Buyers Beware of Fake Ruby Beads!

BUYERS BEWARE OF FAKE RUBY BEADS! There are several sellers on okay, mostly from China, that are hocking beads that they claim "are 100% the best grade genuine Authentic real natural and finestRed Ruby Gem Stone Bead"....They don't look like rubies, and you certainly can't buy genuine ruby beadsfor a few dollars a strand....A few dollars a CARAT, yes, but not an entire strand.
DON'T BE FOOLED! As a jewelry designer and bead connoisseur, I can tell you that there aresellers are not selling true ruby beads! So how can you tell the genuine item from the faux? Watch for the red flags.
RED FLAG NUMBER 1 AND ABOVE ALL, RUBIES ARE NOT CHEAP.
Rubies are considered one of the 4 precious stones which includes diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires. Rubiesare priced according to carat weight, cutand grade.They are graded from B,A,A+,AA,AAA. (B) is the lowest grade, (AAA) being the highest grade. Ruby beads are generally less expensive than a solitare stone cut for a mounted jewerly setting in a ring, earrings or pendant. This is becauseshaping,cutting,and drillingbeads requires less time and effortto produce than a solitare. So while you may pay anywhere from$20-$1000 for a 1 carat polished and cut solitare ruby, You can get high quality ruby beads at about$1-$5per carat. There are (5) carats per (1) gram. So if you are looking to purchase genuine rubies and a seller is offering a full strand of "genuine ruby" beads for only a few dollars, you can bet they aren't the real thing. A reputable seller willtell youhow many carats your beads are,what grade they are, where they were mined and they will be priced accordingly.
RED FLAG NUMBER 2: Appearance. Ruby beads are not cherry red, and they are not crystal clear.Most ruby beads are opaque. Because rubies are so expensive, they are hand cut into beads to eliminate waste. If the beads areuniformly cut alike, they ARE NOT rubies. Garnet,Rose Quartz and Jade can make convincing rubies, but they are not the real thing!
RED FLAG Number 3, a reputableokay sellerwill not use misleading terms in their listings. A ruby is never anything but a ruby. Below are some names unscrupulous sellers use to make you think you are getting a real ruby:
"Adelaide ruby" is a gemon name for almandine garnet
"Cape ruby" or "African Ruby" is a gemon name for pyrope garnet found in South Africa (to make this even more confusing, some geniune rubies ARE mined in Africa...but not all "African Rubies" are genuine rubies)
"Arizona ruby" and "Colorado ruby" arealso names for pyrope garnet
"American ruby" and "Mont Blanc ruby" are really garnet or rose quartz
"Bales Ruby" is really pale red spinel
"Bohemian ruby" "Montana ruby" and "Mountain ruby" are really red garnet
"Brazilian ruby" is really pink or "fired" topaz, pink tourmaline,or dyedjade.
Watch for "cultured" or "created" stones. These are fancy names for synthetics.
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AND A FINAL WORD OF WARNING-Many of the sellers who are selling fake ruby beadshave very good feedback and lots of it. Sadly, they have sold hundreds of thousands of fake beads to unknowing novice buyers.Occasionally you'll find someone who buys the beads and catches on very quickly that they were fleeced, and they leave appropriate feedback. Unfortunately okay does not do enough to root out the bad guys, so Caveat Emptor!