Poor lead/glass filled, BE diffused, dyed and generally treated to hell and back Rubies are in abundance AND are not expensive. Unfortunately these are the ones that you typically see being sold on TV and in High Street jewellers.
Good quality rubies represent a very small proportion of what is available and the cost is substantially more. Would I set them into 9k gold - no way!
To put it into perspective if the world's supply of Rubies was 100, about 85% of those are treated to within an inch of their life, a further 10% are heated only (acceptable to many) and the remaining 5% are as nature intended. Probably not right in terms of percentages but it won't be too far off the mark.
Basically, you pay for what you get and unheated/untreated good quality rubies cost thousands per carat.
