Rubies are beautiful, the color of fire and are among earth’s most valuable gems. The best rubies sell for a million dollars a carat. For example, the Sunrise Ruby, a fine, unheated pigeon’s blood red 25.59 carat, smashed all records when it sold for $30.3 million in 2015. However, when selling rubies, you need to do all you can to make sure you are getting what they are truly worth.
Worthy helps people sell their unwanted jewelry, diamonds, and gemstones for the best prices on the market. What we’ve learned about selling diamonds for the most money can help you when you are selling gemstones as well.
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How to Sell a Ruby with Worthy
1 Prep for sale
2 Auction online
3 Get paid
- Tell us about your item – answer a few basic questions about your emerald jewelry for our experts to review.
- Shipping – Schedule a secure FedEx pickup from your home or drop off from a FedEx location. Worthy covers all shipping costs plus insured shipping by Lloyds of London.
- Prepare for sale – Our team of experts professionally cleans and photographs your emerald jewelry before sending it out for grading at a third-party lab, such as GIA or IGI.
- Online auction – Once you have set a reserve price and started your online gemstone auction, you’ll be able to watch the offers roll in.
- Get paid – When your item has sold, you’ll receive the final sale amount, minus Worthy’s fee, which is a percentage of the sale price.
Color is Crucial
Color is by far the most important characteristic when it comes to selling a ruby. Rubies can come in a variety of colors, including all shades of red and pink. Just as with other precious gems, the secondary hue of a ruby plays a big part in its perceived color, and as a result, its value.
If the color is too light, the stone may be considered a pink sapphire, and if it is too dark, not enough light will be able to penetrate the stone. The color must be just right, with the most prized rubies having a blood-red primary color and a secondary hue of purple. The purple tends to accentuate the primary color, giving the stone an even deeper red.
Consider Clarity Too
The perceived color of a ruby and its selling price is affected a great deal by the transparency of the stone. While some stones have exceptional natural transparency, it is common practice to heat rubies in order to increase their transparency.
Like sapphires, rubies are often heated to extremely high temperatures, as high as 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. Untreated stones will typically draw much higher prices than heated stones, even though the practice is common.
In addition to heating, it has also become common to fill fractures on the surface of the ruby with a type of lead glass. This increases the smoothness of the surface, as well as its transparency. Rubies that are also filled with lead glass are worth much less than rubies that are simply heated.
Other Factors to Consider When Selling a Ruby
Location Of The Mine Of Origin
While rubies are found all over the world, most of the highly valued blood-red rubies come from Myanmar, formerly Burma, in South East Asia. Other popular mining locations include Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Tanzania, Thailand, and Madagascar.
Ruby Size
Rubies are very rare in large sizes: a ten-carat ruby is much rarer than a ten-carat diamond. As a result, the per-carat price of large rubies is much higher than the per-carat price of smaller gems.
Synthetic Vs. Natural Rubies
Manufacturers have been producing synthetic rubies for almost 100 years. Synthetic rubies were commonly used in Art Deco jewelry so vintage jewelry you own may also contain synthetic rubies. Today, retailers like Zales and Macy’s sell more synthetic rubies than natural rubies. Synthetic rubies sell for much less than natural rubies.
Ruby Shapes
Rubies are most often cut in cushion and oval shapes. Other shapes may be harder to find and may cost more in large sizes since they are rarer.
Luxury Item Protection
Worthy provides full insurance coverage for every shipment. We trust Lloyd’s of London, a global leader in insurance since 1688, to protect all valuables auctioned on our platform.
Rubies vs. Sapphires
Rubies are formed from a mineral called corundum and are in the same family as sapphires. The red color of rubies is caused by traces of the element chromium.
Along with sapphires, rubies are considered to be one of the four “precious stones.” But unlike sapphires, which can come in a variety of colors, rubies must be red or pink in order to be considered a true ruby, with the darker reds fetching the highest prices.
The word ”ruby” itself stems from the Latin word for red, ruber.
Asterism: Ruby Stars
When cut in a smooth domed cabochon shape, some rubies show a shimmering white six-rayed star that moves over their surface. This is known as an asterism. This phenomenon is a result of countless needle-like mineral inclusions within the gemstone. The value of star rubies depends on their color and the strength, sharpness, and evenness of the star.
Where to Sell Rubies Near Year
There are different places where you can sell rubies near you. Some of your options include selling to:
- A local jewelry store
- A pawn shop
- A consignment store
- An independent merchant
But each of these options comes with significant drawbacks. At most of them, you will be low balled with an offer. You may earn more with a consignment store, but it can take a painfully long time to sell your jewelry that way. Plus, the consignment fee deducted from your sale can be considerable, putting a significant dent in your initially higher earnings.
An alternative to selling your jewelry near you is to sell your item online. Online options can include eBay, craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace. However, these options also have major drawbacks when it comes to lowball offers, market competition, and security and protection from scams.
Sell Your Rubies with Worthy
At Worthy, our expert evaluations, descriptions, and photography set the standard for reselling rubies as well as other colored gemstones, diamonds, and jewelry. On our innovative live online auction platform, our network of thousands of professional jewelry buyers around the world competes for your jewelry at the highest prices. As a result, we often help sellers get up to 3x what local buyers or other online options offer.
Worthy’s fee for the sale is based on the final selling price of the ruby. This means we are on your side, and we’re incentivized to help you make the most money possible. And the more you sell your ruby for, the more money we make too. This alignment creates a win-win situation all around.