Rubies and Sapphire.

I notice the price of these keeps climbing. Do people know something about factions that I don't?

people are just speculating, they better hope they're right=)

well... it's 100% confirmed that they'll be used for jewels in factions.
guess noone knows the correct price for rub/sapph.
depends if jewels will have some hp/energy/skills bonus or just something that shines...
the current price is for the "shining only" theory, because considering the drop rate if jewels will have some bonus stat rub/sapph prices will skyrocket.

It's hard to avoid the suspicion that it's people in the beta (or who know people in the beta) who are buying, though.

we'll just have to see. i'm not buying em.

they will have a use in factions gaile said in her chat a few months back, as to how they will be implimented, she couldn't say for sure, just that they will be used, (eg. bracelets, earings, necklaces) or something else.

^Woah...now there's a perfectly good reason to be buying em.

Actually Gaile didn't say they'd be used in Factions, only that they'd be used in the future. So we have absolutely no idea whether they'll be used soon (as in Chapter 2) or sometime far off (Chapter 24 anyone?)

she said jewels will come with factions. what u think jewels are done with? black dyes?

Assuming Factions will use any item at all from the Prophecies campaign to make jewels. It could easily be the case that a) jewels aren't made from anything and just come whole in Factions, b) another Factions item is used to craft them, and/or c) we won't know until the preview event/live release

Although she may have been saying that to trick people into buying them so they act as a money sink. Yeah they may be used but they could be used for the equivalant of drogs or something making them decrease to 300g or something. No one knows what they are for yet so unless you have a lot of money to invest dont buy them.

I've only bought about 3 of ea. I think I'll just sit on what I've got. I'm a conservative investor. Though I met someone the other day that has over 1000 of ea. She'll be very rich if they turn out to be the ectos of Cantha.

With 2000 gems at 8000 a pop I think she's very rich already.

I bought some rubies and saphires, but only because I anticipate right after Factions comes out for them to skyrocket in price. So I bought a few in the off chance that if they are for something worthwhile I won't have to spend loads because the price of them went up.

I assume it's entirely possible however that they are ued for somthing less desirable, and that Anet simply built up the hype around them in order to cause people to buy them and get money out of the economy. I suppose that's the worst case scenario, and in that case I blew 50k.

i have 200 of both and i'm fine... just waiting

LOL. I can see, and hope to a small degree, that ANET did such a thing. Jewellery will probally just be accessories to make you look as different as you can, it wont really have much more use I'm betting, which is fine with me.

Plus, I'm also betting Rubies and Sapphires aren't the only things we'll be able to use. Jade, Amythest, Quartz, etc.etc.

dam it I want less people know so I can cash in when time is due

If there's a use for materials, Guild Wars always has a way to provide you with them, wether you craft them (materials crafter), or whether there are grounds to farm them (UW/ecto, FoW/shards).

I'm rather doubtfull about gems getting real importance if there's no way for people to get them reasonnably. I think most people who got stacks of them are gonna be seriously disappointed.

Everyone's forgetting the simple and likely case that if jewels are used/needed in Factions they'll drop at an increased rate that makes them feasible. Why pay crazy money now for something that won't be as rare later?

ypu actually never know what there jewels are used for and there will be many ideas floating around what pepole well as may pass on for example

rubbies could just be shards and you may need a several amount to make a whole rubbie or something similar with a dif name or you may be able to connect the shard to make a whole obsidian weapon for your ass or rit

the jewels could also be so easily dropped by many of the enimies over there and turn into the stuff like blots of cloth or bones from the undead of cathana. anything could be possible i suppose its just time to wait