Matching gems is a tricky task, especially for a bicolor gem such as imperial topaz. Here's how Yvonne figured out how to make it work at the Tucson Gem show. 

An overview of our experience at the Tucson gem shows in 2026. How did tariffs affect the show and what exciting gems did we buy? 

Late January is approaching fast, and so is my Tucson trip. I cannot wait to go as this
month its both bitter cold and snowy here in New Jersey. But I need sunshine,
warmth and bling!

That said, I expect Tucson to be a little bit different this year. And I am not the only one.
The biggest issue, of course, is the consequences of the new tariffs. Traditionally,
vendors from abroad would bring their goods to the shows, sell their wares, collect the
funds and return to their homes with the unsold goods. This year, that cannot happen.
We are only exempt from tariffs on shipments from the E.U. as we do not have the
required trade agreements with places like Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. While gemstones
are an exemption to the tariffs because they cannot be produced or mined in the US
(except minimally), for the exemption to take effect we need trade agreements, and right
now only the E.U. has those in place. The U.S. does not.

Therefore, as Hemi Englisher from GemCal explains, “all goods from Thailand are
under TIB, temporary import bond. We will not be able to sell at the show. If a customer
wants to buy, we will need to ship from Thailand once we are back. Tariffs have to be
paid by the customer in the USA.” Hemi is bringing fewer goods as a result, and
expecting fewer sales. Here’s a link to a blog about Hemi’s zircon inventory. Most of my
specialty cut zircon comes from him. 

“Cash and carry,” in other words, is not going to be part of this year’s Tucson. With
tariffs and shipping, therefore, we will see a 15-20% increase on acquisition costs.
According to Eshvar Kotahwala from Kotahwala gems, as well as Dudley Blauwet from
Dudley Blauwet gems, vendor attendance at the International GJX show (across the
street from the Tucson Convention Center that houses the AGTA), will be lower. Less
foot traffic is expected as well. Here’s a very informative article from GemGuide about
Tucson 2026. As the article points out, many vendors imported gems just prior to the tariffs last year, opening offices in the US or just finding a reliable partner with whom to stock gems.

Many larger vendors keep at least a small presence in the US, as small as one person
or household, where inventory can be kept safely in between shows. However, many
gemstones travel around the world a couple of times before finding a permanent home in a piece of jewelry sold to a retail client. For that reason, the industry now has to consider
tariff “markups” to cover the costs of international shipping and imports. Shipping costs,
incidentally, are up significantly also, as is insurance for the shipping around of high end
goods. We just fielded a call for a 3 carat blue sapphire to a client in the US, and shipping between the vendor and myself (only within the U.S.!), even with large shipping
discounts from Malca Amit, came to $215 for five stones. And – possibly due to
economic uncertainty – the clients jumped ship despite previous assurances of being a
serious buyer (and wanting to decide between two of the gems that were exactly what
they had asked for). So CRD got saddled with the shipping bill without a sale from which
to deduct these costs. Incidents like these, in times like this, raise prices for everyone
else. It is the vendors who eat the damage when buyers don’t provide all the facts. This
will be the case with all international sales as well, making it difficult to have goods
shipped for inspection or with a satisfactory return policy as tariffs can possibly apply
each time the goods are shipped.

On the upside, large international buyers like Dudley Blauwet report being able to push
down prices to compensate for the tariffs. Smaller vendors cannot acquire enough
goods to offset the 10%. I am told to expect a large selection of sapphires from Sri
Lanka at his booth. Dudley has also acquired parcels throughout the last 40 years,
and he is savvy enough to always hold back inventory to be dug out a couple of
decades later when demand for it rises.

