What are the best places to buy ruby jewelry online 2022?
This is a tough one to crack, considering the proliferation of online stores selling practically everything—from airplanes to needles. But do you know how this came to be? Well here’s a short rundown of online shopping or e-commerce.
- Michael Aldrich, an Englishman, invented electronic shopping, which allowed online transaction processing between business and customers and business to business.
- Tim Berners Lee invented the first ever browser in 1990. It was called the World Wide Web or www. com. His invention allowed millions of people to access the Internet, which hosted numerous e-commerce platforms.
- Netscape, in 1994, developed an encryption-based Internet security protocol called the SSL (Security Sockets Layer). This makes it difficult or impossible the interception any exchange of information over the internet.
- Amazon.com opened its first online store in 1995. It subsequently became the biggest and Jeff Bezos, its owner, the richest.
Where to Buy Jewelry Online
In the flurry of all the things mentioned, selling jewelry online became a by-product of the burgeoning e-commerce growth, fueled by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago. Thus, the best places to buy ruby jewelry online 2022 came to be.
Factors Driving the Online Jewelry Trade
When you search for the keyword “jewelry” you will probably get 26.5 million results. That’s how huge the search volume is for the keyword. In effect, this will translate into sales. To give you an idea of the power of e-commerce, in 2019, the online jewelry market generated sales of nearly $8.4 billion. It was the best year of the past 10 years. And it keeps growing at an annual rate of 8.64%. Yes, the online jewelry market is bullish as shown by the chart below.
This rosy picture of online jewelry shopping is fueled by the following:
Selection
If you shop offline, your choices will be limited to what is displayed on a jewelry shop’s counter. Due to limitations in space, vendors cannot put on display all the inventory they have. With this limitation, you might miss out on a good buy if the merchandise you are interested in is not on display.
This cannot happen with an online store. All you have to do is to log into their website and an entire plethora of jewelry items opens before your eyes. For the merchant, no physical space is necessary. For buyers, like you, ease and convenience are at your fingertips.
Price
Price-wise, online jewelry shopping can be a thrilling experience, You can make as many choices as you can and see their respective prices, and popularity in one go. Depending on the website, you may even be able to see competitors’ prices.
Online stores have lower overhead costs, too, so their prices are relatively lower than brick-and-mortar jewelry stores.
Value
Which is the best ruby to buy? Value is not the same as price. Price has a dollar sign before it, but “value” is composed of intangibles. It is expressed in terms of service, warranty, fair pricing, etc. Some dealers even make it a point to send notices to their valued clients during holidays and special occasions. In short, it is expressed in total customer satisfaction.
Offline jewelry stores have an edge over online stores in the aspect of “value” because they offer more opportunities for personal and human interaction.
Service
When you walk into a jewelry store, your eyes will immediately be treated to a plethora of jewelry items of all sizes, shapes, and colors. From sparkling diamonds, lustrous pearls, vivid gemstones, and gleaming precious metals they are set in. You can touch them, smell them and try them on if you like.
You will also be hounded by ubiquitous salespeople who will latch to your side like glue.
Logging into a jewelry website will be no less inundating with their products. They are all in high-resolution images that you can view from all sides and from top to bottom. You can even have a virtual chat with the company’s representative. And when it comes to service, online shops offer them, too.
In terms of “service,” comparing online and offline shopping is a draw. The tie-breaker is “convenience.”
Online Shopping for Ruby Jewelry
Ruby is a precious gemstone first discovered by Elliot Miller and John Saul in Kenya in 1973. And they are becoming an increasingly popular choice for engagement rings and other forms of jewelry. Its bold color and striking looks make it an eye-catching alternative to the more conventional diamond as center stone.
But what is a ruby? Ruby is a gemstone belonging to the corundum family. Its red color comes from trace amounts of chromium in the stone. It belongs to the same family as sapphire and emerald but with different contaminations. Ruby is also rarer than the two.
Rubies, like diamonds, are assessed using certain quality factors. The most important of these is color. So if you are wondering, what ruby you should buy, choose one with a deep natural color that hasn’t been changed by heat treatment. The finest ruby has a pure vibrant red to slightly purplish red in color. It commands the best price.
How to Buy a High-quality Ruby
If you’re asking “How can I buy a high quality ruby?” When buying ruby jewelry it is not enough to log into a particular website, or a jewelry store and take your pick in real-time. It would help if you spend a little time knowing some key factors before making a purchase.
Color and clarity are two important quality characteristics of a gemstone—ruby or otherwise. For example, rubies typically are graded from AAA to B. The problem is that things aren’t as straightforward. One jeweler may grade his rubies as AAA while another may grade the same kind of rubies as A. Hence, it is very important to know these things before buying.
The following tips will help you make a better buying decision:
Check Its Clarity
Rubies, just like any natural gemstone have some types of inclusions. Some of them may be too small to be detected by the naked eye, while some will display fine lines or spots when held against the light.
A good-quality ruby should be clear. If there be inclusions, they should be barely visible to the naked eye. When checking for inclusions ask the jeweler for permission to check the gemstone using an eye loupe or microscope.
