Another trend of the last 5 years is that costumers prefer colored gems, over transparent ones. Demand for emeralds and rubies is increasing and so it's the price. Market Navigators shown a high jump of 60 to 70 percent in the price of emeralds since 2001.

Slowly, but steadily alternative gems, such as the amethyst, the citrine and the tourmaline are gaining a huge share of the stone market nowadays. Tourmaline aneis: the gem of the rainbow is not just a beautiful stone, but a very reliable investment. The market analytics predicted a price rise of the amethyst and the tourmaline in the coming six months.

Be careful with the tourmaline - it comes in different "versions": bicolor and multicolor, and the price for the different gems varies a lot. A much more stable investment is the Amethyst.

The most valued amethyst is that one with dark violet color and the stones with red-violet brincos and blue-violet color. You should take care when handling this stone - it has the ability to lose its color when exposed too long to direct sun light, you better keep it in a safe place. Quality of the stone makes it a perfect choice for looking for gems. Also, lowest price factor is one of the current driving forces of the amethyst market share increase.

Citrine: yet another variety of quartz esmeralda, this sort in yellow is one of the three gemstones that are going to beat the market share of the diamond and the emerald. Be careful again, when buying stones. If you want, for example, to buy the high price topaz you can be cheated to buy citrine, since they have both almost the same color.

Ametrine is yet another and very interesting market gainer: it's a mixture of amethyst and citrine and it's made by artificially processing the amethyst until it turns to citrine and than rolling back the result to amethyst.

We will see much market changes in 2009, since many of the most valuable gemstones are continuing to rise their prices and slow, but steady much more affordable gems are gaining their share in the market today.