Jaimeen Shah from Prima Gems reports to GemGuide that he had a good year with
quality goods, in particular, cuprian tourmaline and spessartite garnet (Paraiba and
Mandarin garnet, in retail language). And a small business like ours has similar positive
news. We didn’t sell that much jewelry because of gold prices, but we did
well with our finer quality goods. We generated more revenue selling Paraibas,
sapphires, no oil emeralds and spinel in the higher price category than expected. This
wasn’t our best year by far, but our prices on those finer goods, especially our older
stock, were not raised very much because we are fully online. (It is usually awkward to
raise retail prices online, especially if there’s not a pressing need as there is with the
runaway inflation on gold).

Nir Zaccharia from Zak Gems has announced some new goods, in particular, green Mali
garnets – I am very interested in seeing those at the Pueblo show. He will also bring
zircon, and of course spinel, which is his specialty.

My Brazilian vendor will be there as well so I can source more Paraiba melees,
specifically in all the sizes that have sold out. If there are any requests for more of
those, please let us know. My 1.5mm stock is almost entirely gone. I can take both pre-
orders and simple inventory requests as I want to buy Paraibas anyway but need to
know what sizes or shapes or hues clients are most interested in working with.
Our shop is pretty well stocked right now so I really do need customer suggestions with
regard to what I should be buying. I am hoping for more small emeralds again. Greens
always sell well – especially blue green gems such as various tourmaline as well as
emeralds. Tsavorites and mint garnets do not sell quite as well but they do sell over time. I am hoping my Russian sellers will attend as I am looking for more small
demantoid garnets as well.

Here is my exact schedule for those of you who tend to stay in close phone contact with
me during the show: Thursday I leave for Tucson. Friday to Sunday I will be at the
Pueblo and 22nd Street show where I will be seeing my Zambian emerald vendor, Zak
gems and many others including Nomads gems (they sell at the Pueblo show before
they move over to GJX, so in order to get their “deals” you need to go early). Monday
through Saturday I will be rushing back and forth between GJX (for Paraiba and spinel,
as well as all the ruby and sapphire melee I buy), and the AGTA where I mainly see
Dudley and Jaimeen and Eshvar. Sunday is the last day of the shows but I will be
heading home on that day. Staying in Tuscon is expensive during the shows, as you can
imagine.

If you would like me to field a call for you, please contact me (cecileraleydesigns@gmail.com). I may have some terms
and conditions because time and money are always tight in that week (I cannot just use
my money to buy for you because my money will not stretch to cover everything of
interest). You may have to be prepared to Zelle or PayPal me in a hurry but if any good
deals are to be had, that is always the best way! I am always happy to be your personal
shopper but I cannot be your bank (I wish!).

In the meantime, enjoy shopping our pre-Tucson sale. We are trying to make room
(decrease stock size and increase wallet size)!

Jewelry setting is a precise craft that requires skill, patience and delicacy. Yet even the most experienced setters occasionally crack or chip stones during the setting process. What happens then? Who assumes responsibility and how do you mitigate the risk? 

Let’s put this title into perspective first. Gold has gone up 60% in 2025, which is likely to be the largest price increase on record (starting in 1973, so that’s not covering the Great Depression!). Here’s where you can look at the historical as well as the daily gold price: https://goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html 

You’ll see there that in 2015, Gold was hovering around $1000 per ounce, now it’s above $4000. Until 2020, gold prices were fairly stable. CRD first started increasing its prices in 2022, but we quickly realized that we did not calculate sufficiently and then the market ran away from us. Now our quotes are only good for a couple of weeks and are subject to change if a custom order is not initiated at the time of the quote (I order the gold as soon as I receive the down payment).

One can see the changes reverberating throughout the diamond district. Most of my contractors (i.e. setter, polisher, jeweler) have less work. In my case it is marginally less because I use the top people and they are always busy. But manufacture has definitely slowed down, and it has tightened its turnaround time so that nobody gets caught buying high and selling low. The gem trade has been correspondingly sluggish, but prices are not coming down in either gold or gems. However, the largest price increases for gems occurred around 2021-23 and have now abated – at least that is what I have experienced with regard to my purchasing habits.

