I like the idea of having my money/savings in physical form mostly. While a decent number in the bank account is nice, I like having something in my hand. A lot of ppl like having gold and silver but not as much mention of gemstones. Does anyone here use this as investment means? Where to find these? Gemrockauctions.com seems to be the best site I’ve found so far. Thx

[changed good to gold in the title - Paul]

How can I tell what various gemstones are or worth when I am bartering with you?

What kind of gems, diamonds are already overpriced by 50-75%.

Gems are not really worth what they sell for here in the USA.

Germs would not be a good barter item.... Not even really gold or silver.

Weapons.. medicines.. ammo.. food... smokes.. booze....

Not a chance in hell.

Market is controlled with artificial supply. No standard of trade, ie no standard size and subjective grading criteria. Easily faked without proper education.

Just a terrible idea all around if you had to use them as currency.

Afa investments most gemstone resale are a losing proposition for ordinary stones

So I realize these r hard to price, esp after the fact when you have to barter. My game plan was to spend $50 per stone on the best looking one for that price and some for $100 per stone. I can have a list or receipt for each and backed up by pdf on usb. I realize there are better options out there but I like the idea of precious gems. Light, easily concealable and think they could be a good “payoff” item if u needed something. I’ve been looking into sapphires, emeralds and possibly rubies as diamonds are ridiculously marked up and over advertised. Diamonds aren’t rare, they are jus marketed well. Besides that, diamonds would easily be found after the fact. The other gems would be worth more when diamonds are everywhere, jus my opinion.

I’m jus looking at this as a different approach to monetary means

I think you are confusing "investment means" with "store of value", which are two very different things.

Problem is all of those tank in value when there is economic hardship.  Sure, during a recession a jewelry store may still have them priced normally, but no one is really buying.

As was stated, they are not worth what you give for them.  Try buying a $100 stone, then turn around a week later and go to sell it.  If they give you $50 I would be surprised.  Around here the cash for gold places won't even take diamonds, much less any other gems, as they can't get enough for them to be worth it.

If it comes to bartering, I sure don't need a rock. Precious metal, ammo or toilet paper would be better.

+1

If I trade you something for an emerald or pearl, what am I supposed to do with it? If I want to trade it down the line I have to convince someone they need it.

Ammo I can shoot, beans I can eat. A stone will be as valuable as a TV if SHTF.

ETA: your better off buying liquor, it’s worth money now and it’ll be worth more than gold if we get into barter situations.

Who would trust the guy with gems in a shtf situation?  Who knows enough not to be fooled by fakes?

not me. Offer me 3 emeralds for a bag of rice and I'd probably laugh at you.

My actual personal, on-hand experience with gems is very, very low.  However, I can see many issues with gems....

Gold or silver are already somewhat controversial.  Is is better to have cash?  Or supplies?  Gold does however hold value when economies are in turmoil.  And there is usually some form of listed or generally agreed upon "value".  The spot price today is $1200.00 USD  or some such.   If you have some unit of gold or silver, then people can readily assign a cash value, or a trade value, to that coin, bar, ring, chain, whatever....   Its semi-negotiable.  If someone offers me a 1 oz krugerrand, a 1/2 oz maple leaf or something similar, I can stick a relatively form value on it.  Its $XXX.XX dollars, plus or minus a very small percentage.   If the spot price is $1200.00, then that ounce of gold is worth $1220.00 if you are buying, $1180.00 if you are selling.  $20 or $30 either way on a $1200.00 coin isn't 'significant'.  Furthermore, the coin has a stated value:  This is 999.9% pure gold, and it weighs 1 troy ounce.  Easy to assign value.

Gems?  Nope.  Not gonna happen.  There is no agreed upon value.  What is the current market value of a 0.5 carat, F color, VSi, fine cut diamond?  I know I cannot find such a price.  Is it really a diamond at all?  Or is is a cubic zirconia?  Can you effectively grade a gem?  And even if you can, you have a HUGE issue:  The wholesale on than gem is $100, you are going to pay $500 for it, and there is little way to get that money back out of it.  My wife's diamond was $2800.00 decades ago.  The minute I bought it I had it appraised. for insurance.  The appraisal was $4300.00.  The jewelry store that sold it to me probably paid $1000 for it.  So what it is worth?  $1000, $2800, or $4300.00???  Those values are wildly dissimilar.

