Gemstone investing is one of the riskiest kinds of investments and there are many ways to lose invested capital including fraud, political risk, subjective valuations and low liquidity, but there are opportunities for savvy and knowledgeable gemstone collectors to not only enjoy, hold and admire their purchases, but to realize exceptional returns in a flat stock market.
The best investment stones are those that are beautiful and very hard to find. While stones like amethyst, citrine, or almandite, are nice for jewelry, they would not be considered to be investments because they are too common. Stones like red spinel, ruby, sapphire, emerald, blue tourmaline, tsavorite , demantoid and alexandrite can be considered for investment and have in some cases have shown marked appreciations over the last 30 years. More specifically, some spinel, demantoid, tsavorite, alexandrite, and Paraiba tourmaline prices have increased by more than 20 times over the last 30 years.