But ok, enough said about the downside. Where is the upside? It is here: most of the gold on the market these days is recycled so it is simply cheaper for the industry to buy back gold than to mine it; if you go through the right channels, you can also sell gold and make a nice profit.

I don’t mean gold coin or bullion. It is too soon to sell that, as most major investment banks are predicting further increases in gold. Therefore, if you have gold for investment purposes, then I would hold on to it.

I am talking about different gold. The gold in your jewelry box! Broken chains, single earrings, busted rings, stuff from grandma from the 60s (don’t sell anything from 1940 or earlier). Stuff you bought and didn’t like. If there’s enough gold on the piece, then anything that you bought before 2020 has the potential to fetch more now than what you paid for it.

How do you get the most money for gold?

First rule: forget the gems. If you have hung around our shop long enough, you know that most commercial jewelry uses gems that have almost no value. Even those slightly greyish opaque diamonds set in cheap halos (often called “salt” in the industry) have no value. Nobody busts those out. But: if you have reason to believe that the gem or gems in your jewelry are valuable, then have a jeweler remove them. When you sell gold, almost nobody gives you anything for a gem. Even a diamond will fetch at best half of the current wholesale price. Better to reuse it in another piece of jewelry.

Second rule: Forget selling gold to pawn brokers or jewelers. Pawn brokers give you 50 cents to the dollar. Jewelers might give you more, or if they know you, they may give you much more, but don’t expect it to be more than maybe 80-90%.

How do you then get closer to 95% or more? You need to ship your gold to a refinery. I use a company in NY called “Manhattan Gold”. They also accept retail sales.

Online gold buyers usually offer the highest percentage below the daily spot price that you can get, even if you are me. I usually get around 98% with Manhattan gold. I sell back broken castings, the occasional piece I no longer use, I sell gold for clients, and occasionally I melt down something personal I no longer wear. I have profited from my original purchase every time. Understandably I buy cheaper than you but at the increase of 2020-2025 anyone can make money. I sell client gold usually as a form of payment for a new custom order, and I give back 100% of what I receive. I’m not interested in being a pawn shop!

In order to sell gold, it would be nice to have an exact scale. A postal or a good cooking scale is ok, as long as you can read grams on it so you don’t need to convert. Something like this on Amazon is also worth it. I’m not claiming that this particular product is ok, I don’t own it and my scales cost more. I use GemOro. You can find them on Amazon but also on other websites in case you try to avoid monopolies (I have given up but I applaud the effort).

So if you can weigh your gold and discern the karat number, you can use an online gold calculator to figure out the value. Then you can use a calculator offered by a gold dealer to compare prices to the daily spot and to other gold buyers.

Some online gold sellers offer a very fast turnaround, and you may also find gold buyers in your local town. If so just ask outright what the return is, then you’ll know if it’s worth it. You will get cash or a check on the spot, so you can use it to buy this year’s Christmas presents!!!

Every year, I like to compile a little gift guide that will hopefully help you find something interesting for your friends and family. I will shamelessly advertise my own favorite pressies for friends and family, sticking to small and independent shops.

For most people who are born into a fixed price culture, it is an entirely new experience to make purchases without having a sticker price on the coveted object. Worse yet, if you ask for “the price,” the seller may look at you like you are from another planet. That’s because there is no “THE” price, other than the number arrived at after an exchange between the seller and the buyer. If you insist on a price, you will get “a number” but that number is not (necessarily) intended to be the price of the object that the seller wants to sell at. Nor may he or she even know (yet) what that price is. Because that depends on a lot of factors that are not technically tied to the object itself.

Value is not just determined by the cost of goods plus a markup in a bargain culture. It is the result of an exchange during which buyer and seller evaluate one another for their expertise, their financial ability, and where in the chain of ownership buyer and seller are located. I.e. if the seller is a miner and the buyer is a retail buyer from another country, the profit to be had is very large. But if the seller is a broker who has to pay the miner and the buyer is a wholesale buyer, the profit margin decreases.

