, I was dazed by the price of this guy...
The gem is phenomenal... no doubt about that. But $30k? We're approaching mid-range ruby pricing now. And that's not to say it isn't deserved. I forget how many times rarer fine red spinel is compared to ruby. But I digress. I purchased my red spinel maybe 2-3 years ago? It could be this stone's twin... 2.72ct., Burma, cushion, loupe clean, medium tone, and vivid saturation. It was sold to me as "neon" and "jedi," but I don't put much stock in those trade terms. Anyway, the only real difference I see is that this stone has a (fantastic) precision cut applied... mine is native (but no cutting defects). My stone was $5k. I think I did pretty well on the price, as I purchased it from a private seller desperate to liquidate his collection. But still, that's a huge gap. What's going on?
The gem is phenomenal... no doubt about that. But $30k? We're approaching mid-range ruby pricing now. And that's not to say it isn't deserved. I forget how many times rarer fine red spinel is compared to ruby. But I digress. I purchased my red spinel maybe 2-3 years ago? It could be this stone's twin... 2.72ct., Burma, cushion, loupe clean, medium tone, and vivid saturation. It was sold to me as "neon" and "jedi," but I don't put much stock in those trade terms. Anyway, the only real difference I see is that this stone has a (fantastic) precision cut applied... mine is native (but no cutting defects). My stone was $5k. I think I did pretty well on the price, as I purchased it from a private seller desperate to liquidate his collection. But still, that's a huge gap. What's going on?