Need another analogy?:  Lets try guns then.  While there may be some wiggle room, generally speaking a decent used Glock 19 is roughly $400 around here.  Ya, sometimes its $380.  Some places want $410.  But prices are pretty constant.  There is a readily discernible market value.  Its a common firearm.  However, Uncle Buck was a collector of rare an unusual firearms.  He has a one of a kind, totally unique firearm.  Its a tool room sample of a circa 1905 semiautomatic handgun, chambered in 9mm Bergmann, with 70% coverage I Nimschke engraving.  Got a price on that?  Is it $800, $1800, or $18,000?  I don't know either. It could be $18,000, but I sure as hell aint giving you that kind of money without someway to check.  Same for gems...

The other's pretty much covered it already but I'll reinforce what they said.

When people are cold and hungry, a gemstone isn't going to do them any good. There are plenty of previous hardships (SHTFs) caused by war, economy, etc that have all the evidence clearly documented. The value of precious metals & gems (otherwise useless goods) plummets when the necessities of life (tools, fuels, foods, etc) are in short supply. Those that have the necessities can literally name their price, so they do, and it's HIGH. Of course, if they make it out of the hardship alive they'll be living like kings on the riches they took in, as the value of gems  and precious metals will recover.

But you're suggesting being on the other side of that coin, buying those things now, at high prices, and bartering them away during SHTF, when their value is diminished greatly. You want to be the opposite, you want to be the guy with food, fuel, tools, etc, and take in grandma's $20,000 ring on trade for a loaf of bread and some canned peaches. Then if you make it out alive, you have a $20,000 ring that might resell for $5k.

Gemstones as a "store of value" ?

No, thanks.

Ok, so the overwhelming majority says it’s a bad idea. I was just trying to think outside the box. Lesson learned, I’m getting back in my box lol. Really tho, thank you for all the responses. I jus thought this was a cool idea. May jus leave it for collecting at a later date.

Stamps

6 found a big diamond at a playground years ago and tried to find if it was real and a value. Think she’s been to three places? It never passes all the tests but it always passes most. How am I supposed to know during SHTF what’s real or not?

Gold and silver aren't even good for trade it barter during a shtf. Can't eat them, the won't give you protection, or accomplish anything.

PM's are for converting to the new currency after re-stabilization.

ETA if you want to collect shiny rocks, have fun! Just don't think for a second it's any kind of investment or store of wealth.

Synthetic sapphires are dirt cheap, and they're genuinely sapphires (same atomic composition and crystalline structure, hardness), just manmade -- and often the way to tell them apart from real is the lack of flaws.  If you saw that in a natural stone it would be worth an incredible amount, so as people said the value is just what people decide it is.  There's no way to tell in the field, so I think staple foods or a $30 bottle of fish antibiotics is probably going to be a lot more useful to trade with.

Of course, it wasn't long ago that .22 LR ammo was so scarce it might as well have been gold.

It appears that pm's will have a recognized value at a certain point in time.
Prior to that point other commodities will have trade value.
Shiny rocks may be too far down the chain to be worth getting into.

Do a little research on what the fed.gov gets for seized gems, including very expensive diamonds.  There was an article on here some time ago about it, and it was revealing about how fake the gemstone market is.

I wouldn't even consider it.

With ammo.

The reason IMHO that gemstones are a poor survival investment is twofold.

1.  The vast majority of people have no ability to judge the quality of a stone.  This makes it unlikely that you would receive a return on your investment equal to what you put into it, if even at all.  Most people can only judge a stone by how pretty they are or how big they are.  As a personal example, my wife owns a truly massive emerald (think the sixe of a silver coin) that is a pretty shade of green; which she bought for less than $100.  Most people she has shown it to have gasped and asked "how did you ever afford such a thing?!" since they didn't know that it was effectively a garbage stone (she just wanted it because it looked nice).  Even now if you take a stone to a jeweler, unless you managed to get a fantastic deal on it, you would likely not get what you paid for it as most jewelers buy their stones as close to wholesale prices through dealers as possible (prices that most people don't have access to).

2.  The current gem market gives a vastly inflated view of how valuable a gem is.  For example, the value Americans put into diamonds is a relatively new invention and one not shared worldwide.  Much like "Hallmark Holidays" are an invention for companies to make money, diamonds as a valuable gem is a concept largely made up by certain companies (De Beers in this case) via a very successful advertising campaign in the 30s to make a profit off of something that was largely not valuable.

When you combine these two in a scenario where money no longer holds much or any value, gemstones will likely be viewed as little more than pretty rocks.  Its entirely possible (likely probable) that even if the economy recovered that such stones wouldn't return to anywhere near their current value.

