Australian Facetors' Guild Limited

Excellent article in FT237 regarding pricing Australian cut sapphires and zircons. The published prices are what they should be for VVS stones. As specified, best quality stones do sell for the prices suggested and examples are given. Need to understand and find the market.

However there is a current reality and dilemma. On Gemfields local and Australian FB pages, most publicly available sapphires are advertised up to a maximum of about $300 per carat, even for what superficially looks to be good coloured sapphires. Ok, the cut and polish and quality of some stones may not be the best, but it is hard to tell with most pictures. Capital city jewelers are still focused on a trade price up to $350 per carat, even for the best colour and eye clean stones. Some Gemfields locals are selling top quality stones for those low rates. I am not critising that practice. People need a cash flow and that is the price that stones will sell at. But that does create a market and expectation for "low" sapphire prices.

There has been recent discussions and awareness focused on faceting fees. On the Gemfields, faceting per carat rates are now increasing. That is a fantastic outcome and demonstrates the positive effect of awareness, exposure and discussion. We can do the same for cut sapphire prices and should adopt similar tactics. Big up our stones, particularly the best, to showcase, which is done in FT. Widely publicise and justify the prices that our sapphires are worth.