However, in wholesale, purchases are based on quantity – where that is either the result of several smaller purchases on repeat business, or a larger one-time purchase of a parcel, or both.

The video above shows Yvonne's friend, Jochen of Jentsch Mineralien, buying minerals on location near Muzo in Colombia. 

It is very important for a gemstone seller, especially if they are in a developing country, to know what type of buyer you are. If you are visiting just once, making one purchase, and do not know gems or their prices, then you will have to pay top dollar. To avoid being pigeonholed as an easy target for a larger paycheck, here are some tips and tricks.

1.      Know your stuff! That is the single most important rule that you must follow. If you want to buy a no heat blue sapphire in Sri Lanka and you are not known to the seller or introduced (this gives you safety), then you need to know how to identify that the gem is heated. Even a Sri Lankan lab report is no guarantee, because most labs do not have the latest, most expensive scanning equipment you might find at GIA. I am not very good at knowing whether a gem is heated (many experienced buyers make very accurate guesses but I am not one of them), so I will not buy unheated material on location. I will go only through sources I trust. But, if you want to buy a garnet, and they are traditionally not treated, then you just need trained eyes to look for window and flaws, and you need to have researched the prices for comparable gems on some websites that have fixed prices.

2.      Show you can use your tools. Your ability to handle a loupe and tweezer, as well as when you need to use either, will be evaluated. The more experience you have with tools, the better your prices will be.

3.      Use recommendations whenever possible. If you got information about a specific seller from another seller, mention their name. Even when I do not have that, I will mention the names of well-known buyers that I have done business with, just so they know I am in the trade, and I have recourse to complain to one of my “colleagues” if I am given exorbitant prices.

4.      Buy a parcel! Single stones always go at a premium. Parcels are much cheaper and you will verify the price per carat, rather than by checking every single stone. The idea is to look at a parcel and just study the finest material in there. Don’t make that too obvious as you wield your tweezer. Look at each gem in the parcel and count in your mind how many good stones there are and how they should be valued. Parcels may include useless material and you may need to eyeball the percentage of that before you decide if the parcel price is good.

5.      Become a repeat buyer. Make a smaller purchase first to show your willingness to interact and then come back at a later point. I’ve done it where I would look at emeralds in Bogota first, get an idea of what people want to quote me, and then let them know I will buy once I return from my excursion to the mining villages. Then I purchase a week later, and during that week I will have got an idea of price and availability. This helps when I cannot return to the country another time. Leaving even a couple of days between your initial request and your purchase can help. But: don’t make the mistake of driving the price down too much or doing too much comparison shopping. Word gets around and that can be good or bad. Essentially you need to decide what kind of information about you you want to spread and you are the only one in control of that.

I realize these are tall orders. None of these tips and tricks are easy to follow. They also tell you why wholesalers get better prices than one off retail buyers. That said, you can certainly work on some of these tips. You can go online before you travel and do some research, you can bring a sample stone you want to match (maybe a small purchase from a reliable US seller). You can make sure you have cash on hand, and you want to give yourself a little time to get a feel for the trade on location.

Last but not least: what about buying ONLINE from an international vendor? You can, after all, bargain on sites like Instagram, as well as connect to a small seller in the middle of nowhere, as long as that seller has a cell phone and internet (hint: they all do!). My advice? If you don’t know the seller, then forget it. I wouldn’t do it, and neither should you. That’s just a recipe for getting ripped off, and it is totally obvious why.

Lab grown diamonds are rapidly increasing their market share but what happens to their value after you've bought one? Should you use them for the jewelry you want to make as an alternative to earth mined gems? 

Tariffs definitely affected attendance at the JCK Show. Some vendors decided not to attend and others scrambled to import their inventory. However, those who did come did well and Yvonne came home with some special discoveries.