This is my take on it.

I can ID gold and silver without too much work.   I don't know jack about shiny rocks.

Don't know about you guys, but the idea of bartering trans-post SHTF seems like a bad idea to me.  Unless it's among your group of trusted friends or family, bartering with high value items seems to be a great way to get on people's radar.

What am I missing?

My take on bartering is that once civilization/the economy start rebuilding, at some point people will virtually all have to start interacting with strangers again.  Additionally, you never know what circumstances may be run into.  You could run out of something sooner than expected, an accident could wipe out part of your stash, or you could have forgotten something that you now need that others have.  Having something that people will need or want on hand to barter with if/when that time comes gets you an advantage vs. people who don't.

Bad idea. Only an expert can tell synthetics from natural gems in many cases. I’m a gemologist and I wouldn’t take your gems unless I had time to work them over with my lab equipment. What’s the average Joe going to do?

Food and ammo...will always have value in hard times.

Locally the Cash for Gold places will accept them at the weight of gold. IE... if you want to sell a ring with a diamond on it, they will give the value of the gold with the diamond still in the ring but that's all you're getting for it. With as light as a diamond is in comparison to gold... you're really getting nothing for the diamond.

There is a I worked with for a while that used to tell me about the prices at a jewlery show backroom. He wore some rather expensive rings and used to laugh about their value. One had a total of 4 karats in diamonds on it and at the show he paid for the gold value plus spot for the ring.

This brings me to the next statement he made...  "Gems are for suckers."

Gold and silver because you can figure out the value easily gems not so much

The place a work buys gold, nobody wants the stones, maybe diamonds but last quote was about 35-75 a carat but nothing else. The guy that used to run the place used a fucking hammer to smash non diamond stones out of the gold before sending it in to the refinery. I used to cut gemstones as a hobby and my jaw dropped. I started saving the stones. I have a ton. To me they’re just fun to collect, nobody wants them.

Jebus, lucky bastard.  Id probably have zero interest in the monetary value, but even I have to admit that it would be kind of cool to have a tiny vial full of various gemstones.

Ammo is what you want to barter. If someone gas ammo and you don't,  they can take your gemstones, gold or whatever else they want.

This right here.  Ammo is the real commodity if S ever HTF.

So you would trade them ammo that they could use to take the rest of your ammo/supply?

perfect plan

Any blanket generalization is likely going to be wrong some of the time.

I have lots of preps, and more ammo than me and mine could shoot in multiple lifetimes.  My dentist buddy who is also a prepper is in the same boat.  But he has a skill I might want to have him employ for me, and having a broad list of potential things to offer as payment wouldn't be a bad thing.  He wouldn't want or take ammo- but some PMs he might.

In fact, he and I have done business before with barter payment.

Back to this thread- no, he would almost certainly not take gemstones for the many reasons mentioned already.  

I’ve got enough for almost two handfuls!

Despite some erroneous details from some here you are getting good advice.  I've been a jeweler for more than 20 years, the problem isn't what the stones are worth, it's getting money for them once you own them.  Times are pretty good now, I've got a full time brick and mortar store and sell some online, and I have piles of gems that no one really has any interest in.  When the world is in turmoil they won't be easier to move.

In short, if you are looking at buying a bunch of cheap stones and keeping them as an investment or "store of value" forget it.  If you are really interested in making money you need to be buying things you could be selling at Sotheby's or Christies for profit.  Frankly, unless you have an in, you have a long road ahead of you before you can confidently buy into that market.

If you like gemstones, go ahead, dabble in it, just for fun.  Enjoy a new hobby and learn something along the way.  But don't expect to make any money on it.

Gold, sliver, and maybe gems are good right before and maybe long after SHTF.

During it: BBB&B

Beans- not some organic, glutton free, BS free stuff- A can of food that Joe Dumbass can identify as food.
Bullets- not a weird off the wall odd caliber- 30-30, 308. 5.56, 357, 9mm... keep it simple stupid
Band aids- Basic stuff is best to trade- unless you are a doctor and are trading treatment with....
and
Bourbon- or other "mind altering" items- Stuff gets bad, they want to forget about it

This. I was a kid and my dad used to travel the world for work. He bought a rather large handful of emeralds for $5 in Columbia and had one cut and made into a ring for my mom. Raw stones are a step above gravel. Cut stones are so far down the list of things I want if things go sideways that I would send you away. I bought a sealed case of Jack Daniels pints for trading. It is a know commodity and not something people can make themselves.

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