Emeralds Pricing

Ok, now lets put this all together and talk about pricing. Everyone knows about the four Cs right?

Carat
Cut
Color
Clarity

Well let’s take care of two of these right away. If you have two emeralds that are exactly the same quality and one is 1 carat and the other is 5 carats. Does the 5 carat stone cost five times more? No, say the 1 carat stone sells for $5000 per carat for a total of $5000 for the stone. The 5-carat stone will probably run about $15000 per carat for a total of $75,000. We know that a high quality emerald in such a large size is more rare and therefore is more expensive. But this is like comparing apples and oranges. Few consumers are comparing 1 carat stones to 5 carat stones. Instead consumers pretty much know what size they want but need to know how to compare emeralds of similar size. So you’ve decided you want a 1 carat emerald, you can now cross carat off the list of things to worry about while comparing.

So now there are only 3 Cs that need to be considered when judging quality and value of the emeralds you are comparing. Next on the list is cut. The quality of the cut probably only accounts for 10% of the value of the stone. Moreover, the vast majority of emeralds (and most colored gemstones) are commercial cut stones. This means that they are cut to maximize yield rather than to optimally return light like diamonds or custom American cut colored gemstones. A custom cut gemstone will cost more than a commercial cut stone but again we are comparing apples and oranges. Most consumers will be comparing commercial cut stones to other commercial cut stones. Buyers who want custom cut gemstones will be comparing with other custom cut stones. So take cut out of the equation. That’s not to say that you want to ignore problems such as windowing or scratches or rounded facets but the market determines the value of cut to be very low compared to color and clarity.

Here’s a chart of the Colombian emeralds I currently have AGL reports for.

Colombian Emeralds Price List

As you can see almost all of the Colombian emeralds in the table have a cutting grade of good. A few have a grade a little lower and one has a grade a little higher. These differences are not enough to significantly adjust price per carat either way.

Now look at degree of enhancement. Notice that there is a correlation between clarity and degree of enhancement. In general the less inclusions (higher clarity grade) the lower the degree of enhancement. With respect to value, all emeralds are assumed to have some degree of clarity enhancement. The market determines that enhancement in the middle of the grading scale (faint to moderate, moderate, moderate to strong) has little affect on price and is in fact the baseline for prices. As you move to the extremes of the grading scale (i.e. none or prominent) the price can change dramatically. According to this table all of the Colombian emeralds have a degree of enhancement in the middle ranges except for #1015. So basically degree of enhancement has no effect on price unless it is not enhanced at all in which case prices can be up to 100% more. I would argue that in almost all cases if you focus your buying on color and clarity you really don’t need to worry about enhancement. An emerald with decent clarity will not have a large degree of enhancement because there are not enough places for the enhancement to go.

Below is a Colombian Emeralds Price Chart to show the relationship between Color and Clarity based on the AGL grading scale. The assumptions are that you have a one carat emerald with med to medium- dark tone, good cutting, and enhancement in the middle of the range (faint to moderate, moderate, moderate to strong).  Color grades of "Excellent" or clarity grades of "Free of Inclusions" are considered theoretical for emeralds. If one were to find an emerald with such high quality the price would be much higher. Please remember AGL uses one scale for all colored stones that encompass the entire theoretical range. GIA on the other hand uses different scales based on the type of stone. This chart is just a guide to show how quickly prices go up as Colombian emeralds increase in quality. 

Colombian Emeralds Price Chart