Professional ruby dealers use the following inclusion grading system:
- VVS – minor inclusions, do not affect the appearance
- SI1 – slight inclusions, little effect on the brilliance
- SI2 – slight inclusions, slightly affecting the brilliance
- I1 – obvious inclusions
- I2 – prominent inclusions
- I3 – many prominent inclusions
Understand Size and Color
Blood-red rubies, or pigeon-red, are the most expensive.
Rubies come in several different shades of red (they also come in pink). Of course, when you buy rubies, you would want to buy one in vivid red color, not slightly orange or purple. As a guide, the saturation of the red color is graded on a scale of 1-6, with 6 being the optimal color saturation of a stone.
Where size is concerned, of course, larger rubies would cost more, especially if they don’t have inclusions and with a deeper shade of red.
So, how much should a 1 carat ruby cost? Rubies are trending these days and, as could be expected, their prices are going up. For example, between 2020 and mid-2021, prices went up by as much as 50%. Now, if you’re asking “Are rubies going up in price?”—the answer is a definite yes.
But this uptick in prices is not across the board. The price range of rubies covers a wide range. For example, Burma rubies can sell for over a million dollars. On the other side of the scale, low-quality rubies can be bought for $5 to $100.00/carat. In between, you can buy rubies for $700 to $1,500.00/carat.
Decide on the Cut
Just like any gemstone, rubies can be cut differently. There are rubies that are round, oval, triangular, square pear, and marquise cut. The shape of the original stone dictates the best cut for the gem. Besides, the wrong cut can change the color of the stone from red to slightly orange.
Therefore, buy them from experienced jewelers and check that the color saturation wasn’t affected by the quality of the cut.
Always keep in mind to view your prospective stone under proper lighting. And proper lighting means incandescent light or natural daylight. Never view it under a fluorescent light. It does not handle the red color of rubies well.
Know Its Origins
Rubies are mined practically around the world. They are mined in Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, India, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. But the finest rubies come from Burma (Myanmar).
It’s not that those countries don’t produce high-quality rubies. They do. But rubies from Burma have a telling quality. In effect, Burmese rubies are more expensive than those from India.
Check for Enhancements
More often than not, rubies are coated to camouflage surface imperfections, enhance their color, or provide better clarity to the stone. Some of these enhancements are:
- Heat treating rubies is a common industry practice. In fact, the GIA suggests you should assume the ruby you buy has been heat-treated. However, this does not bring down the value of the stone. This enhancement process involves heating the ruby to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit to enhance its color and clarity.
- Glass-filling is done by bleaching the ruby and filling any cracks or fissures with glass, then colored to give it its vibrant red color. Glass-filled rubies, while beautiful are less stable and will likely break when exposed to heat.
- Flux-heating involves coating the ruby with a layer of flux material to protect it from sticking during the heating process. This is often beneficial because the flux material will penetrate in the depths of the stone to fill any cracks or crevices. This slightly diminishes the value of the stone because of the foreign material that gets into it.
Where to Buy Ruby Jewelry Online
Ruby is a precious stone and ruby jewelry is much sought-after. That being the case, most jewelry stores, online or off, carry ruby jewelry in their inventory. But before you go out and buy, ask yourself these questions:
- What should I look for when buying ruby online?
- Are rubies good for an engagement ring?
- How would I know I am getting a good deal?
- What are the Red Flags to watch out for when buying?
- How can I save money when shopping for ruby jewelry online?
Once you’ve answered those questions, you may visit any or all of these:
James Allen
James Allen has a large collection of any kind of jewelry, including rubies. From the comfort of your home, you can take a tour of its ruby (all heat-treated) engagement rings, pendants, or earrings.
It also sells loose ruby stones that are more affordable than others. James Allen has hundreds of stones of varying color hues, tones, and saturations, such as the one in this James Allen review. And once you have picked your stone, you can then choose the proper setting. You, then, can either have your purchase assembled in-house or you can take it and have it done by your own jeweler.
Brilliant Earth
Like James Allen, Brilliant Earth also sells loose rubies so you can build your own ruby jewelry. The downside is that it only carries lab-grown rubies at the moment. Every now and then, it gets its hands on natural rubies but the supply is never constant.
From your laptop, you can view the shop’s gemstones 360 degrees. But this is often not necessary as lab-grown rubies are practically inclusion-free.
Blue Nile
Blue Nile is strictly finished products. No loose stones. But it has a wider selection of ruby jewelry than James Allen. It sells necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and everything in between. And it has a wide variety of settings, as well—from different colors of gold to platinum.
One word of caution, they are expensive. They carry the real deal. So if your budget is anywhere less than $500, it’s better to go someplace where lower-quality rubies are in abundance.
Leibish & Co.
This jewelry online store only sells high-end, fancy-colored diamonds and precious stones. Its ruby selection comes from Mozambique and you can very rarely find ruby jewelry prices at less than $5,000.00/carat
These four belong to the top branded jewelry stores in the US. But they are, by no means, the only jewelry stores in the US selling ruby jewelry. But jewelry experts put their best bet on them to provide the best answers to the questions posed before you at the beginning of this section.
We hope that this ruby buying guide helped you learn more about the precious red gemstone. Now that you know the best places to buy ruby jewelry online, it’s only fitting that you also know how to buy them. Check out our post, “An Easy Guide On How To Buy Ruby Jewelry Online.”